Take Up Your Cross or the Cost of Discipleship

Today’s Gospel reading is from Mark 8

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life?

The picture below is from a chapel in El Salvador, commemorating Archbishop Oscar Romero who offered his life for those he served. His words, “Si me matan, resucitare en el pueblo salvadoreno” – “If they kill me I will be resurrected among the Salvadoran people.”