Follow him
In today's Gospel we heard these words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Mark: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
This morning the celebrant for our Mass was Bishop Li of Beijing. Six of the returning seminarians, dressed in cassocks, committed themselves to further progress towards the priesthood. Since I've never spent much time around a seminary or seminarians that got to this far in their studies (most I know that have been in seminary are now former seminarians and not priests), I don't know if this is common or has a formal name. There was no lying prostrate before the altar or anything like that. It was more like a commission. After the Gospel reading, each of the six were called forward. They stood before the Bishop and affirmed their belief in Jesus and their desire to continue.
I am guessing these men are all around or under 30 years old. They may all look like high-schoolers to me, but they are certainly in their twenties. I don't know their individual stories, but it is likely that at least some of them are their parents' only son, possibly their only child. In this country and in this culture, what have they and their families denied themselves for them to choose to continue to follow their calling from Jesus Christ? What crosses do they carry?
At the close of Mass, as Bishop Li, the other priests, and these six seminarians in the cassocks processed out of the church into the warm and unusually blue-skied Beijing morning, I pictured them, servants of God, following Jesus into the world.
This morning the celebrant for our Mass was Bishop Li of Beijing. Six of the returning seminarians, dressed in cassocks, committed themselves to further progress towards the priesthood. Since I've never spent much time around a seminary or seminarians that got to this far in their studies (most I know that have been in seminary are now former seminarians and not priests), I don't know if this is common or has a formal name. There was no lying prostrate before the altar or anything like that. It was more like a commission. After the Gospel reading, each of the six were called forward. They stood before the Bishop and affirmed their belief in Jesus and their desire to continue.
I am guessing these men are all around or under 30 years old. They may all look like high-schoolers to me, but they are certainly in their twenties. I don't know their individual stories, but it is likely that at least some of them are their parents' only son, possibly their only child. In this country and in this culture, what have they and their families denied themselves for them to choose to continue to follow their calling from Jesus Christ? What crosses do they carry?
At the close of Mass, as Bishop Li, the other priests, and these six seminarians in the cassocks processed out of the church into the warm and unusually blue-skied Beijing morning, I pictured them, servants of God, following Jesus into the world.
Comments