Daily Devotional

Jesus started with prayer, and throughout His public ministry, He never joked with it. He would rise early in the morning, go to a quiet place to pray (Luke 4:42), and at the end of the day, after dismissing the crowd, he would go again to a lonely place to pray. (Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:46). He would even spend a whole night praying (Luke 6:12). When you are prayerful, a certain aura goes with you; you don’t need to shout or make noise. Your very presence in any space is already a threat to demons. Jesus did not break a sweat dealing with the demon-possessed man. As we often say: “power pass power.”

Instead of allowing the truth to cure their pride, they turned against Jesus, intending to throw Him off the cliff. Their action did not nullify the bitter truth. Salvation is not hereditary, nor is it automatic. Indeed, the fact that I am a Catholic does not qualify me for heaven; it is the way I live that counts.

When Jesus speaks about carrying our crosses, He is not referring to sufferings entirely beyond our control. For instance, if I suffer from a medical condition, I cannot call it a cross because it is not something entirely within my power. I cannot choose to drop it or pick it up at will. The crosses we must bear as we follow Jesus are those sufferings that come to us in the process of pursuing a righteous life. In other words, you have a choice to either compromise your values (give in to sin to end the suffering) or continue doing what is right even though you are being persecuted for it.