Luke 14:25-33 | Jan Fabre | Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple

Luke 14: 25-33   Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple

The Man Who Bears the Cross,  Designed by Jan Fabre (born 1958), Gilt bronze sculpture, 394 × 200 × 100 cm, © Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium, photo by Attilio Maranzano © Angelos bvba Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.” Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’   READ MORE     Reflection on the Gilt-Bronze Sculpture The sculpture (titled ‘The Man Who Bears the Cross’) we are looking at is by Jan Fabre, acquired 4 years ago by the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. It depicts a full length self-portrait of the artist ‘balancing’ a large cross in the palm of his hand. This balancing act shows in a way the attitude many of us have towards the crosses we are given to bear. Instead of lifting our crosses and carrying them alongside Jesus, we prefer to make our faith a ’balancing act’, where we put ourselves in charge, instead of Christ. The artist seen balancing the cross in the palm of his hand won’t be able to sustain that for very long… he won’t be able to walk far like this on his journey, as soon he will stumble… only the person who truly carries his cross on his back, like Jesus carried it, will be able to walk the full length of the journey… There is a cost to discipleship! Jesus wants to be accompanied by proper, close friends and not just by acquaintances who would dip in and out to visit Him. Jesus realises that following Him properly comes at a cost, and He is asking us to lovingly accept any cross we might be given. Why? Because if we accept our own crosses and difficulties we encounter, He will be there 100% for us as well, alongside each of our journeys. This mutual support is what ultimately will create a proper, deeply rooted friendship and love between us and Christ. Then Jesus takes it even a step further saying ’none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions’. What does He mean? We all came into this world, naked of all possessions; just our bodies and souls came into this world. Well, when we pray and spend time with Our Good Lord, we don’t need anything else, and we should approach prayer with the same simplicity, just focussing on our soul and God; focusing on the real self without the ‘possessions’. We need nothing to pray except ourselves! by Patrick van der Vorst