Stop Taking Shortcuts
Reflections on the Daily Readings for the Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent.
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Have you ever hoped for a certain goal or desire to be fulfilled? And then have you become really quite mesmerized with the possibility of this fulfillment? Take the simple, common example of losing weight and being fit. A lot of people desire this tremendously. They think of all the Hollywood movie stars who are good looking and athletic and just can’t help the longing set in: “Man, I wanna just be like them! I could play volleyball on the beach with beautiful people and get a nice tan!” But in terms of actually getting this desire fulfilled, it’s quite simple actually, even if it does require formation in virtue: just eat healthy and exercise.
Oh. I have to put in work? I have to suffer? No more cheeseburgers and beer? And I have to get up at 2:30am to exercise like Mark Wahlberg? No thanks. If only there were a different way…
This temptation is an aversion towards journeying to good things because getting there requires perseverance and discipline. Hence, the reason why so many pharmaceutical companies are trying to make the magic weight loss pill—they’re betting that people would love to lose weight without exercising and eating healthy. A more broadly applicable principle seems to be at play here: people search for shortcuts. Many people love shortcuts because they’re focused on the end goal so much that they’re dismissive of the difficult way of getting there.
Maybe one day there will be a magic weight loss pill that circumvents regular exercise and a healthy diet. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus makes it very clear that the path to eternal life involves suffering. And there’s no shortcut around that: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Mt. 17:18-19).
Notice that Jesus does not merely say: “He will be raised on the third day,” which is the glorious conclusion. And except for that end result, what Jesus is describing sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it? Being condemned to death as an innocent man, and then being mocked, scourged, and crucified is not what an ordinary person would conceive of as the path to happiness. St. Matthew implies through his juxtaposition of this story with the next one that people greatly desire glory, but just not the way of getting there: “He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking” (Mt. 20:21-23). This is what happens when we conceive of getting to eternal life easily: Jesus sternly rebukes us for thinking it will be easy, because it won’t be.
Remember what our Lord said about the way to eternal life: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Mt. 7:13-14). The wide gate is the one that our human instincts want to take: it’s easy and it doesn’t require us to change. There’s no accountability, no perseverance, and no discipline, but supposedly it has all the benefits and none of the costs. It is our attempt at taking a shortcut. But alas our Lord tells us that the shortcut is only a shortcut to destruction. There’s a reason Jesus rebuked Peter for encouraging him to take the easy way out, for encouraging him to avoid the Cross: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Mt. 16:23). Because God is the source and summit of eternal life, he is therefore our path to eternal life, and that path requires us to think and act as God does, not as human beings do.
And our Lord does not expect us to imitate him in his divinity without his help. He gives very explicit guidance on how to enter through the narrow gate in today’s Gospel: “Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:26-28). Jesus Christ made the greatest act of service through his Passion and Death on the Cross, which redeemed the sins of each person who has lived, is living, and will live. Jesus Christ is so madly in love with us that he endured abuse, neglect, betrayal, derision, torture, and even death to help bring us home, to bring us to eternal life. His Cross is our invitation to eternal life: “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 will find it” (Mt. 16:24-25).
Our human instinct is to avoid the Cross. It is to try to take a shortcut. But there is no avoiding the Cross, which is necessary to become partakers “of the divine nature” (2 Pt. 1:4). To drink deeply of the wellspring of eternal life, we must become like God, who is love itself. This requires us to pick up our Cross daily (Lk. 9:23). We must strive to love God and love our neighbor instinctively through the virtue of charity. We become more like God when we give ourselves away and serve rather than possess and perpetuate our ego. It is through love that we enter into the Father’s House and receive the place which has been prepared for us. In imitating Jesus Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6) we enter into the love of God. May we ask for the grace to have our arms stretched out (Jn. 21:18) in service of God and neighbor, knowing full well that this is our invitation to eternal life.