We can’t think that just because we are in the world we can take to it like a fish to water.
We can’t think that simply because the media offers us all kinds of choices we are free to watch every program.
We can’t think that just because we walk the streets of the world we can freely look at all the ads and billboards and buy just any publication at the newsstand or bookstore.
We can’t think that just because we are in the world we can live as we please, the way everyone else does, following along passively accepting abortion, divorce, hatred, violence or embezzlement. We can’t.
We are in the world; no one can deny that. But we are not of the world (see Jn 17:14).

This makes a great difference. It puts us among those who don’t live according to what the world says, but rather according to what the voice of God suggests to us from within. God lives in the heart of every human being. If we listen to him, he will lead us into a kingdom that is not of this world, a society in which true love, justice, purity, meekness and selflessness are lived, where self-control is the norm.
In the past many young people journeyed to India and the Far East, hoping to find some peace of mind and to discover the secrets of the Eastern spiritual masters, who, after a long process of self-mortification, frequently radiate a more genuine kind of love that touches the people they meet.
The quest of these young people was a very natural reaction to the uproar in the world, to the noise around us and within us that leaves no room for silence in which to hear God’s voice.
However, it is not necessary to go to India. Two thousand years ago Christ urged us to deny ourselves. If we are Christians, we cannot expect to lead a comfortable and easy life. Christ did not, and he will not ask any less of us if we want to follow him.

The world, with all its attractions and negative aspects, is coming at us head on like a rushing river, and we must go against the current. It is also like dense underbrush in which a Christian must look very carefully where to step. And where should we step? In the footsteps that Christ himself laid down for us while here on earth. These footsteps are his words.
Today he repeats to us Christians: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself….” If we follow Christ, we may be laughed at, misunderstood, scorned, slandered or isolated. We must be ready to lose face, to give up the easygoing, socially acceptable way of being a Christian. And there is more:

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Whether we like it or not, suffering is a part of everyone’s life, ours as well. Sufferings great and small come our way every day.
If we try to avoid them, to rebel against them, or if we feel like cursing them, then we cannot be called followers of Christ.
Christians love the cross; they love suffering even amidst tears, knowing that suffering has a value. God had countless ways at his disposal by which he could have saved humankind. Yet he chose to use suffering.
We know that Jesus rose after carrying his cross and being crucified. We are also destined to rise (see Jn 6:40) if we accept the sufferings that come from living an authentic Christian life and those that each day brings with love, rather than despising them. By doing so we will see that even here on earth, the cross is a way that leads to a joy we have never before experienced. We will begin to grow spiritually, and the kingdom of God will become firmly established in us. Little by little the world’s attractions will fade away before our eyes and seem as if they are made of cardboard. And we will no longer envy anyone.
Then we will be able to call ourselves followers of Christ.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

And like Christ, whom you have followed, you will be light and love for the countless suffering people in today’s world.

The Word of Life, a sentence of Scripture, is offered each month as a guide and inspiration for daily life.
By Chiara Lubich

This Word of Life was originally published in July 1978 and then in Words to Live By (New City Press, 1981). From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on the Word of Life, and after her death March 14, her early writings are now being featured once again.