What Does “Take Up Your Cross” Mean for Catholics?
Few Christian symbols are as familiar as the cross. Catholics see it above the altar at Mass and wear it around their necks. We make the Sign of the Cross when we pray. Yet Jesus spoke about the cross in a way that can be much more difficult to understand.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells His disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
What does it mean to take up your cross? Does it mean accepting every difficulty without question? Is suffering itself something Christians should seek? Or was Jesus asking something deeper of those who choose to follow Him?
These questions take on particular meaning each September as the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14. The feast directs our attention toward the Cross of Christ while inviting us to consider what His words mean in our own lives.
Why Catholics Honor the Cross
To understand Jesus’ words, it helps to remember what the cross meant to the people who first heard them.
Today, the cross is immediately recognized as a symbol of Christianity. In the Roman world, however, crucifixion was a brutal form of execution. When Jesus told His followers to take up their crosses, they would not have heard a comforting religious expression. His words communicated the seriousness of following Him.
Christ would eventually carry His own Cross through Jerusalem toward Calvary.
For Christians, what happened there changed the meaning of the cross forever. It was no longer simply an instrument of death. Through Christ, the Cross became inseparable from salvation.
That distinction remains important. Catholics do not honor suffering for its own sake. We honor the Cross because of what Christ accomplished through it.
The Cross that appeared to represent defeat became the place of Christ’s victory. That is why Catholics can look upon a crucifix and see suffering without losing sight of hope.
What Does It Mean to Take Up Your Cross?
Taking up your cross means choosing to follow Christ even when doing so requires something from you.
Sometimes that sacrifice is obvious. A person may remain faithful during a period of great suffering. At other times, carrying a cross happens quietly through choices that no one else sees.
The important distinction is that Jesus does not ask His followers to search for suffering. Christianity does not teach that pain is automatically good. Nor does it mean someone should remain in a harmful situation simply because suffering can have spiritual meaning.
Instead, Christ shows us what faithful love looks like when suffering cannot be avoided.
Taking up your cross may mean remaining faithful when another path would be easier. It may mean placing a hardship in God’s hands when you cannot change the circumstances before you.
The focus is not the suffering itself. The focus is following Christ through it.
The Cross Does Not Mean Facing Hardship Alone
The phrase “carry your cross” is sometimes used casually when someone is dealing with a frustrating situation. In the Gospel, however, the meaning is much deeper.
Jesus does not simply tell His disciples to endure hardship. He tells them to follow Him.
That changes the way Catholics understand suffering.
Christians believe that God remains present even when circumstances are painful and answers are difficult to find. The Cross shows us that suffering is not evidence that God has abandoned us. Christ Himself entered into human suffering.
This does not make hardship easy. It does mean that Catholics never have to understand their crosses as meaningless.
Prayer becomes especially important during these moments. Rather than pretending a burden does not hurt, we can bring it honestly before Christ. We can ask for the strength to remain faithful when we cannot change what is happening around us.
Sometimes the answer we want does not come immediately. The Christian response is not to deny that reality. It is to continue trusting the One who carried the Cross before us.
Why the Feast of the Holy Cross Is Connected to Jerusalem
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross has a special connection to the Holy Land.
Its history reaches back to the fourth century and the discovery of the True Cross traditionally associated with St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. The feast also became connected with the dedication of the church built at the sites associated with Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection in Jerusalem.
Today, pilgrims know this sacred place as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
For Christians around the world, Calvary may feel distant. For Christians living in the Holy Land, these sacred places are part of their homeland.
Often called the Living Stones, these Christian families have maintained a presence in the land of Christ for generations. Preserving that living Christian presence is at the heart of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land’s mission.
Today, remaining in the Holy Land has become increasingly difficult for many families. Ongoing conflict has created economic hardship throughout the region. The decline in pilgrimages has placed additional pressure on people whose livelihoods depend on visitors.
Their experience gives the phrase “take up your cross” a perspective many of us may never encounter personally.
These families are not figures from the pages of history. They are Christians raising their children in the same land where Christ taught and carried His Cross. They are part of a Christian presence that has continued for centuries, yet many now face difficult questions about whether they can afford to remain.
Remembering the Holy Cross, therefore, can also remind Catholics of the people who continue to call the Holy Land home.
Carrying the Cross Does Not Mean Losing Hope
It would be easy to misunderstand the Cross as a symbol that asks Christians simply to endure whatever happens.
The Gospel tells a different story.
The Cross cannot be separated from the Resurrection. Christ’s suffering on Good Friday was not the end. That is why Christian hope does not depend entirely on present circumstances. Catholics believe that God can bring life from situations that appear hopeless.
This matters when we think about Christians in the Holy Land today.
Supporting Christian families is not simply about responding to hardship. It means helping create the conditions that allow them to look toward the future.
Through its work alongside the Franciscan friars, FFHL helps Christian families remain in the land they call home. The Foundation responds to immediate needs while also investing in opportunities that can provide greater stability for the future.
This is one way Catholics outside the Holy Land can respond to the crosses being carried by our Christian brothers and sisters.
We may not be able to remove every burden they face. We can refuse to let them carry those burdens alone.
Your support stands with the Living Stones and helps preserve a Christian presence in the land where Christ carried His Cross.
What Cross Are You Being Asked to Carry?
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross offers Catholics an opportunity to look beyond the cross as a familiar symbol and consider what it asks of us personally.
Most of us will never carry a wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem as Jesus did. Yet every Christian eventually encounters moments when following Christ becomes difficult.
Those moments may arrive through circumstances we never expected. They may come when remaining faithful requires a sacrifice we would rather avoid.
Jesus does not promise His followers a life without hardship. He asks us to trust Him enough to continue following when the path becomes difficult.
Taking up your cross does not mean searching for suffering or pretending that pain does not matter. It means refusing to let hardship have the final word.
As Catholics reflect on the Holy Cross this September, we can also remember Christians living in the land where Christ carried His Cross. Their presence reminds us that the story of Christianity in the Holy Land did not end with the events recorded in Scripture.
The Living Stones are still there.
As they continue to carry burdens of their own, may we remember them in prayer and remain committed to preserving a Christian presence in the land where the Cross became the sign of our salvation.
