Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. St. John of the Cross whose memory the Church honors today was born in a town near Avila known as Fontiveros, Spain, and was a member of the Carmelite Order. When St. Teresa of Avila took to reforming the Carmelite Order, she persuaded John to join her, and together, they founded the Discalced Carmelite friars (O.C.D.) It was a decision that led John to suffer many tribulations, including imprisonment and privations by the ‘unreformed’ Carmelites of the Observance. He is known as the Mystical Doctor.
When John made a decision to become religious, he was responding to the summons of Jesus to follow him in a special way. He must have also known that as a religious, the words of Jesus which we hear in today’s Gospel Reading (anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple) were going to ring true in his life. Not only was he going to leave the comfort of family, friends and familiar places, he was also going to renounce any and all attempts at having anything he could call his own. He must have had no objection in leading a life of poverty. But when John accepted St. Teresa’s invitation to join her in reforming the Carmelite Order, the other words of Jesus to which we perhaps pay little attention were certainly given life: carrying the cross and hating one’s life. 
As John endured mistreatments and all forms of persecution at the hands of his Order, he must have wondered whether Jesus had him in mind when he talked about carrying one’s cross. For whereas for most of Jesus’ disciples the cross might refer to discomforts of life’s daily struggles, for John it was more than that. The cross that he carried was “voluntary.” He must have been given the choice to stop what he was doing or face the consequences. He chose to face the consequences because he believed in the cause.
St. John and many others who have had the same experience choose to carry their heavy crosses because of the knowledge that our salvation was won for us at a great cost. They got their encouragement from the knowledge that Jesus had made them aware of what they were getting into. Jesus himself had not chosen the easy route. He too made a choice to carry the heavy cross on behalf of his brothers and sisters. He had calculated the cost and knew that it was worth it. It is this that made St. John to faithfully carry his cross as he endured his tribulations.   
Through his intercessions, may we who have also responded to the summons of Jesus be given the graces we need to bear the crosses of life. May we never abandon our resolve to follow Jesus as he leads us to the Father.