Did you hear about the latest University of Michigan study?

Nearly 40 percent of Michiganders struggle to afford the basic necessities of life.

Forty percent.

These are our neighbors, our coworkers—and perhaps some of us.

Some live below the poverty line. Many others work every day, earn too much to be officially poor, and still cannot afford housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and food.

Maybe we should stop asking what is wrong with these people and start asking what is wrong with this arrangement.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Peter wants a safer Messiah—a Jesus who can change the world without anyone risking anything.

But Jesus chooses the costly way of love. Then he tells his followers to deny themselves and take up their crosses.

That does not mean struggling people should accept poverty as their cross. It means those of us who have enough must ask what we are willing to sacrifice so that others can have enough too.

Taking up our cross may mean supporting affordable housing—even when it is built near us.

It may mean asking elected officials what they are doing about housing, childcare, healthcare, and wages.

It may mean accepting that helping working families will cost us something—in taxes, convenience, or control.

The safest way to hear Jesus’ words about sacrifice is to admire them.

The faithful way is to ask where they are pointing.

This week, choose one burden working families are carrying. Learn what your community is doing about it. Contact an elected official. Support an organization doing the work.

Because taking up a cross is more than expressing concern.

It is accepting a cost so that someone else’s burden becomes lighter.

A society can gain the whole world and still lose its soul.

Following Jesus means helping it find that soul again.