Greetings to you all.
Yes I know, I sent a email with no mail in it. And yes, I hit something I should not have. What can I tell you, I’m old and sometimes I don’t know what button these fingers of mine are going to land.
Oh well, on with the show!!
In our spiritual readings and the writings of many spiritual writers, we read and hear that Jesus came one of us that He might offer Himself on the cross. Sometimes these writings seem to be so outside the idea of the love of the Father and the Son. Why would a father send his son to suffer and die such a horrible death?
Today the spiritual writer A. W. Tozer tells us, “ The man with a cross no longer controls his destiny; he lost control when he picked up his cross. That cross immediately became to him an all — absorbing interest, an overwhelming interference. No matter what he desire to do, there is but one thing he can do; that is, move on towards the place of crucifixion.”
When an “outsider” should read or hear such a statement as this, it is no wonder that some people would shy away from following the Lord.
But we have to understand that this statement is the reality of being a follower of the Lord. It is not that the Father takes joy in seeing his children suffer. But we have to realize to truly live out our faith we will encouter a great deal of suffering. Our world may not ready to accept the idea of “loving others as we love ourselves“. Those who hold the idea of “Me and mine first” cannot understand how a person who follows this wondering rabbi from two thousand years ago who said, “Love one another”, “Give and it will be given to you a hundred times over”. And I would have to say that we all sometimes fall into that trap. “Me and mine, and what is left is for the rest.””
The cross we are asked to carry comes in many forms. It may be a sick child, the loss of a loved one, the burden of a life thretering illness we are asked to carry. In our life we all are asked to carry our cross up the hill of crucifixion. Yes, it is hard and painful. But we need to turn our eyes down the hill to the empty tomb. It is there that we find our strength and the ability to carry whatever cross is given us.
We are never alone. We have the Father always there to enable us to take that next step as well as those men and women who have gone before us cheering us on to our finish line.
Peace and All Good,
Fr. Vinnie, osf and the
Bros and Srs of the
Franciscan House of Prayer.