Prayer for the Day
Dear Jesus, Knowing that to take up my cross means that by faith and through grace I will be given a new life each and every day, I ask that taking up my cross also gives me the strength and virtue to follow You, love my neighbors, care for the sick and the poor, and to share the Gospel message. Amen
Reflection
If we wish to serve the Lord, we must take up our cross (Matthew 16:24-28) and go to our own Golgotha. This cross is specially designed for us - it straightens where straightening is required, it bends where bending is required. We cannot take up the cross of another and hope that it will have the healing effect of our own. Because we are each individuals, the particular cross that is ours will fit no one else, nor will we be able to take up the cross of another and benefit from it.
That is not to say that we could not or should not help shoulder the burden of someone else's cross. We can help anyone carry their cross; but it is not ours, and it is our own cross--and our cross alone--upon which we will lose what we think our life is for Jesus and be transformed into new creatures. If we wish to preserve the status quo, "to save our lives," we will and must lose that life because it is a shadow life - it is an illusion we have formed of our lives.
The real life is the life that Jesus gives. It is the life that comes from accepting that we cannot change the life we are in - only He can do so - and only His transformation of it is meaningful. So, take up the cross that is the burden of life and carry it. Jesus will transform the cross into new life and give us the only life that matters.
After I wrote this entry, I got an email from both my brother and my mom with a video link. And although I have previously groused about email messages of this sort, I thought the timing is strictly from the Holy Spirit, as it ties in nicely with my reflection for this First Friday of August.
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