HOLY HOMEWORK

Do We Love or Hate the Cross We Bear?

Posted

Recall the story of the man who complained to high heaven that the cross he had to bear in life was too heavy. He grumbled so much that St. Peter got tired of listening to him and brought him from earth to the room near Purgatory where all of life's crosses were stored. St. Peter told the man to go inside and select whichever cross he wanted. Feeling vindicated, the man entered the chamber and tried on one cross after another as though he were being measured for a new suit. Some were too tall, some were too thick, and some had too many splinters. After several hours he emerged with a cross on his shoulders that he felt he could manage. Before escorting the man back to earth St. Peter asked him to take a closer look at the cross he had selected. The man examined his new burden carefully and was amazed when he suddenly realized that it was the very same cross he had been given in the first place. God knows which crosses we can and cannot carry. Do we?

There is a school of thought that maintains we cannot resolve personal problems until we accept and embrace them. For example, if we cannot control the amount of alcohol we consume, we will never free ourselves of this abuse until we accept the fact that we have an addiction and embrace our alcoholism. When we stop denying and start accepting, that's when we begin to change.

Sadly, yet understandably, most people resist this approach. On the contrary, they defy the very idea of accepting a problem, let alone embracing it. Instead they force their ugly skeletons into a closet, try to repair them in darkness, and are determined not bring them out into the light until they have been transformed into something attractive. Why doesn't this work? As incongruous as it may sound, it's only when we accept our limitations that our boundaries become infinite. Only when we embrace our cadaverous skeletons do they change into beautiful bodies, mirroring the image of God. The more we welcome the weight of our crosses, the lighter they become.

For Holy Homework:

During this season of Lent, let's meditate on three questions: What are our worst afflictions in life? Do we spend more time angrily denying them instead of trustingly consenting to them? Would we really want to trade the cross we have made from our own sins for the cross that the sinless Christ carried to Calvary?

 

Comments can be sent to: FatherBobPagliari@Yahoo.com