From the
provincial Delegate
While we are
Easter Christians and Alleluia is our song, it feels like we are still back in
Lent. The suffering around us is widespread. We are aware of those struggling
with the virus and those in anguish seeing loved ones in distress. We are
concerned for the grieving, the overwhelmed workers, the unemployed. And the
list goes on.
Clearly we
are going through the darkest of nights and the cross has fallen heavily upon
us. Jesus told us that as his disciples we must carry the cross as he did. We
must find redemptive value in our experience. Jesus transformed the meaning of
the cross by his saving death and glorious resurrection. What was an instrument
of death became the mean to life, a sign of despair became our only hope. The
cross was the expression of powerlessness and folly; for us it has become the
power and wisdom of God.
St John of
the Cross teaches us that if we want to share the glory of Christ, we must also
embrace his cross. He speaks more of the night of faith we go through when
control is taken out of our hands. This dark night is the way the cross touches
our lives.
St Teresa,
our Holy Mother, tells us: “The Father gives according to the courage he sees
in each one, and the love each has for his Majesty. He will see that whoever
loves him much will be capable of suffering much for him… I myself hold that
the measure to be able to bear a large or small cross is love (WP, 32, 7).
May the Lord
give us the courage and love to bear the cross with him as we pass through this
dark night until the light of dawn breaks through.
Fr
Salvatore, OCD
God show me how carry my cross!
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