Just when we were getting settled into our new house a few years back and things were starting to settle down, another crisis hit. After so much work, so many hours, so much invested, and it all came crashing down. Our new renters were bringing in underaged squatters and a wanted convict into our house and refusing to pay rent. What were we to do? Where were we to turn? Why was this all happening to us?
Sometimes I hear hard news about crosses that others have to bear. I begin reflecting on my own life and realize that I have very few “chronic” crosses so to speak. My family is mostly healthy, we have food on the table and two cars that usually run well. Although one can always dream about additional wants, the truth is, I suffer very little.
So perhaps that tough weekend, which seemed like one of the hardest moments of my life, was meant to be a lesson to me that life is never without its crosses. Whether they be temporary or endured for years on end, crosses are an inevitable part of our earthly journey. We may find ourselves acting like Jonah and trying to run away from our crosses but sooner or later the truth hits us right between the eyes: “The cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial to self to union with God. If you want to save your life, you must lose it.” (Franciscanmedia.org on St. John of the Cross) And just as in today’s Gospel he didn’t tell the chief priests by what authority he taught, God doesn’t owe us any explanation for it.
Why else would we celebrate saints like St. Lucy, St. John of the Cross, St. Stephen, and the Holy Innocents throughout Advent and Christmas? Those who had their eyes gouged out, were stoned, were slaughtered… during this holy and joyful time that we celebrate Jesus coming as an adorable little baby? Perhaps it is precisely because they are a reminder to us that every human, even the newborn God-man, will experience crosses, and Jesus’ is heavier than any of ours will ever be. Even during this joyful season, we cannot forget the fact that he was born to die for us.
So as we continue to hand our crosses over to God and try to bear them as best as we humanly can, let us pray together with the Psalmist: “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. Remember that your compassion, O Lord, and your kindness are from of old. In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way.”
Teach me your ways, O Lord, even if they lead me to the cross.
Daily Reading
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Reading I Mi 5:1-4a Thus says the LORD: You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for…
Saint of the Day
Blessed Jacopone da Todi
Jacopone da Todi, “Crazy Jim,” transformed from a worldly man to a devoted Franciscan, known for “Stabat Mater” hymn and spiritual courage.
The post Blessed Jacopone da Todi appeared first on uCatholic.