The Lenten season more intensely invites the Christian to take up his or her cross and follow Jesus Christ.
Do we have to go look for our respective crosses to carry? Should we ask carpenters to construct crosses for us so that we take them up each one of us with a cross and start following in the way of the cross our Saviour has paved for us? Where do we find the cross?
There are some crosses we carry that are not in connection with our Christian faith. We must identify such crosses and drop them today. We must ask ourselves the reason for our suffering.
Are we suffering because we are unfaithful to God’s commandment, lazy and imprudent? If ‘Yes’, we cannot say we are sharing in the suffering of Christ.
We find the cross in faithfulness to the commandment of God, hardwork founded in discipline and prudence. The spirit of the world abhors fidelity to God and discourages hardwork founded in discipline and prudence. If we decide to go contrary to the world’s spirit with relation to the above tenets, we will find the cross. The cross is found in the love of God and neighbour.
Unless we are faithful to God, we cannot find the cross. May God give us His sufficient grace to follow (Amen).
Love.
–Fr Abiagom Augustine cmÂ
