REFLECTIONS

"Taking Up the Cross"

How many eloquent reasons there are to love the cross, yet how we forget them in the current of life! In our days, how many plans we make, little calculations - very often unconscious, I must say - which are made simply to avoid suffering. We flee it in the first movement of our nature, which finds it so repugnant, and we must not be astonished by that .... Our nature's first reflexes are to avoid whatever threatens harm. Therefore, do not be surprised at this, but be in the state of soul, the disposition ... where you can say to Jesus, "I do not fear any cross because I know that when a cross comes, you always come, too." The Crucified is never found without the cross, and neither is the cross found without the Crucified. It always bears Jesus. I press it to my breast to press him at the same time to my heart. So tell him, 'With you I do not fear any cross."

Note that this is not to ask for the cross. Little Therese, a few weeks before her death, said, "Oh, I would never wish to ask the good Lord for greater sufferings, for I am too little. They would become my very own sufferings; I would be forced to endure them alone, and I have never been able to do anything all alone." ... To say that we are ready to receive the crosses Jesus will send us, even without asking for the cross, makes us afraid, makes our nature tremble. I understand this well. But it is a magnificent occasion for generosity and confidence: “All you permit for me will be grace from you, and you will be there with me. I do not fear the cross, because I do not fear you, the King of Love.”

Jesus will never let the cross crush you; on the contrary, it will lift you up toward heaven. It is no longer you who will carry it; it is the cross which will carry you. Jesus took upon himself the bitterest cross, and he will add a balm to it before giving it to you - that is certain. The sweetness of the crosses accepted with the joy of free will is a great mystery, yet very real. That is why you must embrace it with open arms.

FATHER JEAN DU COEUR DE JESUS D'ELBEE 
Father d'Elbee (┼1982) was a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.