Sunrise on the Atlantic. I've been back a week from the retreat I made with five other priests last week. I took long walks in the cold surf each morning, contemplating with camera.
We did our retreat on Franciscan spirituality. St. Francis of Assisi centered his spiritual life on the crucifix as the sign of God's great love for us.
I've been reflecting on Luke 9:18-24. Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter answers, "The Messiah of God." Jesus immediately makes it clear what kind of Messiah he is: one who suffers and dies before he rises into glory.
Then he says, "If you want to be a follower of mine, then follow." We do this, he says, by taking up our cross daily. We don't have to create a cross for ourselves. There are plenty of crosses that come our way. Some of them are hard suffering and deep sadness. Jesus invites us to unite our suffering and sadness with his and go through them with him into peace.
For most of us our crosses are not great. One of the priests last week said that a holy priest who taught him in the seminary said that the self-discipline most needed in the 20th century is to get enough sleep. St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, suggested that the little difficulties and annoyances of each day are the crosses Jesus calls us to carry in union with him. What is most important, she said, was that we take them up with great love.
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