Taking Up Our Real Crosses

There was a very good meditation in yesterday's Magnificat.  I think it is worth sharing.

"...Often it is much more difficult to recognize the cross Jesus intends for us personally than to accept it once we have recognized it.  We are inclined to think...that our crosses would not be so painful if we could immediately see them.  There lies the rub which usually disturbs those who have opted for a life of detachment.  Their temptation consists in imaging that they already know beforehand what their cross or time of testing will be.  Unfortunately, a cross one knows in advance, even if it is fairly heavy, is no longer the cross of Jesus.  Our real cross is always to some degree unanticipated and always seems to far surpass our strength.  As a rule, we would never have chosen it. Passionately to cling to a cross of our own choosing and perhaps unconsciously but equally passionately to reject the cross that Jesus intends for us is perhaps the heaviest and most discouraging cross. I t could keep us forever from taking up our real cross if Jesus did not at some time intervene.

For what is our cross other than Jesus himself? To accept this cross is to accept him. It is simultaneously 'to take u our cross' and to follow him. Undoubtedly, if we could know God's gift, if we could see and recognize it, we would not have an easier time of it.

- Father Andre Louf, O.C.S.O., Magnificat August 28, 2011