“To come
after me you must deny yourself, and take up your cross.” It is always sobering
to hear these words of Jesus.
But we know the
great beauty of the gift he first gave us- the gift of his very Self- which has drawn us beyond ourselves. We are willing to lose ourselves, for we have found in his love
the very reason for our being.
Our promise to follow
him inevitably entails a willingness to suffer and die with him.
Jesus wants all that we are. And he deeply desires to give
more of himself away to us. Let us open to him.