Fr. Tom Richie (OFM)
“We are baptised into Christ” St. Paul tell us
in the second reading today. When we are baptised we become Christians, we
become a part of Christ. It is the
Gospel which tells us something about what that means. Jesus said to his
Disciples: “If any want to be my followers let them deny themselves take up
their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will
lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” To be baptised, to be a Christian means to
share in some way in Christ’s Cross.
There is a film that I saw last year,
that some of you may have seen which tells a story about carrying our cross.
The film is called “The Way”.
It is the story of a Father who went
to identify and bring home the body of his son who died overseas in the
Pyrenees on the French/Spanish boarder. It was there that unknown to his father
he was beginning to walk the pilgrim Road to Compostela which finishes at the
great Church of St. James in Spain. It is a famous pilgrimage that countless
Christians have followed. Many make the journey carrying a cross. His Father
found out a little about the significance of the pilgrimage and because he had
not been on good terms with his son he decided to complete the journey for his
son in a way to make up to him by carrying his son’s ashes and leaving some of
his ashes at significant points along the journey.
As he
journeyed resolutely on he met various people whom he tried to ignore and
treated rudely. But circumstances kept throwing three other walking companions
together with him. The father was an American ophthalmologist. The other three
were a fat Dutchman loud mouthed and prone to take drugs who said he was making
the journey to lose weight so he would not have to buy a new suite for his
brother’s third wedding; an American woman who was angry and talkative and said
she was there to give up cigarettes; an Irish writer fond of drink and very
talkative who has lost his ability to write. At first they clashed and argued
and separated several times, but somehow always came back together.
Gradually
they learned each other’s stories and the cross each was carrying: The American
grieving for the son he regretted not understanding better; the Dutchman whose
wife refuses to sleep with him and he wants to change his life and be more
acceptable; the woman who was abused by her husband and who had had an abortion
and now grieves the loss of the daughter she longed for; the Irishman who had
lost meaning to his life along with his faith and could no longer write. They gradually
learned tolerance and compassion for each other and a bond of friendship and
love grew between them which helped transform the life of each one. Each one
was able to support the other in carrying their cross and they were able to
find meaning in their lives through the love and friendship they experienced.
It was a
story about life, about every-one’s life. It is about your life and my life.
Each one of us has our cross to carry. Often we don’t recognise our cross. It
may just seem as if our life is in a mess. It is hard to cope. We may be
depressed, we may feel guilty, we may be carrying anger. That is our cross. We
need to recognise our cross and realise that we are sharing in the cross of
Jesus. The way to find the strength to carry our cross is by trying to help
others to carry their cross and by being willing to share the story of our pain
with others. We will learn that Jesus walks with us in the pilgrimage of our
life. This can change us.
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