The Catholic Calendar for Friday, August 5, 2005
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major in Rome

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Deuteronomy 4:32-40
Psalm 77:12-13, 14-15, 16 and 21
Matthew 16:24-28

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"Whoever wishes to come after me
must deny himself, take up his cross,
and follow me." (Matthew 16:24)

We are known as Christians, not by the denial of the cross in the world, but by our embrace of it. For each person the cross means something different. Too often we look at others and find ourselves wishing for their better-crafted, handmade, velvet-covered crosses. But our crosses are our own and we cannot carry another's. It simply doesn't fit us.

How do we carry our crosses? By forgetting ourselves in the work of God. We best carry our crosses by not thinking about carrying them at all. We are not free of them, but we are sufficiently free of self to be able to do whatever God wishes. Others see our trials more clearly than we do. And when we function as God wishes despite our limitations and our trials, the cross is triumphant and people see that as well.

The Christian life is about denial of self, about always choosing God. This doesn't mean it is sad, joyless or full of angst and sorrow. Rather it means that we function best as God's people when we function as God Himself in the world. We are His hands, feet, eyes, and voice. But we are only so when we are not busy being ourselves.

- JuandelaCruz
(http://floscarmeli.stblogs.org/)

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