Abbey-Roads2

Lectio

“As they led him away, they laid hold of one Simon the Cyrenean who was coming in from the fields.  They put a cross beam on Simon’s shoulder for him to carry along behind Jesus.  A great crowd of people followed him…” - Luke 23: 26

Meditatio

It is believed by some that our Sorrowful Mother obtained this grace that someone should help you carry the cross, since you were beaten so severely, you were close to death.  The man you permitted to share in your suffering was completely unaware that he would be chosen.  In fact he was forced into labor…he neither volunteered nor desired to share in your ignominy…he may even have protested and rebelled.  Perhaps the sight of our Mother’s pleading eyes, supplied the grace for him to accept such an honor?

It is the mystery of cooperation with suffering presented here.  First that you O Lord,accomplishing the supreme act of love through your passion and death, won for us eternal salvation.  Second, by this sharing of your cross with Simon, you invite us to accept our own cross in union with your sufferings.  None of us asked to be born, none of us desired the sufferings imposed upon us in life, all of us seek to avoid suffering in all of its forms, yet as Frankl said “To suffer is to be human”.  We cannot avoid suffering, even though we rebel, rejecting you and the science of the cross.  Our resistance does nothing to eliminate suffering…we may assuage it, yet it remains a part of life.  (Frankl also observed; “Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”)

Simon eventually accepted the cross, out of extreme compassion for you…somehow, he understood, by faith alone, that he was sharing in something wonderful, and you O Lord, filled with gratitude, consoled him, in a manner hidden from the senses…charity, compassion and mercy - on a natural level, these things bring their own reward, yet offered supernaturally, the reward is beyond comprehension to  the intellect and the senses.

Oratio

O Jesus, unless we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow you, we cannot enter into eternal life.  Help us to become as little children, to not only come to you, but to follow you as Simon, in order to learn of you who are meek and humble of heart.  Help us to accept the sufferings of life, even when we cannot understand them, trusting in your merciful love.  Share with us O Lord, nay, infuse into our hearts the virtue of charity and a selflessness that moves us to compassion, to help those who struggle beneath the burdens and sorrows of life.

Contemplatio

“Let us go to him outside the camp, bearing the insult which he bore.  For here we have no lasting city; we are seeking one which is to come.”  - Hebrews 13: 13-14

We adore thee O Christ and we praise thee, for by thy holy cross thou hast redeemed the world.

Most sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, comforter of the afflicted, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.