If Simon Peter’s cross was to catch fish, he would never have become a fisher of men…
I have been reflecting on suffering over the last few days.
It seems – these last few weeks – that everywhere I turn, I can see tremendous suffering…
Every second person who I bump into these days appears to be suffering under the weight of a terrible burden on their own heavy cross. I can see the widows and the widowers. I can see the children living with anxiety and the adults living with depression. I can see people living (or dying) with severe and terminal diseases. I can see the families dealing with crippling debt and the rising costs of living. And as I have been reflecting upon that suffering today, I have been reflecting upon the concept of suffering and the Cross.
And as I have been reflecting on this, I came across the beautiful words of the Venerable Fulton Sheen, which he wrote in his book, “The Cries of Jesus From the Cross” at page 104…
“At the foot of the Cross, Mary witnessed the conversion of the good thief, and her soul rejoiced that he had accepted the will of God. Her Divine Son’s second word, promising paradise as a reward for that surrender, reminded her of her own second word thirty years before, when the angel had appeared to her and told her that she was to be the Mother of Him who was now dying on the Cross…The second word of Jesus on Golgotha (Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise) and the second word of Mary in Nazareth (Be it done to me according to thy word) teach the same lesson: Everyone in the world has a cross, but the cross is not the same for any two of us. The cross of the thief was not the cross of Mary. The difference was due to God’s will toward each. The thief was to give life: Mary to accept life. The Thief was to hang on his cross, Mary was to stand beneath hers. The thief was to go ahead; Mary to remain behind. The thief received a dismissal; Mary received a mission. The thief was to be received into paradise, but paradise was to be received into Mary.”
And I have been thinking about those words today as I have been thinking about everything. You see, it seems that there is great wisdom and comfort to be found in the message contained in them… After all, Saint Simon Peter spent an awful lot of time trying UNSUCCESSFULLY to catch some fish… And when I think about it like that, it seems that all that suffering and all those attempts to succeed were really just a way for him to learn to bend his will to that of God the Father in Heaven.
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.