3 pitfalls of carrying our crosses:
1. Excessive complaining
2. Comparing our crosses to others
3. Despair – we think there is no light at the end of our sufferings
3 people Jesus encounters who are antidotes to those pitfalls:
1. Simon of Cyrene (?): Let people have access to our vulnerabilities
2. Women of Jerusalem: Seeing others’ suffering as unique to them and different than ours
3. Jesus on the cross, caring about his mother’s concerns, investing ourselves in lifting others up
Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”