Dear Friends
God always gives us hope. The hope that comes from today’s Gospel is this: that which is difficult can also be good. When Jesus says to his disciples that they must take up their cross and follow him, he is not assigning them a punishment. He is offering the assurance that when they take up a difficult part of life and carry it as a cross after Him, it need not destroy them. In fact it can have the power to strengthen them and open them more to life.