🚀 go-pugleaf

755. My Love Is Greater than Your Cross (May 1995)
        Nancy was suffering, feeling the rejection of some people, including
some who were close to her.  Nancy did not feel that she was getting the
help that she needed in carrying her cross.
        Jesus said, "My love is greater than your cross."

           COMMENTARY

        Jesus has told us over and over to "Stay close to Me and keep your
eyes on Me."  He has said we can not fight Satan alone and that Satan is
the master of deception.
        So if we do not keep our eyes on Jesus, on His living presence, in His
living Word, we can be deceived.  We can be led in the wrong direction
by the ways of the world.  We can wander and become lost.  Jesus has
told us, "Do not be deceived by the lures of this world's kingdom.  The
kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world do not mix."
        A child needs to stay close to his parents for security and the child
knows he needs the parents for security.  So too, we should stay close to
Jesus in prayer, through the sacraments, the Mass, at His Tabernacle, in
His Living Word, in Reconciliation, in loving our neighbors as He has
loved us, in our sacrifices, especially as it pertains to our crosses.  Jesus
has told us, "I am the Cross."
        Recognizing we need God and need to stay close to Him helps us not
wander and become lost in the ways of the world, the ways of Satan.
For Jesus has said, "My Kingdom is not of this world.  You look for the
gods of this world and you think you are looking for Me."
        If we depend on self, we depend on Satan and become children of the
world.  If we are children of the world, we become children of Satan and
his kingdom, because we no longer depend on or need God.  In other
words, we become Satan's slaves to sin.
        We need to depend on God, recognize we need God and stay close to
him and trust God just as the child gives his full trust and stays close to
his parents recognizing his dependency on them.  The Blessed Mother
has told us, "You will not know my Son without prayer."

If My Children Would Be Children and
Depend on Me

        John 1:12-13  [RSV]
                But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave
power to
become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh
nor of the will of man, but of God.

        Romans 8:14-17  [RSV]
                For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.
For you did
not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received
 the
spirit of sonship.  When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit Himself
 bearing
witness with our spirit that we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and
 fellow
heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be also
glorified with him.
        John 8:42-43  [RSV]
                Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love
me, for I
proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent
me.  Why do you not understand what I say?  It is because you cannot bear to
hear my word.
        Matthew 18:4  [DRV]
                Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
he is the
greater in the kingdom of heaven.




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Mike Fichera- Conyers List Editor
website: http://www.conyers.org
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