I don’t pretend to make this easy to understand. It is a mystery. But I believe you will discover for yourself that it works. Even then, I would caution you. Not every cross is the cross of Christ. In other words, your cross will crush you if you try to carry it alone.

Some people make that mistake. It’s an old heresy that was started by a British monk named Pelagius almost 1500 years ago. Jesus does not want you to carry a cross to prove how tough you are. I don’t know what you will find. But you will not find Christ. Jesus did not say, “A million pounds of gold to the one who gets to the top of the hill first.” He said, “Follow me.”

When pain comes, follow the one who was crowned with thorns. When your colleague at work betrays you, follow the one who saw Judas sell him for a hand full of silver. When financial ruin comes, follow the one who had his clothes stripped away. When your friends abandon you, follow the one who watched his disciples run away. When the whole world is spitting in your face and calling you names, follow the one who was condemned to death by the same judge who declared, “I find no case against this man.”

If you are faced with a cross, you’ll probably say, “I know what it is to suffer. But where is Jesus? How can I follow someone that left this world 2000 years ago?”

I cannot show him to you. But I do believe that he will show himself to you. All you have to say is this: “Lord, I want to pick up my cross and follow you.” Truly, that is all you have to say. In a way that I cannot explain, something will change. You will carry your cross, but it will be, as one of the saints said, “a cross without a cross”. You will experience what St Paul experienced when he had to follow Jesus: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.”

This article by Fr. Joe Babendreier first appeared in the Sunday Nation on 22nd August 2010.