Newsletter 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 7th September 2025

Newsletter 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 7th September 2025.pdf

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GOSPEL REFLECTION

“If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children…EVEN HIS OWN LIFE TOO, he cannot be my disciple.”  Jesus uses the word ‘hate’ of family members – and hate of ‘self.’ This is strong language, to make it clear that we are not to have any attachments or desires over and above God.  In today’s Gospel Jesus also said: “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” An essential characteristic of being a disciple of Jesus is to carry the cross. The cross comes in many shapes and sizes: Living with people that are very difficult to live with, having problems that cause anxiety, having physical pain etc...  Jesus proved that the Cross is in fact our greatest blessing, our greatest source of Grace, our greatest joy and our greatest source of peace. Jesus carried His Cross willingly with all His heart knowing that His Cross will pour forth infinite Grace on the world.  The Crucifixion was a complete act.  Everything was accomplished.  The only thing that was lacking is the lack of response of mankind to that Grace.  Jesus chose to carry His Cross because He loves us.  A love so great that He chose death so that we might have His life.  In 1917, Our Blessed Mother in Fatima Portugal appeared to three children.  Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were aged 11, 9 and 7 respectively. On May 13^th she asked the three children “Will you offer yourself to God and bear all the sufferings He sends you?” The children replied without hesitation, “oh we will, we will.” A great tragedy in life is not being able to carry one’s cross.  St John Vianney d. 1859 was told by Satan that because of his efforts to renounce himself and carry his Cross he had saved 80,000 souls from going to hell. St Margaret Mary of the Sacred Heart, who died in 1690: Jesus placed the crown of thorns on her head and said to her: “You will need all the strength of My love to bear the pain.”  She wrote about this in her diary.  “These words delighted me, as I thought I would at last find enough suffering to quench my thirst for suffering … as my love for Him is so great.”  St Rose of Lima (1586 – 1617) felt a great impulse to rush into the street and shout at the top of her voice to everyone: “No Grace without suffering.”  “If men only knew this truth, surely, they would direct their energy with all care and diligence to procuring sufferings and afflictions for themselves.  Instead of good fortune for themselves men would seek out troubles, illness and suffering that they may obtain the inestimable treasure of grace… No one would complain about the Cross or about hardship … if he realized in what balance they are weighed.  Sr Joseph Menendez died in 1923 in France. At times she would experience the full weight of the Cross on her shoulder sometimes continually for months.  Yet she always desired to suffer more.  Jesus said to her, “Be on the lookout for what costs you most and make as many acts of love as you can.  How different a soul would be if they knew the secret on how dead to self they would become.  Mother Angelica who died in 2016, was the founder of a television network called EWTN.  She said, “The greatest joy in my life after my vocation is my sufferings.” As the Cross is so effective in making a difference, the angels are envious of us because we can suffer, and they can’t.  Our Lord chose to carry the cross because of love.  No matter how high and wide the cross, He would have willingly carried it, because He is love.  I know of a person who had a root-canal without any pain killers.  He wanted to offer his pain for a woman who he knew was in distress.  He loved this person so much that he was willing to suffer that much for her. When we have a Cross – the answer is to offer it up.  When we are offering our cross up it is helpful to know what we are offering it up for.  For example, people you know personally who are in need of prayer, people you know who are deceased and who maybe in purgatory, for Our Lord’s intentions,  for Our Lord to restore His Kingdom.  In order to carry one’s cross for others we need to have enough love for them, and we need to have enough faith that our cross will significantly achieve its purpose.  The spirituality of the Cross is a Grace needed for our times.  It is primarily through the Cross that all things will be accomplished. We need to ask Our Lord to help us to live the way He lived, particularly to help us carry the Cross as He did.