Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14, 2003)

Readings Nm 21: 4b-9 Ps 78: 1-2, 34-38 Phil 2: 6-11 Jn 3: 13-17

Suggested Emphasis

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

Salesian Perspective

When a team is winning, the coach reminds the players to "stay in the game," or "to play your best until the whistle sounds."

Today, it's Jesus who invites his disciples to stay the course. After giving the right response to Jesus, Peter has a problem with the painful picture Jesus paints regarding his future trip to Jerusalem. Jesus says to Peter: "Get behind me Satan!" In other words, "Peter, don't listen to the influence of Satan. Stay the course." "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

When we decide to follow Christ, we will still have troubles. We suffer the loss of friends, we see some dreams come true and some that do not. We still carry stinging hurts from our past. We often feel unappreciated and even alone.

"Stay the course." Jesus says today. He is the Christ, our steady companion through all the good times and rocky ones too! Peter didn't grasp that part of the message. But Christ wants us to grasp it. In the first reading Isaiah says it the best: "The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who upholds my right." Now that is Good News!

Isaiah is our coach cheering us through whatever difficulty we stumble over on our journey. God is near...until our final whistle sounds!

This autumn season time is a good moment to review how we are holding the course. What crosses do we carry; which ones do we need to put behind us and which are the results of life?

St. Francis de Sales knew about carrying a cross with the Lord's help. "We must carry the cross we have and not another, and its merit does not consist in the quality of the cross, but in the perfection with which it is carried." No matter how big or small our crosses are, the Good News is "to stay the course" for the full length of our years, and the Lord is always near to help us.

The Lord says, "I don't want you to have crosses but they will come anyway, and when they do I will be there, stay steady and gain my life, eternal life."

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is Executive Director of the
De Sales Spirituality Center in Washington, DC