Greetings from Fr. Warren ENews August 2019

MASS CARDS ST. ANTHONY NOVENA RETREATS PRAY WITH FR. BOB DISCERN DONATE

Greetings from Father Bob ... The other day, one of the Friars at St. Christopher’s Inn was trying to comfort a man whose mother had died penniless and abandoned in a city hospital. “What hurts me so,” said the grieving son, “is that she never even had a funeral. She just disappeared without a trace.” So we had a funeral for her the very next day—a memorial Mass in our chapel with the Brothers Christopher consoling the son. After the funeral, the man felt that his cross had been lightened. I receive many letters in the course of a month, and I have to admit that most of them are sad. Good people tell me their problems—loss of a job, serious illness, divorce—and inevitably, there is always a reference to carrying ones cross. It seems part of the human condition that at some time in life we will all carry a cross just as Jesus did. But I ask you to remember that even Jesus had someone help Him carry His cross, and He will help us carry ours. What kind of cross will you have to carry? Do you carry now? I do not know. I do know that the cross is not just for the elderly. It touches all of us. Pain of body or spirit, disappointments, the death of a loved one, the insecurities of youth and the trembling of old age. The cross hangs over all of our lives and with all my years of Theology, I still do not know why. What I do know, what I have experienced, is that there is no human pain that cannot be touched to the cross of Christ. The only thing that can help us carry the crosses that are so much part of life is our relationship with God. Hopefully, a loving relationship, but you will not love God because you have studied Him. You will love Him because you have touched Him and He has touched you. The questions why suffering, why pain, why do bad things happen to good people, those questions will not wear away. But you will come to know that your Gethsemane is His garden, your Calvary is also His cross. We all shudder a little when Christ warns us that life can get tough and that we have to face up to it. None of us likes cross carrying. We are somewhat like those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Remember them? They were walking away from Jerusalem. Away from the suffering, away from the cross and the resurrected Christ joins them on the road. They do not recognize Him. They tell Him of all their disappointments, frustrations and that they are leaving Jerusalem going to Emmaus. We all like to do that—walk away from our own Jerusalem, away from suffering and the cross. There is a danger when we do that. We always miss the Resurrection.

Yours in Christ, Father Bob Warren, SA