STATIONS OF THE CROSS - II Jesus Receives his Cross

Acceptance

It is as it is,

how can we deal with it.

Things are as they are

How can we make the most of them?

The Cross, whether it comes from within or is imposed from without bites deep. Reality can be extremely hard to bear. Yet acceptance of reality is essential to moving forward. Every journey can only begin from where we are at just now. The crosses of life need to be transformed in our lifetime or they become transferred to another generation. Life breaks us all; the challenge is to grow strong at the broken places. We are defined not by what happens to us but by what we have faced and transcended. The cross we carry at this present time will not leave us as it found us; even in the winter of distress it carries the potential for renewal and growth. The depth it carves into our hearts is our capacity for joy.

Could it be that total acceptance is too much to expect of ourselves? Acceptance is itself a gift that invites us to pray ‘Lord I accept my non-acceptance and offer it to you. By your grace of acceptance may I move forward.’

All acceptance has to begin with self-acceptance. The one constant relationship we have in life, from conception to eternity, is our relationship with ourselves. From this flows all other all other relationships and we can never be closer to another than we are to ourselves. The foundation of all right relating is to be right with myself. At its deepest level loneliness is not so much missing another person as it is to be missing myself. The God who accepts me unconditionally as I am does not expect me to bear the cross of self-rejection since as I am towards myself so I will be towards others.