There is in us love that we do not know exists until we are called beyond ourselves and asked to give. Simon of Cyrene did not know what he was capable of, nor to what he was called, when the soldiers forced him to help this Nazarene get His cross up the hill. He wanted to stay out of it; he did not want to expose himself to the suffering of this criminal. But Jesus, weak and on His way to death, welcomed him and was grateful for Simon’s help. What precisely this opened up within the Cyrenian we do not know. But we do know that he became a believer, and his sons as well.

We are all Simon. We are all called beyond ourselves to help one another, not hide from the suffering around us. When we respond to this call, we do not know what will be opened up within us, but no self-gift fails to enlarge us for greater things.

And the more we give, the more we will find that greater capacities for love are opened up within us. The more we conform ourselves to the self-giving of Christ, the more we become our true selves.

Because by His wounds of love, we are healed.
Healed of sin, we are freed to love fully.
And in sacrificing ourselves for love of others, infinite capacities for love are opened up within us.

It is this infinite capacity for love that is our eternal destiny.

~excerpted from: "His Suffering and Ours - words for pierced and wounded hearts,"
available now directly from the publisher at http://www.lulu.com/kathryntherese