"You must accept your cross. If you bear it courageously, it will bear you to Heaven."

--Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, Counsel recorded in Life of the Blessed Curé d'Ars, by the Abbé Alfred Monnin.

Here again is the familiar Christian reversal, where death is life, gift is gain, and the loss of self is to be found by the Lord's love. The cross, so unpleasant in itself, at times so seemingly unbearable, becomes the very mode of our transport into glory if born with faith, generosity, perseverance, and love. We bear our cross in this life, and we discover that it actually carries us into that place of eternal rest. The battle of this life, is but the doorway to the unending peace of the life to come.

Commentary by Fr. D.B. Thompson