Losing one's life

Matthew 16 : 24 - 28

....deny self...take up his cross.....

This is yet another reminder of the 'ways of God' and how the journey to glory does involve the cross.

A friend of mine has put it very well. We were communicating about the Enneagram and personal transformation recently. I found that being aware of where I am on the Enneagram helps me name my core weakness - from which all other sins follow.

"the road home towards transformation & divine union is a terribly terribly long, difficult & painful journey. It requires much hardship, suffering & multiple paradigm shifts/leaps in belief/perception, no short cuts. It has driven home the point to me - to not be so terribly impatient & hard on myself and on other people too, because truly it is a remarkable thing to actually move from one point to another. Easy to keep forgetting that the greatest miracle (apart from Jesus on the cross & His resurrection) is that of personality transformation.God says we are all truly stubborn & deaf people - takes years & years of learning & re learning the same old basic truths again and again ad infinitum.That is just so true."

The cross remains central to our faith. No such thing as a short cut. Our Lord bore it - not only for us (as a remission for sin) but bears it with us, as he calls us to daily take up our cross. Maybe union with God is experienced in graced glimpses as we gradually lose our false selves and become more and more conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ.