All are called to salvation. Salvation requires work. You can spend all your time pondering what to do and how to do it but if you do nothing then all your good intentions are for nought. Good intentions only never filled an empty stomach nor did they ever attain the kingdom of heaven.
Belief is only the beginning of the journey, walking, through doing, is what gives completeness to the task. As St James reminds us: “but be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (1:22)
The cross: it’s vertical axis runs from heaven to earth and its horizontal axis embraces the entire world – both believers and nonbelievers, both those living in light and those living in darkness, inviting all. That is its power and promise. To those who follow; the cross becomes life, to those who do not follow: the cross becomes death. As in life, choosing the way of the cross, depends not only on each one of us has great consequences for us all.
This week an old Chinese story – an old lady daily fetched water from the village well. She carried two pots on a pole. One was perfect but the other was cracked so that she would commence her daily journey with two full pots of water and ended at home with one full pot of water and the other only half full. The flawed pot felt dishonoured. The pot spoke to the old lady seeking abject apology and asked to be replaced as it was flawed. The old lady smiled. She told the flawed pot whether it observed that only on its side of the pathway that she travel daily the beautiful flowers that grew there? The lady then explained that she had planted seeds and that they had, through the water that leaked from the flawed pot, thrived and their blooms bore great joy to her… Sometimes, the Lord can use us “flawed vessels” in such wonderful ways that we could not even imagine. That is the wonder of Christ.