Weight of the Cross

                                                                                                Take up your cross, and follow me (Mt.16, 24)

In one of the parables, one very tired woman, exhausted under the weight of her cross, was praying to receive another one, being sure that it would be much easier. She fell asleep and found herself amongst a lot of crossed of different kinds and sizes, which were lying on the ground. She liked one of them – it was small, decorated with beautiful stones and in a golden frame. “Here it is, - she thought, - I could carry this cross without an effort”. But as soon as she picked it up it began to press her with its weight: gold and stones were so beautiful, but their weight was more than she could handle. There was another one, lying right by it, all in flowers. “This must be definitely for me!” – she exclaimed and rushed to lift it up. But there were thorns under the beautiful flowers that were poking her body and causing a lot of pain. Finally, she found a plain undecorated cross, in a simple shape and form, without a rich frame, but it had only one word of love written on it. She picked it up and started to carry. It was the least heavy out of all she tried.

And she recognized her own cross in it, which was such a burden for her before. Lord knows what kind of cross we need and which one we will be able to carry. He measures it according to our strength. But we can not judge the weight of the crosses of others. When living in need we enviously look at the rich, but it might be that the precious stones just add the weight to his cross. Somebody else’s life might seem to us flourishing and cloudless, but we don’t see the thorns, hidden underneath the beautiful roses. Therefore, if we have had a chance to try out all the other crosses that are sent by God to the suffering mankind, we would definitely find out that we would not be able to carry any other cross, but our own, which was chosen by the Lord in His love.

(Translated by Tatiana Rozzell from “Every Day is a Gift from God. Diaries of an Orthodox Priest” (1905), author unknown)