“I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough………”

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” ― C.S. Lewis: (1898 –1963: was a British novelist, poet, & academic)

Gospel Text: (LK 9:43B-45)

While they were all amazed at his every deed,
Jesus said to his disciples,
"Pay attention to what I am telling you.
The Son of Man is to be handed over to men."
But they did not understand this saying;
its meaning was hidden from them
so that they should not understand it,
and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

As God Jesus knew that his mission for the Father would end by death on the cross. He became man, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, emptying himself to save humankind. He entered his passion and death willingly. All because he loved us.

His disciples could not understand his statements about his impending death. How could Jesus, their Master and teacher, the one they professed as the Messiah, the one who performed marvelous deeds of healing and mercy, even raised the dead to life, suffer and die? The disciples could not understand the significance and necessity in God's plan of Jesus' passion and death.

The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah had written about the Suffering Servant. Jesus himself spoke several times about his passion, death and rising from the dead. How could the disciples understand "rising from the dead"?

Like the disciples, we too find it difficult to understand how the great teacher and miracle worker Jesus would suffer and die on the cross. We find it difficult to understand how a loving Father God could have planned things this way for his only begotten Son-become-man.

We are reminded that God's ways are not our ways. We are reminded that Jesus' passion, death and resurrection were planned by a loving God to show Jesus' and his own love for us. We are reminded that true love has no boundaries and really follows no logic.