Our Lord's disciples will have to carry the Cross to follow in His footsteps. This is the reason why so few people really convert to the Lord, or why His disciples, in name, so rarely follow Him with all of their hearts, because of the Cross. It just so happens that today, the Church offers in the Liturgy of the Hours, one of the most beautiful passages of one of the greatest books, the Confessions of St. Augustine, where he talks about his conversion and how late it came because of the price of the Cross. "Late have I loved You, O Beauty ever ancient ever new, late have I loved You. You were within me, but I was outside and it was there that I searched for You. In my unlovliness I plunged into lovely things which You created, You were with me but I was not with You. Created things kept me from You and if they had not been in You, they would not have been at all. You called, You shouted, and You broke through my deafness. You flashed, You shone, and You dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me, I drew in breath and now I pant for You. I have tasted You, now I hunger and thirst for more."

Then quoting Job, he goes on to speak of the Cross. "Is not the life of man upon earth a trial? Who would want troubles and difficulties? You command us to endure them, not to love them. No person loves what he endures, though he may love the act of enduring." What a great insight he gave us there. The Lord doesn't ask us to love the Cross, but He does ask us to love bearing the Cross out of love for Him. He concludes, "All my hope lies in Your great goodness."