Dear friends,

Two weeks ago, I was out for a Pastors’ Retreat organized by Amazing Parish Movement. The retreat, which focused on the theme: “Abide in me”, taken from John 15, touched me deeply at very many different levels. It kept on reminding me over and over again that for my mission among you as your pastor to bear fruit, it must be rooted in Christ and his cross. This means that all my actions must flow from, be sustained by, and nourished by my deep relationship with the Lord. However, it is what happened at the airport in Dallas on my way to Missouri that inspired the title of this article. Somehow, it also anticipated my retreat experience.

My flight from Dallas to Missouri was delayed by close to four hours. While I was waiting and minding my own business, a woman and a man came and sat beside me at the lounge. The woman looked completely distraught and was constantly sobbing, though she was trying her best to hide it. The man, I presume to be her husband, kept continually talking to her, but it could not stop her from sobbing. His words didn’t work, so he decided to go and get her some wine. That didn’t work either, as she not only ignored it but just continued to sob and wipe her tears. I was deeply moved by her situation, and when I noticed she kept looking up at me and especially at the cross I was wearing, I decided to carefully approach her and introduce myself as a Catholic priest, and asked if I could pray with her for strength in whatever she was going through. Immediately, I saw a great sense of peace descend upon her face. She lit up and said, when she saw the cross on my neck and looked at me, she strangely felt some peace, but was afraid to approach me. She then opened up on the tragedy that had befallen her family. She had just received a message that her only son had been killed in a fatal road crash, together with his wife and three children, on their way home from a vacation. I was deeply touched by this and, for a moment, didn't know how to respond. After recovering my composure, I spent close to an hour ministering to her before I took my flight to Missouri. Throughout the retreat, I kept praying for her and her family.

I write about this to illustrate the fact that when we make the cross our identity, the Lord can use us to minister to others, especially when they are going through their own worst crosses, like this woman.

This experience, though unplanned, beautifully illustrates a profound truth for every Christian, and particularly for those of us in ministry, that the Cross is not merely an ornament we wear, but the very essence of our identity and the engine of our mission.

>When we truly embrace the cross—the sign of Christ's ultimate sacrifice and victory—it transforms us into instruments of God's grace, allowing us to effectively minister to and evangelize others.

For the distraught woman, the physical cross around my neck became an instant beacon of peace. In her moment of profound suffering, the sight of the cross, and perhaps my inherent priestly anointing, signaled a reality beyond her immediate tragedy—a reality of redemptive suffering and eternal hope.

So, dear friends, let us bear in mind that by anchoring our lives and ministries in the cross, we step out of our own limited ability and allow the Lord to use us. The fruit of our ministry will not be the result of our strategies or eloquence, but the simple, powerful, and undeniable manifestation of Christ's presence in and through our identity as those who bear the Cross. So let us not be afraid to wear our crosses openly or make the sign of the cross in public. You never know how the Lord will touch someone who is suffering through you.

I love you!

BACK TO LIST