THE THREE MOST ENCOURAGINGWORDS OF JESUS

A group of students sat around their teacher when one of them, wishing to test him, asked, "Teacher, what are the three most encouraging words of Jesus?"

"His three words on the cross," the teacher answered immediately: "It is finished.’" Then the teacher rose to leave the room.

"You confuse us, Teacher," said the student. "You cannot leave us with such a mystery. Why are those words in any way encouraging?"

"Because those words tell you that it takes a lifetime to achieve your spiritual destiny!

Today people are in hurry, even to become holy. The most important wedding of virtues in the quest for holiness is the marriage of patience to passion. Seekers rarely have both the perpetual passion to be Godlike and the patience to wait a lifetime to achieve their goal. Both qualities are learned in the shadow of the ladder of the cross. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the great spiritual giant of the twelfth century, said, "Either you must go up or you must come down, you inevitably fall if you try to stand still. It is certain the man (woman) who does not try to be better is not even good; when you stop trying to be better, then you cease to be good."

- Anonymous

March 2, 2008