Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle - Ian Maclaren

French novelist Andre Malraux once described a country parish priest who had heard confessions for many decades and summed up what he had learned about human nature in this manner: ‘First of all, people are much more unhappy than one thinks … and there is no such thing as a grown-up person.’

A dose of this type of ‘tragic realism’ about life is quite healthy for those of us who wish to follow Jesus in his journey through suffering and death to new life.

For everyone who joins the human race and accepts their creaturehood (and it is amazing how many people do not!) inevitably experience, not only the exhilaration of life, but also its darkness: disillusionment, ageing, illness, isolation, loss, meaningless, painful choices, and death.

We are all pilgrims on the journey of faith and life. We are all in this together. And it is the beginning of compassion for ourselves and for others when we realise each person we encounter is deep down carrying a heavy cross in their life.

That is precisely the consolation of the Spirit, even amid absence and desolation. Jesus, our brother and Lord, has taken the same pilgrim path.

Consider where Jesus is making his way up to his death carrying the very weapon that will change all our lives. He stumbles. He falls. It was too much for him to carry on his own. In his humility he allowed another to step in, possibly to relieve but most definitely to participate in the pain and suffering he was experiencing. He allowed both himself and another to be human.

So we must all stumble and fall. And that does not mean reading or just hearing about falling. We must actually be ‘out of the driver’s seat for a while’. Otherwise we will never learn how to give up control to the Real Guide. This is the necessary pattern of Christian discipleship. Whatever happens to Jesus is what must and will happen to us. Christ has gone before us on the way of the cross. Things to think about:

• The ‘things we carry’ make us the unique human beings we are – some things are ‘inherited’ and others are collected along life’s journeys.
• What is the heavy cross you bear? Can you ask Jesus to come alongside and help you to carry it?

‘Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.’

• Does this statement resonate for you?
• If so, how? If not, why?
• How does it challenge us as disciples of Jesus?

As he carried his cross, Jesus not only allowed himself to be human – to ‘stumble and fall’ but he was also humble enough to ask for help.

• Identify a time when you have been fully human enough to do the same.
• When have you been able to help a ‘burdened’ friend?
• When have you resisted… and why?