 In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, sayings of light and love, number four, it is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened, you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden, you are close to yourself, your own weakness. For virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience. Said another way, he's saying, it is better for you to be greatly burdened and be in the company of the great reliever of burdens, the great healer, the great physician, the great comforter, the one who makes you strong when you are weak. It's better to be burdened and close to him because when you are burdened, God is your strength and he abides with you because he abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden, you are close to yourself, your own weakness. The virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience. Of course, he's speaking of this process of purification, of the burden of drawing near to him, of the healing and relief and then growth that comes after that and the challenge, of course, which is what he beckons us to in this passage is don't lay down your cross. Don't shrug it off. Carry it because when you carry it, you're with him. Embrace the difficulties. Recognizing that you can know him more fully in the midst of them as he reveals himself to you. Embrace the difficulties. Find out what he's doing in them. He's calling you to what's the healing that he's inviting you to in the midst of the suffering because as soon as you run from the suffering then you are unburdened with the weak. You're not truly unburdened because you can't make any more progress up the narrow way because you've laid your cross down and the narrow way is like a the cross is like a pass card into a locked door that you can't enter in without that card. The narrow way is like that. If you lay down your cross, you can't. You can no longer pass. As soon as you lay it down, your progress stops. But he says the second you pick it up now you've joined with him and he's joined with you and now you're burdened with the strong and now he will speak with you on the way about why you so much wanted to put it down or why you did and changed your mind. What is it about this aspect of the journey that's so hard and what are the wounds that if you would only allow him to touch he would heal but you must face them and face him to be healed and you must embrace the cross to be healed. You can't set it down. You can't hide. Can we delay or worse? Give up. One of my favorite quotes from Saint Teresa of Avalos. He withholds himself from no one who perseveres. So when we embrace the cross when we hold on we are with him in his strength. There we will find him. There we will find freedom. May it be so with you and may Jesus Christ be praised now and forever.