YOU’RE GONNA NEED SOMEONE ON YOUR SIDE: Catholics talk a lot about the need to pick up your cross and follow Christ. And that isn’t wrong. But I wonder if they notice that Christ Himself didn’t carry His cross alone?

He had St. Simon of Cyrene, a.k.a. some dude. He had someone he didn’t know, not an apostle, not anyone expected–just a guy, shanghai’d into carrying the Cross that would bring life to sinners. Someone needed him–and responding to that need is what made him a saint.

It’s kind of terrifying to me how ashamed we are by our neediness. We are dependent. We are on our knees at the foot of the Cross. Like the man said, we can’t do it by ourselves any longer. And we feel awful because we can’t save ourselves. We feel (I feel) deep, miserable, abiding shame because we think we should be Pelagians. We genuinely believe we should be able to save ourselves by being sinless.

Oh, good luck with that, honey. You let me know how that works out for you.

Maybe it would be easier to ask for help.