“Help you. Help others. Help me.” Not much is said about Simon of Cyrene, whether he helped Jesus carry the Christ willingly or if he was threatened by the Roman soldiers. All we know is that he helped Jesus carry the Cross from the fifth station onward. When someone is willing to help us or others, we might not be clear of their motivations. In fact, if certain people came up to us to offer a helping hand, we may be suspicious. But think of it from our own perspective of helping others. Sometimes we are truly sympathetic. Sometimes we are forced to. Sometimes we want to do good. Sometimes it’s to help ourselves. But what one can only imagine is that motive changing. For whatever reason Simon may have done it, I hope he recognized that helping Jesus would mean helping himself. And in the same way, maybe helping others may be a way to help Jesus and in the end, help ourselves.
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Reach your hand out, opening the palm in a gesture of offering. Reach out further and express through this reach a sense of longing, a willingness to help. Help whom, you may ask? Think of someone in your daily life who may be calling out to you. What would it take to help them? Perhaps if you do reach out, maybe they too will be willing to reach out to you.
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