Unfortunately, it is our own prejudice that often prevents us from receiving his best gifts. We have preconceptions and expectations of what he should give us and what his gifts should look like.

We expect his gifts to come to us wrapped in colorful paper and tied with an attractive ribbon. Instead, some of his gifts come in newsprint, tied with thorns.

St. Teresa of Avila once observed: “You see, the gift the Lord intends for us may be by far the best, but if it is not what we wanted we are quite capable of flinging it back in his face. That is the kind of people we are; ready to cash in the only wealth we understand.”

In a recent Gospel Jesus teaches that: “He who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

People like to come to church. They enjoy the fellowship and the good feelings that come from participating. But the real challenge that validates our status as disciples of the Lord is found in carrying the cross.

And in every life, there is a cross.

Perhaps that cross is a difficult family member, a strained marriage, an unpleasant job, poor health, or other challenge we find dropped in our lap.

Everything in us wants to run from that challenge. Our society preaches “Do it your way,” and encourages the pursuit of pleasure. Suffering? That seems old hat! That however, is precisely the path of the disciple.

As the German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

While it is not common that this call leads to physical death as in the martyrs, it is a call to let go of our plans, our desires, our will, our design for life. It is a profound “yes” to Christ.

When we say “yes” to Christ, we take up our cross and are truly his disciples. Prior to that we are at best aspirants or at the worst, pretenders.