I envy you, Simon! No one got as close to Him as you did. Were you afraid, Simon? They abducted you from the crowd and you found yourself carrying his cross. Tell me, Simon, was it heavy? Tell me, how bloody? Tell me, Simon – if you could choose again, would you step under the cross one more time?

This cross is even nowadays carried by millions of people. And millions of others, like Simon of Cyrene, are helping others who are lumbered with life’s problems.

Tradition narrates that he was a father, returning from the fields with his two children – given the names Alexander and Rufus. Surely no one would have wanted to get under the cross of the damned.

The sentence of crucifixion was not only a horrible condemnation, but also a death which deeply humiliates. Saint Paul said the cross was a shame on the Jews and madness for Pagans. A Roman citizen, however evil, was never condemned to the cross – this was a punishment reserved solely for the barbarians.

The cross, and all it implies, remains a sign of controversy for men of any era. Why the cross? Why the pain? Why did the Father allow that his incarnate Son is given a death sentence so harsh?

Jesus had seen people die on the cross, and when it had started dawning on him that was to be his end – because Jesus had understood the plan worked against him by the Jewish leaders – he was so afraid that he sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Maybe it’s easier for us to look on as our TV depicts those that daily crucify human society with vandalism, criminal acts, and so many terrorist attacks. But we hardly (if even) show those that, like the Cyrene, go out of their way to help those who are weighed down with suffering, injustices, and direct effects of violence.

We are in the Holy Week, this special week in which we examine Christ’s great love for us. Let us make a choice about where we’ll stand. Let us decide to which side we belong: with those who do not care whether or not they are adding to the woes and troubles of their neighbours, or with those who help the others around them.

If you do not pay attention to what issues out of your mouth, if you easily blurt out belittling comments about those you do not understand: immigrants, homosexuals, divorcees, separated couples, drug addicts… remember that you’d only be adding to their weight. On the other hand, if you are a careful person, cultivating a sensitive attitude towards other people’s hurts, then because of you the world becomes more habitable.

Let us make an effort to answer those who are praying to us to: Walk with them part of the way, because they are afraid on their own. Let us hear the whimper of those who need help to get out of the tangle they got themselves in. Let us answer the call to grab our brother’s hand, to lift him up and out of the valley he feels he is descending into, and whose depths he does not know.Let us illuminate the lives of those who feel only masses of darkness surrounding them.

Be like Simon of Cyrene for the rest of the world, to help those shriveling under the weight of the cross.