Our reading from the Gospel of John
this morning expresses the tension that was building up between Jesus and the
hierarchy of the Temple in Jerusalem that would eventually lead to his arrest
and to the culmination of his journey to the cross. Such readings about the
cross that Jesus bears on his journey are critical to help prepare us for our own
journey during Lent and for the crosses and sufferings that we all must bear in
our lives. However, in addition to the crosses and the sufferings that bear, we
should also remember the outreach of God’s love that is eloquently expressed in
today’s psalm.
The psalm declares, “The Lord is close
to the broken-hearted.” Everyday, Christ has his heart broken. Every moment of
every day, Christ desires to be with us, yet many turn away. Christ has sacrificed his entire being out of
his love for each one of us, out of his love for all humanity. But, how often do many of us turn our hearts
away from Jesus? Christ is not just
close to the brokenhearted: Christ is the brokenhearted. That is exactly how the response in today’s
psalm calls out to us. God is more than
just near us in our broken-heartedness, God is continually going through that
pain with us.
What God does is in our moments of
suffering is to walk with us and hold us up, just as Simon of Cyrene helped
Christ as he journeyed with his cross.
God knows the strength we have through the Holy Spirit to help us
persevere through the desolation. God challenges us to give into His grace, to
strengthen our dependence on Him. We may want to turn away, we may not want the
challenge, yet with the prayers of the communion of saints and by the sheer
pull of the Holy Spirit, we can persevere.
Sometimes it is not an easy journey for us, as the pain, the confusion,
and the frustration do not magically disappear. But each step forward, each day
that passes, we continue on our journey, we move into the love of God, and
things gradually become a little bit lighter.
God give us the hope that the darkness that surrounds us will slowly
fade into the background, that his light will grow more apparent.
On our Lenten journey, through those
moments of suffering we may experience in our lives, may we be sustained by the
light of Christ & by the closeness
of God.
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