Lent is ending, Holy Week is upon us, the Church seasons are turning, Redemption is right around the corner.
We approach the end of Lent with the knowledge that we often have not
kept our Lenten disciplines as well as we would have liked. I certainly haven't. I have had trouble this year, forgetting some things, focusing on others. Perhaps one
of the values in keeping them is not in keeping them perfectly, but
there is value in failing at them...that it's at that very point when we've
fallen flat on our faces, when we're lying there bruised and breathing
in the dirt, that we find ourselves in a place where we can meet the
Christ Who fell under the weight of His cross; Who knows what it is
like to fall. There is no place in this life, where Our Lord has not been, and is being, beside us.
Julian of Norwich tells us that "..He allows some of us to fall harder and more seriously than we have ever done before, as we imagine. And then we suppose that we are not entirely wise, and that all we have begun is nothing. But this is not so. For it is necessary for us to fall, and it is necessary for us to see it."
If we did not fall, we would not know how feeble and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know so fully the marvelous love of our Maker…. We shall see in truth that we never lost any of His love, nor were we ever of less worth in His sight. And by the test of this failure we shall have a noble and marvelous knowing of love in God…
This week, the week that forever changed our world, we walk with Jesus from the highs of Palm Sunday through the shadows of Maundy Thursday, the shock and pain of Good Friday, to the heartbreaking despair of Holy Saturday. But we yet have a great hope; as the Light breaks on Easter Sunday, we will meet Him again, alive, One who knows our falleness, yet still calls us to Him. So we also will know that "things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new", and that all things are being brought to their perfection by Him through whom all things were made, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Come with us, walk with Him, this Week that changed our World.
Almighty and everliving God, in Your tender love for the human race You sent Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon Him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of His great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of His suffering, and also share in His resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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