O God, by the passion of Your blessed Son You made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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. 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 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.
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 blessed, Holy Week.
What Julian of Norwich says is probably true of any relationship or commitment worth deepening:
"For it is necessary for us to fall, and it is necessary for us to see it."
We have to get slowly weaned from assuming that our lives can be perfect if we just work at them long enough and hard enough.
Happy Triduum!
Posted by: Donald | March 19, 2008 at 06:58 AM