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Christendom
is in the midst today, Holy Wednesday, of the celebration
of the Holy Week.
Though
many may seem dolorous and remorseful-looking over the fact
that we have made gods of material things and earthly honors,
Holy Week is still celebrated because it is indeed a celebration.
We
celebrate the greatest love there is of a Father who has sent
His only begotten Son to suffer the pain and humiliation of
death of a common criminal of Calvary. All that to pay for
a debt He never owed and a debt we can never repay by our
puny selves.
All
of us who have children, let us begin to imagine what kind
of sacrifice that meant.
Those
of us who have only one child to give - for others? - understand
that kind of love even more.
Holy
Week, therefore, is that time of the year, when the Faithful
must reflect just how deserving we can be of that love. How
much of redemption are we truly worthy of?
And
the least we can do is to recognize the sinners that we all
are and repent for the every lash, nail and spit we inflicted
on the suffering Jesus as we lead our daily sinful lives.
As
the theme from the movie The Cardinal had succinctly placed,
we are like lambs that in the springtime (good times, interpretatively)
wander from the fold, distracted by the ways and pleasures
of this world. But as the darkness and the cold follows as
they always come to pass, we grow cold, weary and lost because
we know that we have sinned.
As
the road underneath us trembles and buckles, we run for shelter
and cry with the wind. And yet we find to our wonder that
every path leads back to the Lord. So we pray, repent and
shout: "Stay with me, Lord, it is you that I need, the
gods of this world never give me peace in my heart. They are
empty and vain."
Those
of us who suffer the slings and arrows of daily misfortune
can likewise search and find the value in human suffering
by taking an attitude of total surrender. For instance, we
can offer our abject misery and painful circumstances in atonement
for our many transgressions. We can participate in Jesus'
effort to atone for mankind's sins.
There
one finds a truly redemptive value in human suffering.
Likewise,
let us also see that when God drops needles and pins along
our path in life, as they say, we don't stray away. We pick
them up and collect them. For they too were strewn for a purpose
- to make us all stronger.
So
the essence of Holy Week is as much the redemptive power of
Christ's suffering from the Garden of Gethsemane unto the
hills of Calvary as it is the glorious resurrection on Easter
Sunday, three days after his death.
Therefore,
our whole lives should be a testament of faith and trust whether
in good days of suffering times.
So
when we are at the edge of the cliff, we must trust God enough
to let go. Because there are only two things that will happen
as the text message relays.
One,
is that God will catch us as we fall - for indeed He will
not test us beyond the limits of what we can bear. Trust that
fully. Or . . .
Two,
He will teach you how to fly - having learned our lessons
in life well. How can we fret then over our sufferings?
That
is why Divine Friendship with Jesus is the only permanent
one we can rely on in this earth where relationships are usually
built on expediency mutual exploitation and materialism.
The
Lord Jesus, Our One True Friend, is like the walls of our
house. Sometimes they hold you up. Sometimes, you may lean
on them. But sometimes it's enough to know they're just standing
by.
Does
Jesus, our friend love us enough?
Hello,
He just died for you. How many friends do we have like that?
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