How difficult it is to be separated from God! Psalm 63,
attributed to David when he was in the
wilderness of Judah, is a moving account of the longing the psalmist feels
at being separated from the Temple, separated from the presence and grace of God,
separated, that is, from life itself: for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts,
he says. And so, lifting up his hands, the
psalmist signals his absolute openness before God, his vulnerability, and his
profound desire for connection.
Jesus gave his life on the cross so that we might be
reconciled to God. We see the messianic
promise in the Book of Zechariah, where the death of he whom they have pierced will cause a profound emotional reaction
among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Although they do not understand his words, Jesus
himself affirms the necessity of his death to his disciples just before his
transfiguration in Luke’s Gospel: The Son of Man must suffer greatly, … be
killed, and on the third day, rise again.
And – stunningly – he invites them to join him: If
anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.
To take up your cross is to be ready to dedicate your
life daily, to give up your life daily, putting your life at the service of
all. The cross represents our complete
commitment to follow Jesus, the fountain
that purifies, sacrificing for other, remaining open to transformation,
ever more able to move out of ourselves to express our great love for all those
around us. This means we must belong to Christ, as Paul tells the
Galatians – we must become ever more Christ-like, rejecting separation from God as we allow ourselves to receive
Jesus so that Christ can shine through as a manifestation of who we are, fully open
to God and to other, one in Christ, irrevocably.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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