It is finished (Fr. Patrick Michaels / Henri Nouwen)

How wide are we willing to open for the sake of his love?
As wide as Jesus did? 
How vulnerable are we willing to be
in order to manifest the love of God in our lives?

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, February 23, 2025

   O dear Lord, what can I say to you? Is there any word that could come from my mouth, any thought? any sentence? You died for me, you gave all for my sins, you not only became man for me but also suffered the most cruel death for me. Is there any response? 

   I wish that I could find a fitting response, but in contemplating your Holy Passion and Death I can only confess humbly to you that the immensity of your divine love makes any response seem totally inadequate. 

   Let me just stand and look at you. Your body is broken, your head wounded, your hands and feet are split open by nails, your side is pierced. Your dead body now rests in the arms of your Mother. It is all over now. It is finished. It is fulfilled. It is accomplished. 

   Sweet Lord, gracious Lord, generous Lord, forgiving Lord, I adore you, I praise you, I thank you. You have made all things new through your passion and death. Your cross has been planted in this world as the new sign of hope. Let me always live under your cross, O Lord, and proclaim the hope of your cross unceasingly. 

   Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy 

Image source: Enguerrand Quarton, La Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (ca. 1455), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0#/media/File:Enguerrand_Quarton,_La_Piet%C3%A0_de_Villeneuve-l%C3%A8s-Avignon_(c._1455).jpg
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