Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Wednesday, Fourth Week of Lent: Accepting Life

“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.” – Jn 5:21

Life is relationship.  And relationship is communion.  To give life is to be in communion with another.  And to be in communion with another is to love deeply.

God wants to be in communion with us so we can have life.  He loves us so much that He humbled Himself and became fully human—completely helpless and vulnerable.  He allowed himself to be at the mercy of his own creation.

When Jesus was a child he depended on Mary and Joseph to love and care for Him.  In his adult life, he experienced rejection, betrayal, abandonment, humiliation, and (in the garden) he experienced the greatest anguish of human history — Jesus carried the weight of innumerable sins, sorrows, and pains in his heart.  Seeing the countless sins and sufferings, fear and doubt crept into his mind and he wondered what good would his death be among the vast sea of human brokenness?  Why should he continue to do what he had set out to do when human beings continued to dwell in sins resulting in great pain and sorrow for themselves and others?

Jesus, in his darkest hours, remained faithful to his love for the Father and for us. He wanted to befriend and give us life so he accepted, confronted, embraced, and died to his anxiety, anguish, and dubiousness. 
                 
Jesus, you invite me to love as you have loved by accepting my human brokenness and to die to my apprehensions.  I do want this very much Jesus. I want to be in relationships and be deeply connected with others so that through our friendships we can lead each other into communion with You so we all can have life.  But I’m still a prisoner of past relationship experiences.  Haunting fears of hurt, loneliness, unworthiness, rejection, abandonment, humiliation, and failures still have control of my life.  Help me, Jesus, to trust in your love and your desire to give me life. Help me to face, accept, embrace, and then let go of my anxieties so that I can have this life you are waiting to give me.

Anonymous

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