Lenten Journey, March 23, 2010

Lord, help us to do your will that your Church may grow and become more faithful in your service.

Put your hope in the Lord. Take courage and be strong. - Ps. 26:14

Jn 8:21-30Jesus said to the Pharisees:“I am going away and you will look for me,but you will die in your sin.Where I am going you cannot come.”So the Jews said,“He is not going to kill himself, is he,because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”He said to them, “You belong to what is below,I belong to what is above.You belong to this world,but I do not belong to this world.That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.For if you do not believe that I AM,you will die in your sins.”So they said to him, “Who are you?”Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.I have much to say about you in condemnation.But the one who sent me is true,and what I heard from him I tell the world.”They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.So Jesus said to them,“When you lift up the Son of Man,then you will realize that I AM,and that I do nothing on my own,but I say only what the Father taught me.The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,because I always do what is pleasing to him.”Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Jesus struggles with the people of his time in today’s Gospel...telling them that where he goes, they can not follow unless they believe that Jesus is ‘I Am’.....
Many are confused by his statements, yet others ‘get it’. They get a glimpse of what the real message is.... Jesus’ life was to help us know that WE are loved and that God IS with us, regardless of what we are experiencing in the now. How simple, yet how difficult to grasp such a direct invitation to open ourselves to the God within and around us! It is really about opening to the sacrament of the moment...to ‘make holy’ in the now. As these weeks of Lent continue, our prayer is that we find the moments and spaces to turn to the God who loves us, opening to the life and love that is ours, if only we are willing to ‘tune in’ and allow God’s love to be with us regardless of what happens.

Loving God, You have heard our complaints, our impatience. Sometimes we become frightened when we move away from you. Guide our hearts back to you. Help us to think beyond our own wants and to desire only to do you will.
Thank you for the many blessings in our lives and for the ways we feel your presence.
Amen

O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you. Ps. 102:2