Two things struck me during today's liturgies. One has to do with one of the disciples, a human being like you and me and the other has to do with Jesus himself.
This is the day when Christians pay particular attention to the final hours that Jesus spent on the earth. As such, we listened (some of us twice) to the reading of the passion account today. In this morning's rendering, there was an added bonus in that some meditations were provided as though they were written or imagined by the characters themselves. One of the characters who found his way into this limelight was Peter.
I've heard this particular reflection before but for some reason today I was struck by the ponderings that were suggested for this prince of the apostles. He was probably a very human person, not unlike you and me. I'm sure he was sincere in his desire to follow in the footsteps of Jesus (aren't we all?) but he also had some major personality issues including a hard head and probably a bit of a temper. Peter had a malleable heart though and that's probably what endeared him to Jesus.
The scriptures tell us that after he realized he'd denied having known Jesus, he went away and wept bitterly. I can just about hear the words he may have spoken to himself: 'How could I have done that? Just the other day I was telling him that I would never betray him, and yet at the first temptation I fell apart. We have to like Peter for his gruffness; it is probably one of his most endearing characteristics ... kind of like the gruff exterior we sometimes put on to fool everyone else into thinking that we have all our stuff together, and that everything is a-okay. All of us fall short at one time or another. The true test is to see how we react when we have slipped and need to regain a bit of ground, or a lot of confidence and trust. Jesus gave his life out of love for all of us, even those who were or are the most hard-hearted about believing.
The second thought for today comes from words that were uttered in excruciating pain and agony. Hanging on the cross and very near to death, Jesus called out in a loud voice, 'My God, my God why have you abandoned me?' It's one thing for you and me to believe that we've been abandoned by God and left out in the cold (something that my head tells me would never happen, but that my heart has difficulty believing at times), but it's quite another thing for Jesus (who we believe is God incarnate) to have thought himself separated from the Father. If this were true, he would have been separated from himself and that indeed would have been cause for major worry on our part.
Perhaps the truth about these words is yet to be revealed in the unfolding of the Easter story. We know (because we've seen the rest of the chapters in this book) that death on a cross was not indeed the end of the story, even though it appeared that way to human eyes. The truth of the matter was and is that death was only one part of the unfolding of God's ultimate gift of love. This should provide us with at least a modicum of comfort when we ourselves feel isolated, or face difficult times in life. The story is not ended ... it goes on because Jesus faced the ultimate demons and won the fight. We too can therefore overcome any difficulty if we only have faith.
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