.jpg)
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Psalm 22:2a
In times of grief, distress, and pain when we are brought very low, it may feel like God has abandoned us, but that is not the truth. We are always welcomed into the presence of God, the Presence of tender care and compassion.
Today I will practice the presence of God. I will deliberately pour my heart out to God about anything and everything that troubles or frightens me and know that God listens and will help me.
JESUS MAFA. The Crucifixion; Jesus dies on the cross, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
If I were humble enough to surrender my whole self to God’s will… perhaps I would stop resisting pain and suffering… perhaps I would forgive those who hurt me… speak out in defense of the poor and vulnerable… respond to aggression with nonviolence… choose the power of love over the idol of fear—even if it meant being killed.
May I be willing to be taught by God, who is love. May I be graced with the knowledge that love never fails.
[Jesus] humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:8
Rembrandt (1606-1669)
The Three Crosses (third state)
drypoint and burin on paper (III/IV), 1653
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum
Today I pray for the grace to be emptied of arrogance, fear, and self-seeking, and to be filled with humility, love, and generosity to those in need.
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself. Phillipians 2:6-7a
Rembrandt (1606-1669)
The Three Crosses, 1653
drypoint and burin on paper (III/IV)
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
via Wikimedia Commons
After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left. Matthew 27:35-38
If I ever doubt that Jesus understands the suffering I experience, let me contemplate the cross with its reverberations of torturous pain, shaming ridicule, forlorn abandonment, and crushing despair.
Mary Ann McSweeny 