Lectionary: 283
I will come back again
and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
“Stay with us!” Clopas and the
other disciple said to the stranger on that first Easter Day, “for it is nearly
evening and the day is almost over.”
“Wherever you go, I will go.”
Ruth said to her mother-in-law Naomi.
There is no greater joy,
no greater satisfaction, no greater security than to be with one’s beloved.
“Wherever she was, there
was Eden.” Adam said of Eve in Mark Twain’s Eve’s Diary.
The disciples of Jesus want to be with him; and he wants to be
with them. But he must also be with God and therein lays the contradiction. The Prodigal Son abandoned the luxuries and leisure of heaven to dally among the denizens of earth. He wasted all his beauty, honor and glory upon them, and they in return gave him a cross to die on.
In the sign of the cross – that place where opposites meet – heaven and earth, divine and human, grace and sin find reconciliation. There in the cross we meet the Lord.
"You know the way." Jesus says. Of course we do. It's through the narrow gate of the cross. It's on the road marked by the cross. It's the cross we carry with him. We cannot go with him, nor he with us, without the cross.
He leads a sorry procession into heaven, with each pilgrim carrying a cross. The Father cannot but welcome home the Prodigal Son -- and all his friends.
In the sign of the cross – that place where opposites meet – heaven and earth, divine and human, grace and sin find reconciliation. There in the cross we meet the Lord.
"You know the way." Jesus says. Of course we do. It's through the narrow gate of the cross. It's on the road marked by the cross. It's the cross we carry with him. We cannot go with him, nor he with us, without the cross.
He leads a sorry procession into heaven, with each pilgrim carrying a cross. The Father cannot but welcome home the Prodigal Son -- and all his friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.