Lent, Day Twelve, Second Sunday of Lent
Your pain is deep, and it won't just go away...Your call is to bring that pain home. As long as your wounded part remains foreign to your adult self, your pain will injure you as well as others. Yes you have to incorporate your pain into your self and let it bear fruit in your heart and the hearts of others.
This is what Jesus means when he asks you to take up your cross. He encourages you to recognize and embrace your unique suffering and to trust that your way to salvation lies therein. Taking up your cross means, first of all, befriending your wounds and letting them reveal to you your own truth.
Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom, pg 24
Scripture:
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Mark 8:34-37
PRAYER
Eternal God, I thank you and praise you because in Jesus Christ I have the assurances of salvation. Because of Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection, the door is opened to me to share in life everlasting. Help me to take up my crosses and keep my pain "at home," so that my life may be a living sign of your love. Amen.
LENTEN ACTION
Carry out some "giving" actions. Clean out your closets and donate clean and wearable clothing to a charitable organization. Give blood. Do a favor for a neighbor.
No comments:
Post a Comment