“Jesus is the explanation of all things; his life is the sum of all things… By dying of love, Jesus restores peace to the human race and re-establishes harmony throughout the universe… You have to walk the same road as Jesus”
These are the words of God the Father speaking to each of us, through author and Little brother of the Gospel, Carlo Carretto in the book And God Saw That It Was Good.
Our faith is so alive and vibrant through paradox.
Mary was virgin and Mother; Jesus is fully human and fully Divine; the Trinity is three yet One; we are sons and daughters of darkness, yet children of Light.
I can become happily lost within the exploration and pondering of the multiplicity of examples of paradoxes of our faith.
A part of my Lenten journey was occupied in this way.
The Lenten journey itself is a time of darkness and light, our 40 days in the desert, a time of prayer, reflection, discernment, fasting.
Jesus too spent 40 days in the desert – he does not ask us to do something he himself would not do; thus, this is one way we walk the same road as Jesus.
Holy Week showed us other ways in which we walk the same road as Jesus.
The Last Supper gave birth to the Eucharist, when bread and wine became for us, the Body and Blood of Christ – another paradox.
On Good (yet another paradox) Friday we commemorated the suffering and death of Jesus.
The Cross, an instrument of death is, for all humanity, an icon of hope. Just as Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a wooden pole for his people to look upon and be cured of viper bites, so too was Jesus, the Son of Man, lifted up on the Cross for us gaze upon and be healed of our sins. And because of that loving sacrifice, God the Father promised “I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind” (Jeremiah 31:34).
We have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb! There is a man on the Cross and it is the ultimate act of love, proof beyond any doubt that God did not come to punish us for our sins. He came to take them away.
He came because God is love.
Jesus united us with the Father. We are one with Jesus and so we are also one with the compassionate, loving Father.
We walk the same road as Jesus.
How can we forget the Saturday of Holy Week and the darkness of the tomb?
Just as Jesus was enclosed within that darkness, so too have we experienced times of deep darkness in our own lives.
During my spiritual journey, at a time of transformation, I have a vivid memory of being in a dark place, which I likened to being in an enclosed, long tunnel with not even a glimmer of light.
It was a painful, lonely and hopeless place that led me to cry out to God who was seemingly absent, had abandoned me, just as Jesus felt abandoned.
But, alone in that darkness, a sliver of light appeared in the distance and hope emerged. God was with me after all; then the stone was rolled back and light poured in, eliminating the darkness altogether.
It was the Light of Glory. God spoke, encouraging me to count what counts, to look to the abundant blessings in my life.
I prayed for a heart on fire and my heart began to blaze.
Now the light of God shines in me and through me, reaching out to others.
“Don’t hide your light under a bush, Terry. Let it shine and glorify Me.”
Hope – there is always hope and even more, there is resurrection, glorious new life … and it is ours to claim. We walk the same road as Jesus.
Transformation is never complete for us during our earthly lives; we remain always works in progress.
The Holy Spirit, the Presence that disturbs, works within and by degrees, evil leaves our lives, is expelled from our thoughts and no longer poisons our actions. Love triumphs and with it comes freedom, joy, salvation.
Thus, the Risen Lord walks with us on our journey, just as he walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and he opens the Scriptures to us, as he did with them.
But, most of all, he opens the eyes of our hearts to see him as he really is, to recognise him as Saviour and Redeemer. He is Risen.
There is gold in the Dawning sun Son. Keep your eyes fixed on him. Walk with him as he invites you:
“Follow me. Come and see.”
Have a golden day and treasure life.
By Terry Lees
