Reflection for Good Friday 2021

Perfect

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

Jesus, the perfect Son of God, the perfect advocate, the perfectly blameless and sinless one, the perfect high priest, the perfect lamb was sent by God the Father to save the imperfect.

The testimony of the Scriptures insists upon Jesus’ perfection. In Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, we read: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

What is so amazing is that God would self-sacrifice perfection for the likes of us. He gave perfection so those who hate, the violent, the prejudiced, the deniers, the betrayers, the unfaithful, the cheaters and liars, those who place politics above truth, the thieves, and the man or woman who just cut you off or slammed a door in your face, can confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

The Father instructed His perfect Son to be the perfect sacrifice, to take upon Himself the sin we live in, because only by the offering up of perfection taking on our sin could we be saved.

Throughout the history of the Jewish people, we see time and time again God taking action to save, not because of some imperfect offering from imperfect people, or because of some human plea, but by His own perfect will; by His choice and interior self-agreement. God chooses, God agrees, God brings about. 

In the end God brought about perfect forgiveness of sin, fellowship with the imperfect, and adoption of the imperfect through the offering of the Perfect one, Jesus. All we need to do is accept that gift. Can we in our imperfection grasp this and say yes? Assuredly so! Now is the time.

Therefore, on this Good Friday, and in each of our days, let us take account of where we fall short, let us then give thanks for the timely helpavailable to us because we have approached the throne of grace and have said, ‘Yes Lord, I believe.’ Let us take every opportunity to let all we encounter know what God has done for us. Then, with deep humility, rest in God’s perfect love.

Reflection for the 1st Sunday of Lent – 2014

40Days

With You
we fast and pray

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights

According to the Bible the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishri) is the Day of Atonement. The Jews call it Yom Kippur. In Hebrew Yom means day and Kippur means to pardon. The word atonement carries the meaning to English-speaking people. It means to make amends or to reconcile — to become “at one” with God and each other.

The observance of the Day of Atonement originates with God’s word to Moses:

And The Lord said to Moses, “On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to The Lord. And you shall do no work on this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before The Lord your God.”

The Lord commanded the Day of Atonement as a solemn annual observance of the Israelites. It is unique in that it is the only God-commanded Old Testament Holy Day in which fasting was required. The fast was such a strict requirement that anyone who failed to do so would be cut off from the community.

Jesus went into the dessert to fast for forty days – an extraordinary fast – just as Moses and Elijah had done. But, for us, Jesus’ fast clearly conveys something far more important.

The Jews fasted on the Day of Atonement. Yet they would always face another Day of Atonement.

Jesus is the world’s atonement. His sacrifice, once and for all, brought about atonement on our behalf. As such Jesus’ fast was in preparation for His public ministry and His journey to the day of our atonement.

Prepared for this journey, Jesus is immediately tempted. Will He quit and abandon His journey to bring about the day of our atonement, freeing us from the grip of evil and sin? No! He refuses and sends an even stronger message about the consistency of His mission and Who He is: That He would not use His power for His own ends; That He would not gain followers by pointless displays of miraculous power; and that He would not switch sides to gain power and influence.

Jesus fasted and prepared for His journey toward a permanent and forever day of atonement. At one with the community and with His heavenly Father He knew, as St. Paul tells us: just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life [would come] to all.

This Lent let us embrace Jesus’ atonement – fasting and praying, making the corrections needed to come into line with His will.