I am a sucker for a quick fix. Three day diet for a bikini
body? I’m there. Fluent French in 30 days? I have the book and somewhere,
unopened of course, a DVD. Miracle hair growth and shiny skin in a small
one-a-day tablet? I will take one box, no, two. But with Holy Week, one is
offered a whole new proposition. In the space of one calendar week, Jesus changed
everything, and in a similar way he can do the same to us.
Cool, Chic and in Christ has been a bit underground because, truth be told I have
been a little preoccupied with the things I would like to change pronto and the
situations I wish were different. I am
an expert in raking over all of my mistakes, and those I perceive of others and
trying to cobble together a rationale for why the situation is so. I daresay,
or rather hope, otherwise this is the part this post gets several shades of
awkward, that I am not alone in this particular spiritual malaise. Like the
peeps back in the original Palm Sunday; I am a good one to proclaim things in
the moment, and then get thoroughly disheartened when the ‘next chapter’ was
not as I had written it in my head.
So, what to do then? Well, keeping with my quick fix nature,
and the transformative nature of Holy Week, I am going to focus on the 7
sayings of Jesus from the Passion and to
make it fun and interactive, please add your takes on the comments box or on
the fb page or on twitter. Let the miracles commence!
“Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
Spoken of the soldiers just as they were about to cast lots
for Jesus’ clothes whilst he still hung on the cross this sentence tells of just
how central forgiveness is to a transformative life. We all, at some point or
another do not know what we are doing and in the process end up doing something
crap. It is at this point that we need God’s forgiveness granted to us.
However, this is not a self-flagellation exercise; we also need to learn to
forgive ourselves when we mess up. To not replay the mistake in our head to the
extent that the past encroaches on the present and in the process one misses
out on the life God has planned for us, because we’re still busy replaying
whichever incident, marks us out as beyond redemption. Secondly, if we have
truly signed up for the Christo walk, we need to practice the art of forgiving.
And boy, it is an art. It requires more than just a verbal proclamation, like
an artist, we need to paint over the transgressions and not dwell on the sketch
of what have might have been. A little empathy also helps. Look at the activity
from the one you’re seeking to forgive’s perspective. Usually, when one does,
it isn’t as black and white as it was on the cross.
And whilst forgiveness doesn’t always conclude in Hollywood
endings; with tears through joy reconciliations and an orchestra playing to
crescendo as the camera pans out to take in the whole scene, it does make us a
teeny-tiny step closer to God. It allows us all to go beyond our own mini
crucifixion moment, and look to the life to come, one even more glorious than
the pretty amazing one we are in now.
Six days, and counting…
No comments:
Post a Comment