Here we are, Holy Saturday. Historically known as “Easter Eve” or “Black Saturday,” this day is commemorated as the day Jesus’s body was laid in the tomb.
Thank you for joining me on this Lenten pilgrimage of deliberate, intentional introspection. Honestly, I am sincerely grateful for the past 40 days, as they have shown me things about myself that needed some attention. The reading from “IF” by Amy Carmichael have been sorely tested in all of my relationships. Part of me is glad to put it down for awhile, because my ego is sore and my heart weary. It has been no coincidence that the final course in my Masters work has also been dealing with relationship issues. Today, as I prepared for a quiz and paper, I read a beautiful challenge on forgiveness:
“Forgiveness is the glue that holds commitment together.
Without forgiveness, commitment will unravel and
the marriage [let’s add any relationship]
will come apart. Confession helps promote forgiveness.
Both are difficult.
Confession and forgiveness are rarely acts
people can accomplish under their own power.
If people bring their inadequacies to God
and rely on his working in their lives,
confession and forgiveness become roads to
apprehend more of his grace and mercy.
When partners feel inadequate to forgive
or to confess their wrongdoing, that can be
an invitation for them to learn to know better
the prompter of confession and the author of forgiveness.”
-Worthington, Hope-Focused Marriage Counseling
The Lenten Pilgrimage invites us to an understanding of our inadequacies, doesn’t it? As we are sobered by the words and works of Jesus, we can’t help but become penitent. Yet, we know the whole story. He died, yes, a gruesome death on our behalf. But, he didn’t stay in the tomb. No, he rose from the dead so we could experience abundance and eternity. May today be a holy day in the sense that we actually “await in silence the resurrection.” Reflect, perhaps, on the “rhythm of the relationships” in our lives. I know for a fact that I harbor unforgiveness towards several. God invites me to recognize the inadequacy of my own ability to forgive and accept his enabling to do so. I cry out to God that “confession and forgiveness become roads to apprehend more of his grace and mercy.”
So as we bid adieu to one another and leave our Lenten pilgrimage:
May our hearts be enlarged.
May they beat in the rhythm of grace.
May they race with anticipation
and leap with resurrection power.
To God be the glory, great things he has done.
