The Light of Christ

“That which gives light must endure burning"

- Viktor Frankl

 Well here we are, mere hours away from walking the path of love and light with our Lord through His Paschal Triduum.  This time before Holy Week never feels right to me - I become keenly aware that the Lent I was so intent on keeping has slipped through my fingers, and I am ill-prepared to be our Lord's companion as He travels the bitter road from death to life.  I feel like Peter, James and John in the garden, being asked by my Lord - the one whom I have proclaimed "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." - to keep watch and pray, and yet I cannot do as I am asked, my sloth getting the better of me as I give into its mesmerizing power to create an attitude of indifference.

Maybe that's as it should be, the true purpose of those 40 days - for it brings into clear focus my inability to 'do it on my own', and highlights with ferocious clarity my utter slavery to the inner desires that dominate within my heart.

For you see, the overriding directive of those desires wants to proclaim my own self, to replace the light of Christ - that light which illumines truth and righteousness - with my own.  And God does not make it impossible to live that way - He (i.e. Love) requires and respects freedom to choose.  But freedom in choice does not equate to being free of the consequences of that choice once made.  I have to and will endure the burning that accompanies the light I choose to reflect.

And herein lies the extravagant beauty of the Easter celebration.  For if - IF - I will just allow it, Christ will shine His light through me, and as these next few days will attest to, He will endure the burning in my place.  That is God's love in a nutshell in its over-the-top, self-giving, non-self-interested God's-will-following aura that will endure all things IF we only allow it.

So I pray that this Triduum be a time of opening up to that light - as a seed buried deep within the earth grows out of that darkness to become a breathe-taking spring flower opening to absorb the sunshine and reflect its light for all eyes to see.