As we read the greatest love story ever told, as the sacred story of the passion of our Lord unfolds within us in this Holy Week let us ask ourselves where do I see myself in it? Or where do I share in the Passion of Jesus Christ?”Repeat it like a mantra throughout this week.
If we can allow God who willed this week for our salvation to penetrate within you,you will then become an answer to your own sacred question, through your perseverance in pouring over this question you become an answer, and an answer to other people’s prayers! And the confirmation that we are chosen by God to be other Christs for others is found in the very obstacles, setbacks, defeats and dissolution that we encounter.
The prophet Isaiah and Jesus realized that they were called into this earthly life not for their own ambition, but to achieve a fragile love and a faithful consecration with God and with their neighbors within the context of their particular earthly life! What does not seem to matter in the eyes of the world and its standards for happiness and success, makes all the difference in the eyes of God!
Life’s most tragic events, through the faith demonstrated through the Holy Week, can turn our minds and hearts to the Lord’s glory and to our friendship with the Lord; to a more effective way than any other way in the world. Such was Jesus’ response to the following in today’s gospel. In between the announcements of the two betrayals, one by Judas and the other by Peter, Jesus declared: “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him.”(John 13:31).
Isaiah the prophet and Jesus relied totally on the Will and the Way of God as they lived through their own “death experiences.”. Our experiences (within you, and through you to others) too have relevance, if we ponder them with trust and anticipation.And through the grace of God, we will become an answer to someone else’s prayer. That is ministry!
Osho
