Thank you for joining me once again at the foot of the Cross.
After the soldiers had nailed the hands and feet of Jesus, they hoisted
the cross from the ground
with ropes.
A hole had been dug into the ground to support the bottom of the
cross. Imagine the pain in
Our Lord’s hands and feet as the cross fell into the hole, wrenching Him with
the weight of His Body.
That alone could have been enough to drive a person mad from the pain of it
all.
Then Jesus spoke His first words: “Father, forgive them for they do not
know what they are doing.” What a generous Lover! What a Love to forgive with all of His Heart
despite the cruel suffering!
Do we forgive those who have hurt us? Each of us has been hurt sometime
or other. We have all
hurt others sometime or other. Jesus made it clear that unless we forgive
others, we will not be
forgiven. Every honest person would have to acknowledge that he/she needs to
be forgiven.
Before Lent is over, let us make sure that we have forgiven EVERYONE that
has ever hurt us.
Our FEELINGS may not jive with our desire to forgive, but our relationship
with God does not depend
on our feelings, but rather on our will to do what God wants.
Jesus spoke six other words from the cross which we have all heard
before, but Scripture tells us
that before He died, He let out a loud cry. I was deeply touched to find out
what He was trying to say,
but was not able to express it all. Certain mystics claim that the loud cry
of Jesus was the beginning of
the word “Mother!” “Ma--------!”
How much that tore at my heart when I read that! How much that must have
torn at the heart of
Our Blessed Mother to hear her Son start to cry out her name... and she was
unable to be of help!
Oh, my, dear reader, what our sins have brought about to the All-Pure,
All-Holy, Innocent One!
“He who says he loves God, but hates his neighbor is a liar,” says St. John.
It all boils down to love - to
the kind of love that is like God’s for us.
Jesus came to show us how to live and die. He has never asked any of us
to do anything that He
Himself did not do first.
Please, dear reader, make a very good confession before Easter so that on
Easter Sunday, you can
receive Jesus into the best heart possible. You have about one week left.
That’s not too much time. We
all find time to do the things we want to do, so hopefully you will really
want to make a very good
confession.
Please look back into the archives for a series that will help you
examine your conscience.
My prayers and love are with you.
God bless you!