Yesterday I posted a quote from Henri Nouwen, on the dangers of what he calls "self-rejection." I think God must be in this, because just today I read a wonderful homily from A Minor Friar, in which he says:
The Lord meets us in the suffering we bring upon ourselves and our world with our sins. That's the message of having himself baptized for repentance. It's not Jesus who is a sinner, but me. And that's where the humanity of Christ meets my humanity in this baptism.
You know, sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking we aren't good enough for God, that God couldn't want us because we are so messed up and attached to our sins. But the message of today is that the truth is the opposite. It is precisely in our condition as sinners in need of healing and repentance that God comes to meet us. It is exactly in that state of noticing how depressed and miserable we make ourselves with our sins, that God comes to us in Jesus Christ.
Think of what we say right before receiving Holy Communion. Echoing the centurion from Matthew’s gospel we say, "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed." That's where God meets us. And this healing word that we beg for before accepting Communion has been spoken! It is the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. He is the Word God speaks to the world, and this Word is God saying, "I am coming to meet where you are, in your vulnerability, in your depression, in your anxiety. And by coming down and joining my divine Life to your humanity, I will heal you of your sins and your hurt."
At our local Franciscan Third Order meeting today we touched on this kind of thing, too (this was before I had read Br. Charles' homily), and I thought, not for nothing were we first called the Order of Penitents of St Francis!
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