Daily Gospel Reflection for March 30, 2018

Today's Gospel: John 18:1—19:42 - Good Friday of the Lord's Passion For years I felt as if I was drifting away from the interior life and farther out into the realms of worldly noise. I could say it was because of the demands of kids, the tensions of marriage, the infiltration of business pursuits, or the fallout of being a family in ministry. Our drifting away from the Lord slowly and subtly is what leads to our fleeing from the Cross in order to escape our own crosses. The enemy slowly coaxes us to become numb to the discontent we feel when our schedule is too busy to pray, or we are simply too tired to care. For me, I had allowed myself to drift; and the frightening thing about living in that state is that we run the risk of waking up one morning to find that we have morphed into one of the fishes - just going with the flow of secularism. Rarely do souls run away from Jesus in a freak moment of weakness. Even the Apostles who were startled and ran from the garden didn’t really give up on Jesus. Only Judas, who allowed doubt to persist and grow over time, ran from the Lord for good. The only cure for this passive negligence of Christ is to return to the Cross and allow ourselves to be embraced by Love, to be drenched in His blood - the radical gift that is there to shake us from our apathy. We can’t just hear the Gospel today. We must go there - to the foot of the Cross - in an intimate encounter. I invite you to turn on some chant, light a candle, still your body, close your eyes and be there. From there, no cross is too heavy for us too bear.

Ponder:

How do we do battle today against the often-underlying struggle, the creeping, subtle discontent?

Pray:

Crucified Lord Jesus, I am here. Lavish Your love upon me and reclaim my heart. Cast out all apathy from my life and in its stead leave Your sublime presence.