The Plan….

There is a Plan. Yes, most of the time things look pretty haphazard, but really, there is a Plan. It becomes quite clear if we see the Sunday readings connected with each other week to week. Let’s take a look.

We began the first Sunday of Lent by being confronted with the temptations that are sure to be part of our lives. Then we were taken to the mountaintop and shown a Jesus that dazzled us. The message? “Look to me and be radiant…” On the third Sunday we were told we need to be like fruitful trees, drawing up the love-sap that allows us to offer something delicious to our neighbors. Then with the fourth Sunday we are shown the bottom line: we are to be reconcilers. We need to be ready to show the greatest fruitfulness of all: forgiveness. Yup...it looks like a plan alright.

April dawns, and with Lent’s fifth Sunday we are given an explosive message to keep on track: “…neither do I condemn you.” Sometimes when the going gets tough and we’ve not really kept to our Lenten resolves, and we feel we are just bungling along, this is like a shot in the arm… or better, the soul. No condemnation? After all my mistakes? All my outright sins...? Yes, there is a plan, alright…just keep going. Remembering all the stupid mistakes does no good. God is doing something new alright…and it is beyond me and my foolishness.

Then comes Holy Week, and we watch in astonishment as the Plan unfolds before our eyes. The One who loves us dips down into our betrayals, our rejections, our desolation, our abuse, and our violence. Like some magnificent lightning rod, he absorbs it all, takes it on so the buck stops with him. He grounds it so it can do no more harm. It stops with him. And us. That’s the Plan. And where does that energy go? It gets transformed into life, like some foul manure. The Plan is a victory over sin and death…mine, ours, and all of us. As Lent continues, get with the Plan.

 

Holy One,

You never cease to amaze me.

In my blindness I watch the news and sink into hopelessness.

But you will have none of it!

You call me to keep my eyes on your radiant face,

Once so swollen and disfigured.

You pin me to yourself and carry me through the keyhole

I so fear.

What choice do I have

But to hope in the darkness.

Help!