For You For Me

I have just returned from St. Peter’s, Old Fort Bay, where we celebrated this sacred day with the blessings of the palms and the Eucharist. The focus of my reflection, which followed the narrative Passion from St. Mark’s Gospel, was, “he did it for me.”

Some tend to distance themselves from fact that Christ died for us personally: “for me.” I believe that we “think” that we do, but if teased out we load so much built up guilt, angst and shame that we fail to let the reality that Christ did suffer and die for us… for “you.” On top of it all society doesn’t help us recognize the personal nature of this act. Society, and age, moves us from innocence to experience, and that experience often gives us a combination of arrogance and disillusionment. We become cynical and distanced from our need for redemption.

I have a theory that by saying he died for the world, at this time in the calendar, for “us,” it places too much distance and feeds into our desensitization; of course we can thus feel glib about the passion of Christ, for we fail to connect each wound, each bruise, each insult, as being taken for “me.” It becomes all too universal, we can't see the individual tree from the forrest.

The upshot is that Christ Jesus took on all the passion because of his love for you. From the beginning of time, the Word knew you, knew who you would be, knew your sins and your strengths. The Lord of Life thus died for you, for not only did he know you from your mother’s womb, but from the dawn of time.

We can not think that this act of love was for all, but for you and me. How then do you feel? If you’re like most, when it really hits, it is most humbling. It is wonderful, and it is love.

PS: look up the Hymn, "My Song is Love Unknown" and pray through it, with thought and intent. You'll be surprized.... it's all been done for you.

d+