|
|
by Fr. Andrew
Christ arrives a king triumphant today and dies as a criminal on Friday. Christ is honored with palm branches today and crowned with thorns on Friday. Christ is adored with singing today and mocked with jeers on Friday. Christ is born in victoriously on the foal of an ass today and bears the burden of the cross on Friday.
Our Christian faith isn't about an emotion or feeling, it isn't about priests or people we like, and it isn't about a guarantee of smooth sailing. It is about the fact of this week: God became man so that he could share in our life and even our death. In Jesus Christ, God has experienced the worst of human pain and suffering so that we are not alone in ours.
A priest friend of mine describes hell as "looking at your problems, your pain, your sin, your sufferings, your life, and wondering 'What am I going to do?' Heaven is looking at the difficulties of your life and praying, 'My God, what can you do for me? Look and see the cross in our suffering, to see confession in our sins, to see the resurrection in your pain."
When you are lost, when your loves are cold and gone, when you are alone - where is God? When your dreams and hopes come tumbling down, where is God? When you are gripped by pain, lost in sin, despairing innocence, drowning in shame, where was God?
He was on the cross. All along, He was on the cross. You are not abandoned, you are not alone, you are not alone. My God was on the cross.
See Also:
Sermons Home | General Sermons and Essays | Articles | eBooks | Our Faith | Prayers | Library - Home | Baselios Church Home
-------
Malankara World
A service of St. Basil's Syriac Orthodox
Church, Ohio
Copyright © 2009-2020 - ICBS Group. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Website designed, built, and hosted by
International Cyber Business Services, Inc., Hudson, Ohio
