"Can you hear him? The Lord is calling us!" Lent 2nd Sunday

“ Can you hear him?  The Lord is calling us!”

Lent 2nd Sunday

Listen if you will, the gentle breeze of eternity is gnawing at your senses.  My Son is walking alone to his burden of Truth unless you will become like Simon of Cyrene; do your part and become the soldier to lighten the load.  (Lk 23: 26).  

“Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples.  The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.  He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in his arm.  He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me.  You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.”  (Is 49 1 - 3).  The 2nd Suffering Servant Song.

Can you hear the Lord calling each of us to become like the Cyrenian and take up the weight of sin, our sin, upon the innocent Lamb of God?  Christ did not descend to our world to just bring his Father’s mercy, he came to show us the way back to eternity where sin may not abound any more.  

Any task in life that has meaning comes with a price attached to its outcome.  A spotless lamb that is the crowning glory of the flock, Christ alone, is that price that each of us would have paid were it not for his passion.  

A pronouncement to Mary, the mother of God, as Simeon said; “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”  (Lk 2: 29 -32).  

“All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.  What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; a light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (Jn 1: 3 - 5).

This light that is God’s Son never was extinguished.  Even the cross could not put out the flame of his forgiveness, so intense was his love for you and I.  This is the feeling of that breeze calling us to share that Truth of the Resurrection that is Easter, a promise of our own resurrection to come. 

LIsten, this time with more intensity, as the Lord calls each of us in these days of remembrance as to why the Incarnation that led to the crucifixion becomes part of our task that has meaning to Good Friday and his overcoming death.  

Ralph B. Hathaway