It has been a while since I last posted. The past month was a very hectic time for me, in more ways than one. But God's mercies never cease, and so, with His help, here I am with the first blog of 2011. 2010 is gone for good, dumped in the junkyard of time with the billions that came before it. A mere speck in the vast ocean of eternity. All we have of it are memories in our minds, and experiences that further cooked our hearts on the journey to God. We will only take with us to eternity the good and kind deeds we performed in the name of love, for as St. John of the Cross says, "In the evening of life we will be judged on love alone".
One of my favourite contemporary artists is Paul Simon. Beautiful music, a gentle voice, and powerful lyrics that shoot piercing arrows into the human heart. In one of his songs (Slip sliding away), there is a very poetic and haunting verse that says, "I know a man who wears his passion for his woman like a thorny crown." Who of us does not know someone who fits this description? We all struggle to love, and suffer, as we do so in this imperfect world we live in. Love hurts us, whether it is between a man and a woman, or between parents and children, or friends, or neighbours, Loving is a constant struggle. Whether we like it or not, since the Fall of our first parents, pain has been one of the ingredients of love.
But this verse can also truly and sincerely be applied to God. "I know a God who wears His Passion for His children like a thorny crown." God is not idle or aloof, He chose to enter into our world of suffering by becoming one of us and sharing with us everything but sin. He did not make a wounded world, for everything He made was good. Recently I was reading the story of creation in the first chapter of the book of Genesis. In those 31 verses, seven times it says that God saw that what He made was good. And He saw that the light was good, He saw that it was good, He saw that it was very good. But with original sin everything changed, everything that is, except the immutable love of God. I have often thought that after the Fall of Adam and Eve, God had to make some executive decisions, one of which surely was that He would have a policy of infinitely generous forgiveness, knowing how weak and fragile humanity has now become.
God, who is rich in mercy and compassion, chose to suffer and weep with us. Even to this very day He suffers our ingratitude and our indifference.
We have just celebrated Christmas, the feast of the birth of the God made Man. It is of course, a joyful feast, for in the Christ Child we, who lived in darkness, have seen a great light. But few of us perhaps consider the fact that in the few days after Christmas the Church reminds us of those who suffered for Him and with Him, On the 26th of December we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen who was stoned to death for Christ. and on the 27th we celebrate the feast of St. John the evangelist who was exiled for Christ. And on the 28th. we celebrate the feast of the Holy innocents whom Herod killed when he found out through the wise men that a King of the Jews was born in Bethlehem. So the coming of Christ among us, while filling us with joy, also unites us with His redemptive suffering. We are all given this great opportunity to share in His suffering and be one with Him in His death.
And so I wanted to start this new year with the image of God as someone who wears His passion and love for us like a thorny crown. It is a beautiful image, fully manifested in the Passion of Our Lord. The King of kings and Lord of lords, mocked and humiliated by the very ones He created to love Him. It is the image of Christ wearing His passion for the Church with all the sins of her members,, like a thorny crown. St. Paul says, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never ends."
I do not know where Paul Simon stands when it comes to God, may he, and his family, and all of us, come to know this God who loves us and suffers for us, who wears His passion for us like a thorny crown.
