Lent Day 39

April 18, 2014

Clear Vision – Reconciliation

Arrested, accused and condemned to death, Good Friday, the second of the Triduum, is the day in which we remember this final act of the world, carried out against an innocent man. I like the way Lamentations 3:1-9,19-33, gives us a good visualization of one experiencing condemnation;

I am one who has seen affliction
   under the rod of God’s wrath;
he has driven and brought me
   into darkness without any light;
against me alone he turns his hand,
   again and again, all day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
   and broken my bones;
he has besieged and enveloped me
   with bitterness and tribulation;
he has made me sit in darkness
   like the dead of long ago.

Still today innocent people are arrested, accused and condemned to death and we don’t call it Good Friday. One organization called the Innocence Project (1992) is dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing. As one might imagine thousands of cases today await evaluation as the screening process is extensive. However, as of today 316 individuals have been exonerated including 18 who previously served time on death row.

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
   is wormwood and gall!
My soul continually thinks of it
   and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope:

A sentence of death is the final blow by the system, of those who are truly innocent DNA is their hope which ultimately has the last say. Perhaps for those innocent individuals a “Good Friday” is the day, when after a long and painful process, DNA proves what they’ve known all along. For us as believers, what’s good about Good Friday is that after the world’s sentence of death, nothing else can be done. God alone has the last say. Our journey takes us to the foot of the cross where we boldly face death and everything that we’ve committed to leave on the hill of Calvary. The Passion of Christ is our DNA. In the same way that we await Christ’s resurrection we are assured of our own resurrection and reconciliation. With Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit within, True Love conquers death.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘therefore I will hope in him.’

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.