"At His Feet: Devoted Love"
"No Compromise Under Darkened Skies"
As Jesus hung
on the cross on Calvary, we are told, "From noon onward, darkness came over
the whole land until three in the afternoon" (Mt. 27:45). Together, Sts.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all report this (Mk. 15:33; Luke 23:44). St. Luke adds,
"because of an eclipse of the sun" (Luke 23:45). In the Prophet Amos we read, "
On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun set at midday, and cover
the earth with darkness in broad daylight" (Amos 8:9). This passage
describes the "Day of the Lord", a day of God's judgment. On Calvary, God's
judgment against evil occurred in Jesus' death. From a biblical perspective,
history is seen as "a conflict with light and darkness confronting one another,
a confrontation identical with that between life and death" ( The Dictionary
of Biblical Theology, p. 316). In John's Gospel, we are told that as Judas
left the upper room as the betrayer of Jesus, "It was night" (John
13:30). As Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said "This is
your hour, the time for the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53).
At the
beginning of the creation account found in the first chapter of The Book of
Genesis, we are told that "the earth was a formless wasteland", and darkness
covered the abyss" (Gen. 1:2) until God spoke the first word of creation,
"Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3). On Calvary, darkness covered the whole land
when Jesus spoke the first word of the new creation, "It is finished" (John
19:30). In The Book of Exodus, the Passover ritual which God spoke forth
to Moses was to include each family procuring a lamb: "It shall be slaughtered
during the evening twilight" (Ex. 12:6B); some of its blood was to be
used to mark the two doorposts of each house; and the lamb's roasted flesh was
to be eaten that same night, as the Lord slew the first born of Egypt at
midnight (Ex. 12:, 23, 29). Further, the Red Sea was parted at night as
God's people passed through it as on dry land (see Ex. 14:21,22).
On Good
Friday, as the powerful first reading from Is. 52:13-53:12, is proclaimed at
the service of "The Passion of the Lord", the first two lines state boldly the
outcome of the Suffering Servant's voluntary offering:
"See, my servant shall prosper,
He shall be raised high and greatly exalted"
(Is. 52:13)
St. John reminds us in John 1:5, "The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." This Servant of the Lord
is one who has been called, chosen, grasped, set as a light and covenant of the
people, formed, well-trained with inner strength as the fruit of a rich, hidden
life of prayer with the Lord…"To bring out prisoners from confinement and from
the dungeon those who live in darkness" (Is. 42:7). The Catholic Church
sees the life and ministry of this Servant as being fulfilled in Jesus. On
Calvary, Jesus took upon himself the darkened oppression of the
"dungeon" of all evil so that humanity could live in the light of day.
There
certainly is some mystery to the words that St. Paul speaks of Jesus in 2 Co.
5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin"; the
words of St. Peter: "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the
cross" (1 Pet. 2:24); and the words of God through the Prophet Isaiah: " Yet it
was our infirmities that he bore…upon him was the chastisement
that makes us whole…the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all" (Is.
53:4,5,6). On Calvary Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, took upon himself the
darkened powers and effects of sin, Satan and death. For three hours, "darkness
came over the whole land".
Currently,
both in our nation and in our world, a moral and spiritual eclipse seems to have come "over the whole land".
Unfortunately, many people today are choosing to live in a "nocturnal deceit"
of moral error. It appears as if many have willfully and intentionally "yanked
the needle off of the moral compass": "Woe to those who call evil good, and
good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness" (Is.
5:20). The opening prayer (collect) for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary
time, found in the Roman Missal, states:
"Grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the
darkness of error buy always be seen to stand in the bright light of
truth".
Throughout his earthly life and certainly during his public
ministry Jesus took a stand for the cause of the Father. This stand-- "Father, Your will be done"--will always
bring us in conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and will bring
us to the cross where, united with the one-time offering of Jesus, "we will
stand in the breach" as intercessors.
Living as we
do in a time of a growing, militant atheism, a relativistic notion of truth,
"the dictatorship of individualism", and the "tsunami of secularism", we are in
an "age of eclipsed conscience": "Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded
nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of
education, politics, social action, and morals" (CCC 407).
Intercessors
are exhorted strongly to remain devoted, dedicated and determined in the midst
of this morally depraved "landscape". On Calvary, there was no compromise
under darkened skies. Rather, Jesus persevered to the end in his "Love
Offering" to the Father for the sake of the sin of the world. There is a great
need today for empowered, communal intercession in our "nocturnal age".
Intercession--united with the once-for-all offering of Jesus on the cross--is a
"sword of light" (Is.49:2; Eph. 6:17B) that can pierce spiritual and moral
darkness in any age, and open hearts to a desire for conversion. On Calvary
Jesus has gained for us the grace to persevere in committed, sustained
intercession under "darkened skies"!
Questions:
1) What personal choices am I making to avoid the moral
eclipse of our times?
Scriptures:
Any scripture from the text; John 3:19-21; Eph. 5:8-11; Phil.
2:15-16; 1Pet. 2:9
