Devotion for today: “It is finished.”

 Christ’s torment ends as it started: in total surrender to God’s will. Today’s reflection is not the intense concentration on the death of Christ, which will be Good Friday. Today, we spend one day before Holy Week begins in remembering the joy that follows death.

Scripture for meditation: John 19:30

When Jesus took the wine, he said, “Now it is finished.” Then he bowed his head, and delivered over his spirit.

We read in The Prophet: Then Almitra spoke, saying: We would ask now of death.

And he said: You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heath of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life; for life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. (The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran, Walker & Company, Phoenix Press, 1923)

Prayer:
 My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
(Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, Abbey of Gethsemani)

 My thoughts: Christ surrenders to death, and eternal life is now ours. Christ died for us, and we now live for Him. When we complete a task, it feels so good to declare, “It is finished.” We have completed what was asked of us, and hopefully, we now find peace and satisfaction in a job well done. May we find that peace at the end of our lives, and may God smile on us when our sufferings and trials are finished. It is then that we will begin to dance.

Our prayer to God: The Lord of the Dance

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLGqavkDszU&feature=related