Day 41  -  March 29

Sondra Wheeler

RETURN ~ John 12: 1-11

Lent is my favorite season.  It reminds me of what is true and important, prompts me to turn and make my way home.  And every year I promise myself this year will be different: that I will hold on steadily to the practices of prayer and retreat through the gray of February and the damp chill of March, obeying the ancient admonition to “keep a holy Lent.”  It never quite works out that way.  By the beginning of Holy Week, I realize with a start that Good Friday is upon us, and I am in no way prepared to receive the redemptive suffering of Christ in gratitude and hope and solidarity.  This year is no different, except that it might be worse.  Being locked in at home, cooped up with griefs and anxieties about all those who cannot just shelter in place through this long winter of loss, I lose my way and forget that there is a strength beyond all that, I fear.

But today’s lesson shows Jesus at a feast, eating with those whom he loves, while silently facing his own most imminent death.  And lest we forget, he has already shown that the grave is no obstacle to him, for at the table with him is Lazarus.  We too are invited to come home and dine, to share our bread in steadfast hope and remember that the one who calls us is undaunted even by the darkness of death.  And the dawn is coming.