Readings for Wednesday of Holy Week
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32
Psalm 70
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Eucharistic readings for today and the preceding collect speak clearly (to me at least) about the value of endurance in the face of suffering. As one who has had a beard for a long time, the line from Isaiah about turning the cheek to those who pull out the beard has always made me wince. I mean, I’ve been studied for a long time in the school of, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”
What Jesus’ example of self-emptying and commitment to the call of God shows us is that we can expect suffering to be component of call. That being the case, it seems clear that endurance is one of the most important qualities that we can intentionally develop in the spiritual life.
That being said, we might also do to well to remember just how ‘counter-cultural’ Jesus’ call to discipleship is. We seem to be tempted to swing between the poles of believing that ‘the world’s gone to hell in a handbasket’ and the present-day mantra, ‘it’s all good!’ The fact is that neither is Gospel truth.
Julian of Norwich, the 14th Century English mystic and anchoress, captures what endurance in the face of all that life has to dish out allows us to believe when she says, “All SHALL be well, and in all manner of things all shall be made well.”
The Kingdom is not fully here, but there’s no mistaking that it’s on its way, just wait around a bit and see what God is up to. I believe that’s when you will find yourself blessed and the glory of God shining through the endurance of the suffering that is inevitable when we dare to live vulnerable, authentic lives of discipleship that take Jesus’ death as seriously as it does the resurrection.
May your Holy Week be rich and you endure in the name of God, come what may.
