Presence

“Jesus said to his disciples ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations...” (Luke 24:46-50).

Christ Praying (Unknown)

Christ left us.

He was walking around on the earth for a very very short time – only thirty-three years, in fact, and then – after almost no time at all – He died and then rose from the dead and then ascended into Heaven.

And I have been thinking about that today.

You see, Christ went to all the trouble of entering into time and space and as a result of that He lived on the earth for a mere flicker of time.  I mean the human life is such a short thing that it is virtually impossible to consider that any of us can make any difference.  If one were to really think about how much of a difference we could make we would all probably give up and never leave our beds again.

Think only of our powerlessness.  We cannot really stop ourselves getting sick.  We cannot change the weather.  We are unable to move the stars or the sun and we cannot even stop natural disasters like volcanoes and earthquakes – even when we are warned about them.  All we can do is pretty much move out of the way and allow what will be to be.

And even if we could discover or invent something amazing to transform the world for the better, we would be restricted to a maximum of about one hundred years.  And of those years the firt twenty are spent growing up and the last twenty are spent growing old, so that really only leaves us with sixty years in which to invest…

And Christ chose to take even less time than that before He left us.

And I have been reflecting on what it means that Christ left…

“Jesus said to his disciples ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations... You are witnesses of these things...’ Then...while he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.” (Luke 24:46-53).

He left us so that He could be more fully present with us.  And that is something that is a truly great mystery.  After all.  How could God the Man actually manage to get all the different things done in all the places in the world walking around as a thirty-three year old man.  Instead, Christ chose to suffer and die so that He could be more fully present with us through the Holy Spirit.

And when I think about the sacrifice that has cost Our Blessed Lord I am completely overcome.  Because He chose not only to save souls, but to remain with us so that we would not be afraid.  And He suffers such sufferings in order to ensure that we could be saved.  He suffers such terrible sufferings…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.