"Papa . . . "

As we draw nearer to Holy Week and to the horrors of Good Friday, the readings for daily Mass are already leaning in that direction. Today is a particularly ominous scene, and we can actually feel ourselves engulfed in shadows and fog and gloom:

I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side!’ Denounce! Let us denounce him!’

All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine: ‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.’  Jeremiah 20:10-12

When I reflect on this passage, I can hear the voice of Jesus telling these thing to His Father during the many times when he withdrew for private prayer. “Papa, this is what is happening. This is what they are saying about me. I am frightened, Papa. I know You will deliver me, but still I am frightened.”

Jesus Christ: both human and divine. He refers to God the Creator as Papa, like a little child expressing great intimacy and trust, yet the human Jesus rightfully is frightened about the events that are taking place as the Pharisees and scribes and religious leaders and plotting to kill him, and even as Judas, who was his friend, is contemplating treachery against the one he had been calling Lord.

“Papa, I am frightened.”

Do you realize that you have a right to pray in this way since you are a child of God by adoption and through your faith?

One final thought: never neglect to hold in your heart all the millions of people in the world who are, right now, victims of hatred and evil, most especially those Christians in the Middle East who are becoming victims of genocide. Pray for anyone whose spirit might cry out, “Papa, I am frightened.”

Terrible things are happening and are going to happen. But God will prevail, no matter what happens to them on this side of life.

God bless you.