The View Up Here

I was just sitting here, thinking about "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." And I was thinking that if Jesus could forgive His accusers, torturers, murderers, we could forgive those in our lives who hurt us, mistreat us. Then I thought, wait a minute. Jesus didn't say "I forgive you" from the Cross. He asked the Father to forgive them. We sometimes put a lot of pressure on ourselves to instantly and miraculously forgive those who hurt us, or who do terrible things, evil things. And we beat ourselves up internally if we can't. But what if we aren't expected to. Not that we shouldn't try - we must. But Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies. And that's exactly what He did on the Cross. He lifted them up in prayer for forgiveness, even as he bore those awful wounds at their hands. When we are hurting, when someone has hurt us and we can't find it in our hearts to forgive them, we can breathe easier following Jesus...

Every human being suffers. There is no escaping it. Some more than others. Some because of natural means, some because of the cruelty and neglect of other human beings. Suffering exists.  I've written about this recently , so I won't go on and on about it here. But I want to stress one thing: Jesus is with us in our suffering. He suffered beyond human telling. He suffered not just the physical torments of his Passion and Crucifixion, but He also suffered the inner torments (emotional, spiritual) that every person feels at various points in our lives--times a thousand. He also suffered in knowing how many would reject Him throughout time, even to this day and beyond. He saw our age as well as he saw His own, how we would continue to break His commandment of Love. And still... He chose to suffer. He could have called on the powers of Heaven to whisk Him away. But he chose to accept this fate for you. For me. Right now, He offers you His Love.   I won't waste...

In the Gospel of John, Yeshua tenderly washes the apostles' feet, then sits down and asks them, "Do you know what I have done for you?" (Jn 13:12) At the time, Simon (Cephas/Peter) and the apostles didn't really catch on to what was  going  on. But eventually, they did. And so can we. Jesus (Yeshua)  has shown us that we are to be servant leaders; we are to serve our brothers and sisters in humility and love - just as He did. In Holy Thursday Mass, we have the "washing of the feet" to commemorate this act. But what does it really mean, and why did Jesus wash the disciples' feet, not  just  serve a meal or do some other act of service? We must do two things to unpack this gesture - one is the examine the physicality of it, and the other is to remember Jesus' time and place. Jesus took off his outer garment and wrapped a towel around his waist. Taking off an outer garment can symbolize getting ready to work (akin to "rolling up one'...