Monday Holy Week

“Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: I am about to pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again to their heritage and to their land, everyone of them.”

Jeremiah 12, Monday Holy Week, the Reading, Morning Prayer, the Daily Office Book, Year One

Through God’s compassion, I am given the gift to deeply, rightfully and truthfully examine my heart and life for the evil which resides in me as my selfishness, and in my turning a blind eye to the evil which persists in the selfishness of the world. We are all given the ability to offer the truth of ourselves to God, to pluck them from our fearful hearts with compassion, and to restore our hearts to the compassion we inherit from God. Ultimately, there is nothing to fear about ourselves and lives that can’t be viewed as healing by God’s eternal compassion. We can be forgiven as we accept the offer of forgiveness, and we can forgive as well. We can come again to know the truth of our being as souls born of God’s breath. We can again come to the only joy and happiness which lasts, the joy of loving and being loved. We can again emerge from the shadows of our shame, driven by our ever-present fears, to again know the cascading light which is the comfortable knowledge of God’s eternal life for us and God’s equally eternal love for us.