By Sister Edith González
Let us think that Jesus’s words are not a desperate cry but the opposite: a cry of triumph from the love for humanity. God’s mercy is overflowing and nothing is impossible for the one who truly loves. Mysteriously, everything comes together towards life, since what saves us is not the wood but the love that has died upon it.
Following the Lord is not pretending to be the best in the vanities of the world. To follow the Lord is to want to be different, to bet on a new world where life, justice and peace are found. “It is finished” doesn’t mean all is lost; to the contrary, it tells us that even in the face of our suffering world’s realities, there is still hope. It leads us to transcend the past: as his mission is accomplished, his love is surrendered but not crushed. There is no greater wealth than the offering of a life.
Let’s reflect: At what point did we lose the meaning of this word of Jesus in our life of mercy? At what point did we lose our way and cease to accompany Jesus in his passion?
As Sisters of Mercy, we are called to contemplation and action. Let’s pray and reflect in our ministries, our works of mercy, and let’s look to the one who transcended. All of us have our mission in our communities, in the family, in the society in which we live, in our common dwelling, in our suffering world. From there, we offer our “dying for something” and little by little we continue to join the path of Jesus.
The right path is not always the shortest or the easiest. However, if we do it with peace, joy, hope, sensitivity, hospitality, sincerity, we can manage to complete our purpose. Our passage on this earth will end one day, and our greatest consolation will be the realization that we have fulfilled and completed God’s purpose in our lives; that the vocation to which we were called, the desire we expressed by declaring our perpetual vows, has been finished.
Let us think of the saying of our founder, Catherine McAuley: “Will we all meet in heaven? Oh what joy even to think of it.”
—Catherine McAuley
Let us pray: Lord Jesus of mercy, look upon our suffering world, violated in so many ways. We put this suffering in your hands. Touch the hearts of those who are its cause, grant them the grace of conversion. Help us to keep “…our hearts centered in God, for whom alone we go forward or stay back.” – Catherine McAuley