Christian Reflection and Prayer

Readings: Isaiah 50:4-9;
Matthew 26:14-25

Scripture:

"I looked for sympathy, but there
was none; for comforters, and I
found none." (Psalms 69:21)

Reflection:

Many great spiritual writers have
written about "the dark night of the
soul." This is a time when we experience
a sense of complete abandonment and
aloneness. We are slowly being surrounded
by the darkness with no one there to help us
or even walk with us. One religious sister
told me of her experience with the dark night.
She was in chapel praying and was overcome
with a sense of God's complete absence.
There was nothing there to pray to. She was
so scared she had to run from the chapel!

Of all the days in Jesus' life, today is one of the
darkest. The readings show us a Jesus Who is
abandoned and betrayed. He is facing His most
difficult moment, His death, and the people He
most relied on are deserting Him. Isaiah
prophesies that the Messiah will face His pain
and tortures alone. The responsorial psalm echoes
his soft cry for help: "Lord in Your great love,
answer Me!"

We have all faced dark nights of the soul when
everything seems lost and we are forsaken. In
this darkness, we stand with Jesus and with Isaiah.
We rely on our belief that, as it did in the first
moments of creation, the voice of God will create
a dawn in the darkness.

Prayer:

Prayer for Wednesday of Holy Week

Father, in your plan of salvation your Son
Jesus Christ accepted the cross and freed us from
the power of the enemy. May we come to share
the glory of his resurrection, for he lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.