Make Haste to Help Me, Lord

In this morning’s meditation, my eyes were riveted on the entrance antiphon: “Forsake me not, O Lord! My God, be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation.”  My thoughts quickly reversed the words to read: “O Lord, may I not forsake You. May I not be far from You in how I think, in what I do and what I plan to do this day.  May I hasten to seek Your help for You are my secure and ever-present salvation.” I prayed that God would purify my heart, my mind, my will, my entire being; that He would pour out His precious blood upon me to heal me and transform me into Christ. I prayed that, like Jesus who came to served not  to be served (compare today’s Gospel, Lk  20:   17-28), would  give me the courage and the wisdom to let go of anything that would lead me to wanting to be glorified in God’s place rather than being God’s servant here on earth.

James and John, in today’s Gospel, approach Jesus, asking to be given the honor of sitting one at his right and the other at his left in the Kingdom—we can be seeking “kingdoms” here as well.  Their petition was not in accord with God’s will for them. How often, I asked myself, to do seek something that is not in accord with God’s will for me, or for another.  What God promises is that when I meet the events of my life that bring me suffering, when sin in me is being purified by God’s grace, He will send angels to me as He did to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and He will give me the strength, the courage and the peace of mind and heart that He gave Jesus in Jerusalem, where Jesus was betrayed by Judas and handed over to those determined to destroy Him. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells us in Mt 10:28, “of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”  And remember, as Jesus tells us in Jn 15: 20-21, a “servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too…[I]t will be on my account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the one who sent me.” Remember, too, that Jesus is at our side and that before He went to Jerusalem to face death He prayed for us, asking His Father to “protect us from the Evil One” (Jn 17: 15).