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COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA
THE GREAT PARADOX
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mk 8:35)
Here are a few thoughts, my friends, on this passage from yesterday’s Gospel, on the Sunday of the Cross. I have to let myself lose certain things and even certain people, including my “self,” in order to receive “salvation.” It’s a difficult truth to grasp, but you could think of it this way: You receive, when you give it away. Or: If you love him/her, you should (at times) let them go.
What is “salvation”? It is everything. It is wholeness, or a return to wholeness, from having been fragmented by “my”’desires of this or that thing or place or person(s). These desires are not always fulfilled in the ways I would want or expect. My wholeness, in harmony with God’s vision of me and my unique place in His bigger picture, is restored through my surrendering to His will, manifested through the ups and downs of my cross-carrying journey, to which He calls me every day. I do my part, by putting one foot in front of the other and doing the next right thing, but I also need to let go and let God do His part. I don’t know or understand it a lot of the time, but I trust Him. Because He sees the whole picture and my unique place in it, which is where I thrive and come into ever-new life.
Lead us not into temptation, our loving Father, but deliver us from the evil one, if we do become entangled in our misplaced or mis-timed desires. Because You are in the driver’s seat, and Yours is the kingdom, which is always breaking in to our little lives, and Yours is the power to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves, and Yours is the glory in which we bask, when we let you in. Amen!
