15 March 2013 - just in time

15 March 2013 - just in time

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

The LORD wants to draw near to us with his saving power.  He wants to touch us with his healing hand.  But oftentimes we cannot abide this presence.  For the nearness of the LORD necessarily calls us on to greater holiness.  It is necessarily a reproach for the sin in which we live. 

“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.

But the reason he comes is not to accuse.  He comes to seek and save the lost.  He comes for the sick who need a doctor.  He comes to set the captives free.  When Jesus tells us that we do not know him or the father this is what he means.  He see him as an accuser rather than a savior.

Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.

We see accusation when Jesus holds out a healing hand.  Accused, we become defensive.  What does he presume to give us that we don't already have?  It is our nature as humans to fluctuate between feeling worthless and undeserving and feeling a defensiveness which asserts that we need nothing and no one.  We don't experience these emotions as strongly as the people in scripture.  We experience them just enough to prevent us from pressing in to God.  They can be the subtle feelings that keeps us from, say, spending time before the Blessed Sacrament or in personal unstructured prayer.

He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.

It feels like judgment to us because we don't really know him.  It is painful, but it is an invitation. The destiny of the just is indeed blessed.  He has come to share that destiny with us by bringing us into his family so that God can be our father as well.  His goal is not condemnation.  His goal is to give life.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.

If we can only accept his love for us and let him draw near then all the promises of the just will be for us as well.  As we are more united to him we begin to experience the same types of persecution that he experienced.  We can  rely on the same promises on which he relied.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”

We can now trust him unreservedly, come what may.

Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.

Jesus is trying to show us who he really is.  LORD, give us eyes to see and ears to hear.