God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next …. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust him. Whatever, whenever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. My sickness, perplexity or sorrow may be necessary causes of some some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; he may prolong my life, he may shorten it; he knows what he is about. He may take away my friends, he may throw me among strangers, he may make me feel desolate, make my spirit sink, hide the future from me – still he knows what he is about.
Saint John Henry Newman (1890)
St John Henry Newman’s wonderful meditation is made even more profound when taken in the context of the Gospel Reading from the Catholic Missal on the significance and implications of the Kingship of Christ (Luke 23:35-43 ) (Last Ordinary Sunday, 24 October, 2019) :
‘Today you will be with me in paradise’
The people stayed there before the cross watching Jesus. As for the leaders, they jeered at him. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’ One of the criminals hanging there abused him. ‘Are you not the Christ?’ he said. ‘Save yourself and us as well.’ But the other spoke up and rebuked him. ‘Have you no fear of God at all?’ he said. ‘You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus,’ he said ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ ‘Indeed, I promise you,’ he replied ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’
Copyright © 1996-2019 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday,
An interpretation of the Kingship of Christ is shared beautifully by the late Catholic writer Fr Henri J,M, Nouwen, in his post-humorous monographs collated and published as Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001) . Here, in the last segment of the four monographs, on The Path of Living and Dying, he wrote: “Dying is our ultimate vulnerability, (but) instead of looking at the weakness of old age as simply the experience of loss after loss, we can see it as a passage to emptiness where our hearts have room to be filled with the Spirit of Love overflowing.” He framed for us the contradiction of Christianity in recognizing that the ultimate victory of Christ was on the Cross . “When he was dying on the cross, Jesus was ultimately vulnerable. He had nothing left. Everything had been taken from him, including his dignity, and in the eyes of his culture, he was a failure. But in all truth, the moment of his death on the cross was his life’s greatest moment, because there his life became the most fruitful one in all history. Jesus saw his life and his death as fruitful. “It is good for you that I go. I will send you my Spirit.” wrote Nouwen”
I suppose we will never be rid of the bewilderment and sadness of loss and bereavement; of the emotions of confusion and fear in the many challenges and obstacles that besets our lives, in ways that can only be measured in the depth of self but others. Yet the absolute wisdom of the Gospels and the rich insights of its spiritual interpreters through the ages shines through for us the ballast and consolation of acceptance, reconciliation and closure.
Cologne Cathedral and banner at dawn: “freut euch im herrn (Rejoice in the Lord)”. 2019 GM1 Lumix