God is Close to the Brokenhearted

Homily for Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

The first reading for today’s Mass anticipates every nuance of feeling, emotion, tragedy, and anguish of Good Friday, only two weeks away. The plot against “the just one” described in this reading is so detailed, so full of venom and hatred, one might think it came out of the secret meeting of his enemies.

Today’s Gospel reading spells out the gathering storm over Jesus. But the evangelist maintains that his enemies were unable to arrest him because his hour had not yet come. It would be a mistake to think of Jesus’ Passion taking place only during the last three days of his life. Those days were only the climax of a Passion that had been building up since the beginning of his public life. Every desertion of a follower, the miss understanding of himself and his mission on the part of his chosen disciples, his rejection by his own people at Nazareth – all contributed to the Passion of Jesus. Rejection, unbelief, and scorn were no easier for him to accept than for us. But here at the end of his life he encounters hatred – most painful of all agonies, especially when one knows he doesn’t deserve it. In truth, when the psalmist maintains that God is close to the brokenhearted, God must have been closest to his only begotten son whose heart was broken so many times during his life.

The human side of Jesus, his emotions and feelings, were never more evident than during these last weeks of his life. And never did he pray more anxiously for deliverance and help, as will be evident at the Last Supper and in the Garden of olives. Truly, “many are the troubles of the just one”; this was never more true than it was in Jesus. Even on the cross he begged to know why God had abandoned him. When we suffer, it takes a lot of faith to believe that the Lord is close and that he will deliver us.

And yet, what alternative is there? So with Jesus we pray, “Father, our source of life, you know our weakness. May we reach out with joy to grasp your hand and walk more readily in your ways.” It is a risky prayer – begging God that we might reach out with joy to grasp his hand and thus walk more readily in his ways, for we don’t know where those ways will lead us. But again I ask, what is the alternative.

Today’s readings do not specifically emphasize the personal conversion we have been stressing up to now. But what could further that conversion more than the remembrance of all that Jesus has done for us and the goal he holds out to us? For those who place their faith in Jesus, this is the only way to heaven.