I'm a recovering Catholic...still trying to get rid of the tapes in my head that whisper about having to do penance for being bad. Bad = things like eating less than an hour before taking communion or skipping Mass on August 15.
Over time, however, there are things that I've grown to appreciate about Catholicism, most notably, Lent. As evangelicals, we're quick to rush to the resurrection and completely miss Christ's passion.
I miss the solemnity of Holy Week. I'm grieved that I don't often think about what it cost Jesus to give me freedom and to invite me into relationship with Him. The guilt that we shove behind masks, forget amidst busyness, or bury in addictions, He willingly embraced so that we wouldn't have to bear it. He, the perfect One, chose our pain, our shame, our death over His much-deserved glory. Really, I can't get my brain around this.
So I'm thankful for this week, a reminder that Jesus went into the garden at Gethsemane, rhetorically pleaded, "Dad, isn't there any other way?" and knowing that there wasn't, suffered unbearable pain and humiliation so that I wouldn't have to. Once again, I'm awed by this God whose love is wider, longer, higher, and deeper than I'll ever know this side of heaven.
1 comment:
Hey Cake! Sometimes I miss being Catholic and I never was catholic. I went to a Catholic wedding last summer, and even though I got confused when the bride and groom headed away from the altar toward Mary's likeness and I whispered to Martin "where are they going?",,,I was in total awe over the worshipful music. And the way it echoed in that beautiful sanctuary.
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