Tuesday of Holy Week 2020

“Hear me, O islands, listen, O distant peoples.” (Is 49: 1) “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now ...” (Jn 13: 36) Why does the Prophet Isaiah, and Christ in John’s Gospel account, make reference to such physical distance between we the faithful and our Lord? Was not the Lord present to the Israelites in the words of the prophet? Was not Christ with his Apostles when He spoke these words to them?

Our distance from God is due to our humanity – far from the glory and divinity of our Father, Savior, and the Holy Spirit. He knows our faults. Today, many of us – faithful though we may strive to be – are far from the Lord because of our sin. But, the account of Isaiah, here, provides for our hope in the Lord – that we may have true conviction in Him that He will be faithful to us because of who He is: the Faithful One. “The Lord called me from birth ... You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” (Is 49: 1, 3) In this, we can have true hope there is no distance that cannot be overcome by the Lord. We know that He is relentlessly in pursuit of us, even though the veil of death which once held all humanity in bondage.

Even the sin of Judas, betraying the Lord for crucifixion, is not a distance too far for the Lord’s love to overcome, if only we are faithful to Him as He is faithful. In our Lenten journey we travel towards the resurrection for the love of God, and in our lives we travel towards our resurrection with the Lord in the final judgment, with hope in Him, that we will have a place in paradise, with Him, forever. He has given us this call, and he has said it will be true: “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Is 49: 6) “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow me later.” (Jn 13: 36)

So, why this distance? One cannot go anywhere without a journey. We must move from ourselves to God. In His faithfulness to us, His love overcomes the distance, and makes the journey possible. Our movement is not our doing, but His gift to us. God’s glory is that even the personal betrayal of Our Savior by one of His twelve is overwhelmed by the Love of Christ, for the salvation of all peoples and the glory of God. Our sin and failing are reason for the distance, and the overcoming of that distance – even humanity’s wretchedness made manifest in the sin of Judas – is the Glory of God in our lives.  “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” (Jn 13: 31)

Hold fast to this Hope, now, on the precipice of Easter glory!