Reflection - Friday of the Third Week of Lent

In the spring of 1999, I had an extraordinary opportunity to visit Israel and the Holy Land. I was pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Studies at the University College of the University of Memphis, and it was my intent to write a handbook titled, “Spirituality and Healing in the Nursing Profession.” This was not long before 9/11/01 and many years before 10/7/23; I had no idea then what I would be seeing in our world now. However, what comes to my mind today as I read and reflect on these words from Hosea is this: Unbeknownst to me then was that I carried my own physical and unique DNA along with my handwritten prayers into all those holy places. I especially remember sitting, praying, and standing for a long time at the Western Wall, where Pope St. John Paul II would one day stand in March of 2000. His words of prayer which he placed in the cracks of the Wall with his bare hands were: “God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the nations: we are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.” My words of prayer then were not so noble but I do remember them. That humbling experience among others would set me on a journey that is still with me today. 

According to our Jewish and Christian Bible scholars, Hosea was a prophet, who was tasked “with conveying God’s profound anguish and devastation over being betrayed by his beloved Israel-just as Hosea was betrayed by his wife Gomer. Through Hosea, God is not just telling us, ‘Do as I say,’ but ‘know what I feel, know my infinite suffering over your betrayal of Me!’” (David Patterson) I have felt betrayed this way too, by God, many times, but now when I am overwhelmed with my own shortcomings and the constant despairing news I read and hear daily, I can actually experience hope and even joy in remembering that God is working in me and in all of us to make us more Christlike. I recall that experience in 1999 of standing in front of the “Resurrection bed” of Jesus Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and then I remember the miracles I have known in my own life and in the lives of my family. In France, Jesuit Priest Father Jean Pierre De Caussade, in the late 1600s wrote a book, Abandonment to Divine Providence. I have found solace in learning about Divine Providence and how it has helped me see the “duties of my life as glorious.” Now, when my personal health challenges and those of my family and friends come, I believe that God is giving me this moment for a reason. I can, most of the time, go about my daily routine with the trust that God will provide all I need and that I must see God in all his creation. I can do this by trying to take the words of my lips in daily prayers into every situation that my Creator gives me, praying the rosary and saying “Jesus I trust in you.”