By the Waters of Babylon – Ps. 137:1
A thought or two as we travel through Holy Week, as a people in exile from each other:
London is a city rich in history. You can live into a long history of a great nation just by touring around the streets of London: places like Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament, and the, mostly neglected, Cabinet War Rooms which served so vitally during the second World War. Being in London is like traveling in time.
In Holy Week, we, as a community, travel in time. It is not clock time, but salvation time – the ways in which we understand God’s actions on behalf of humanity. This special week has little to do with calendars and historical dates, but it has everything to do with the power that links us to our ancestors in the Faith through all ages.
On Good Friday, we stand in a place full of meaning and rich in memory. It is not a physical place, of course. It is a place we travel to in faith, as we hear and read again the stories of God’s covenant with us and allow the power of that story to re-create us.
Our response to the story must be made real in everyday life – even in exile! We listen and read, and we are open to conversation – through prayer and meditation. We come to realize, again, that our response is to imitate God’s loving service and sacrifice.
Pray for each other and for me in this Holy Week in exile.
Image by VIVIANE MONCONDUIT from Pixabay
