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And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:7-8)
The phone rings,
and we are immediately cast into the depths of ultimate mystery, the final passage
from what we know to what is unknowable.
This time it
is not our phone, but that of another family member whose step-mother lies in
the shadowy suspension between life and death, which is neither, lingering over
the threshold of forever, tethered by a slender thread.
For what
shall we hope? And what to pray? Can life have another day? Or …?
Thrust back
upon ourselves, human resources are insufficient companions in the waiting rooms
of life and death. Our questions are not much help either.
We have no ultimate
explanation for the undeniable fact of our existence at this time and place on
this lone oasis of life in the cosmic darkness. Nor have we a solution to the
woeful awareness that we each must die.
But perhaps the
unfathomable reality of our living and dying is not a question to be answered
or a problem to be solved. Perhaps it is a mystery best embraced with a
companion who promises to meet us in the darkness of paths untrodden and perils
unknown.
It is exactly
this that Christ promises and invites us to trust.
Most often, we
meet him … or he us … when we quit fighting what is and allow ourselves to descend
into the midst of questions we cannot answer, problems we cannot solve and
hurts we cannot heal.
Somewhere in
the darkness of ourselves or in the compassion of a face known or unknown, we hear
the silent whisper of the Voice who says, ‘even here, even this, even now.
‘There is nowhere
I will not go for you, no depth to which I will not descend, no place my love
will not find you, no depth of hell can keep you from me.’
Only this, only
the One who has descended into death for Love’s own sake, allows us to lovingly
embrace the mystery of our life and of our sadness, grieving and dying with
hope.
For Christ
has descended into the utmost depths of bitter suffering and death, embracing
the glory and despair of human existence, taking all of it and all we are into
himself, joining our mortality to his reality.
His triumphant
love, risen, exalted from the lowest of the low to be Lord of heaven and earth,
life and death, speaks the final word over our lives and all history.
And that word
is love, the Love who says, ‘There is no place so dark, no death so final
that my love will not find you and my life cannot fill you.’
So, do not fear.
Lift up your head and be strong. You are not alone. We live, together, in a universe
where Love holds sway.
David L. Miller
