April 7/Good Friday
Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6
To put our bodies into the skilled hands of a surgeon or a physical therapist is an act of trust, and an admission that we do not possess the knowledge, the experience, the power to heal ourselves on our own. And yet many of us lack the same trusting attitude when it comes to our souls. We hold fast to our autonomy, insisting that we can manage our affairs on our own, and internally resist any call to subordinate our own plans or ambitions to God’s will. Sooner or later, however, the spirit will probably hit the wall just as the flesh sometimes does. When loss is staring us in the face, when the soul’s pain makes it hard to get out of bed, when our carefully crafted life plan goes awry, then and only then, perhaps, do we say, “Into your hand, O LORD, I commit my spirit.” But wait a moment. What if we didn’t wait until the last moment to trust the LORD? What if, instead, we placed ourselves into his loving hands at the start of every day? We might find the quiet peace of genuine trust if we surrendered our willfulness early and often, rather than as a last resort. As 20th-century English Dominican priest Father Bede Jarrett wrote, “[God’s] hands are strong and powerful hands and we can confidently rest there. . . But with God, they are not only the hands of power, and not only the hands of wisdom, but of love, and it is only when we leave all things in his hands that we find complete serenity; and then a great peace shall come into our souls.”
As I place myself in your hands this day, O powerful and loving LORD, I pray that your will, and not mine, be done. Amen.
To hear the Cambridge Singers sing “In manus tuas” by 16th-century composer John Sheppard, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8cC0wMOFI
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040723.cfm
