March 13/Fourth Wednesday of Lent
The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. ~ Ps 145.9, 18
On a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my eye was caught by Salvator Mundi, an unfinished painting of Christ by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. Dürer evidently started the work before he left for Italy but completed only the drapery, leaving a substantial portion of Christ’s face sketched but uncompleted. Unfinished – but captivating, because one could glimpse the intent of the artist and his vision of the whole, unrealized as it was. Isn’t it that way with our lives, too? We embark on a new decade or a new year or a new Lent with a vision of what we hope to be – the relationships we intend to strengthen or repair, the goodness and compassion we wish to show, our desire to be present to others whom we love. We never quite get there, our grand designs left half-done because we become distracted, or busy, or just because we are flawed human beings. All of us live, and will die, with unfinished business. Over against our human incompleteness stands the wholeness of God, in whom there is not one iota of imperfection. The wondrous thing is that the One who is perfect still loves us in all our imperfection. As our psalmist emphasizes by repeating two key words, “Yahweh” and “all,” God never proceeds by half-measures: Yahweh is good to all of us and compassionate towards all his works. Yahweh is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. And the concluding flourish: Yahweh is near to all who call upon him in truth. Our human lives are destined to be sketches, imperfectly realized and half-drawn, but what awaits us beyond our human life is the glory of the fullness of God.
Perfect and complete Lord, Bestow on me the desire to strive daily for your fullness, even as I acknowledge that I will fully attain it only in the glory of eternal life. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031324.cfm
To hear Our Lady and the English Martyrs Choirs (Cambridge, England) sing John Henry Newman’s hymn “Praise to the Holiest in the Height,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhxrfOWVnaA
