February 28/Second Wednesday of Lent
Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6
“Into your hands I commend my spirit.” Is there a more succinct and powerful expression of trust in the entire Bible? Jesus uttered it from the cross as he passed from life into death, and that cry has since been offered by countless believers as they left the world, from Charlemagne to Thomas More to many a believer who is dying this very day. Certainly these words are appropriate for the end of our mortal lives. But what if they were to serve not only as words to die by, but as words to live by? Yes, Jesus spoke them as he surrendered his spirit to God — but he also lived them every day of his life, subordinating his own will to the will of God, even to the humiliation and suffering of Calvary and the Cross. And so must we do, living into these words by committing ourselves to seek and to do God’s will, wherever it may take us. Such trusting surrender does not come easily to us, willful as we are. Most of us would rather maintain control over our own plans than to place them in the hands of God, who might see things differently than we do. Most of us would rather map our own course than to risk God asking us to venture where we’d rather not. But God is ‘el ‘emet — the God of firmness, faithfulness, and truth, and today the psalmist counsels just such surrender of our lives to this faithful God. As the twentieth-century Catholic prelate Joseph Cardinal Bernardin wrote, It’s precisely in letting go, in entering into complete union with the Lord, in letting him take over, that we discover our true selves.” May we summon the courage to entrust ourselves completely to God.
Loving God, Give me the confidence and faith I need truly to place myself in your trustworthy hands. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022824.cfm
To hear the Cambridge Singers (John Rutter, conductor) sing “In manus tuas,” by Renaissance composer John Sheppard, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkbF5jSi7ZA
