Life is not a tragedy

Life is not a tragedy, writes L Giussani. Tragedy is what makes everything amount to nothing. Yes, life is a drama. It is dramatic because it is the relationship between our I and the You of God, our I that must follow the steps which God indicates. (343)

If only we could remember that when we have thoughts of defeat, worthlessness, and loss; when we feel that what I am going through, my disappointments, my discouragement, my failures makes life amount to nothing.

No better reflection could prepare us for Holy Week. Who, more than anyone, could have thought this way? Jesus. Three years of training his disciples, and they run when he needs them most. Three years of drawing unimaginable crowds, and they turn on him in his time of need. All the preparation, all the prophecies about Jesus and his destiny come to naught. And Jesus prays, "Father, remove this cup from me!" 

But God did not. And Jesus had to experience defeat, betrayal, isolation, public humiliation and death.

And we celebrate this week with great ceremony. Why? Because life is not a tragedy. For Jesus, all the trials of this week did not make him forget the relationship between our I and the You of God. It is Jesus going through the suffering of Holy Week that teaches us the value to be found in such things.

Tragedy is what makes everything amount to nothing. Let me not think in those terms. Let me rather believe I have something more, that defeat is only defeat if I forget the I and the You of God.

God waits to be asked

Bernard Bro writes:

It is not we who wait for God, and draw God's attention, but it is God who awaits us. It is not we who are anxious to see God realize our desires, but it is God who wishes to enter into our plans, and to invest us with God's own strength. And in prayer it is God who anticipates us, giving us an opportunity to work for and with God, in the absolute certainlty of success.

This is the first response of God, the secret of our hope, and what should be the foundation of our certitude.

In this connection, it seems that too often we believe that the essential element in hope is the desire to possess happiness and to possess God. Yet the essential role of hope is not primarily the desire for beatitude, but the assurance that God comes to our aid.

These words carry a profound truth...we want God to be there for us. Heaven is fine, but heaven is the end hope. Right here and now, hope consists of God being there for me.

As monastics say at the beginning of liturgy, "Oh God, come to my assistance, O Lord, come to my aid."

May God be with us today and come to our aid.