This Lenten Reflection was written by Sister of Providence Frances O’Brien
May you be blessed in Providence this Lenten season.
Lenten Reflection on Providence Quote
“Jesus replaced the love of enlightened self-interest with creative love, which gives one’s life to foster life in others… To be ‘in Christ’ is to enter into the revolutionary events of Holy Thursday by experiencing the archetypal death and resurrection, letting an old modality of consciousness die and seeing a new one rise to life.”
The commemoration of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection has always held great meaning for me, and my own spirituality has been enriched by celebrating the Easter Triduum. As we are again invited this year to insert ourselves more deeply into the dynamism of the Paschal Mystery, we enter into the revolutionary events of Holy Thursday. Jesus washed the feet of his followers as a model for us to serve each other. Jesus gave his body and blood and commanded his followers to repeat the meal in remembrance of him. Jesus gave us a new commandment to “love one another just as I have loved you”. Jesus gave his life to foster life with creative love. Jesus lived out a major paradox inherent in creation, i.e. creation-destruction-death-resurrection.
What old modality of consciousness is dying so that a new modality can rise to life? What comes to mind for me are old modalities of church, of religious life as we have known it, of our relationship to Earth, of cosmology. To be ‘in Christ’ today is to see the Jesus event in human history as part of the Great Story. Because Providence penetrates to the furthest limits of the cosmos, the resurrection of Christ is a cosmic event. The Easter mystery embraces the universe.
Frances O’Brien SP
Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul