Student Daily Reflection

[310] Heb 4:12-16
Ps 19:8, 9 10, 15
Mark 2:13-17

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer
The Daily Reflections

There are a lot of metaphors for the Word of God that I'm sure the author of Hebrews could have used, but he had to pick one as eviscerating as a two-edged sword, and say that God's Word is sharper still, able to cut through "soul and spirit, joints and marrow." I'm a first year med student, and memories of how sharp the scalpels are in anatomy lab make this a chilling, vivid image. I don't like it, because I know all that I was ever too ashamed to tell my parents or even my best friend, he already knows. What's worse, he's the one I ultimately have to answer to. I don't like that, because I think I know what would be justice for me.

But exactly who is it that knows such a frightening amount about us and stands as just judge? Jesus, the high priest of God, who took on the weakness and suffering we all share by being human. That's what's so beautiful about his love for us. Most of us have heard a phrase along the lines of "a true friend is someone that knows everything about us, but loves us anyway," and no one does this more perfectly than he. It is his perfect compassion, his desire to "suffer with" us, that beautifully unites his dual roles of just judge and merciful savior. St. Therese of Lisieux repeatedly said that God is just because he is merciful, and we should trust ourselves wholeheartedly into the mercy he has for us. All he wants, all he hopes for, is our love, and our openness to receive divine love and be transformed by it.

"Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

How good are we at receiving divine love? If you're anything like me, the answer probably is, "pretty terrible." I think it becomes a control issue for most of us, at least, it certainly is for me. We will take just this much love and no further; it keeps God's love strictly on our terms. But in the face of infinite love, that's like trying to hold back a dammed river with a teaspoon. It's beyond us, and if we truly let it into our lives, it overwhelms all that we are. Our lives are no longer our own, and as a result, qualms about commitment in human relationships pale in comparison.

But we need a doctor. We are starved for lack of justice in many aspects of our lives, and are in even more desperate need for mercy. The Word of God knows our sickness better than anyone. Wherever we are, let us all take the deep, unquenchable ache we've carried in our hearts for so long and bring them trustingly to Jesus, asking him to help us learn how to receive his healing love. He is aching to give it.