Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
Psalm 34:19a
My Dad is brokenhearted. My mother – his wife of 61 years – passed away a year ago, and he’s been grieving ever since. My sisters and I and the rest of our family have been grieving as well, of course, but my dad lost his beloved spouse, life partner, mother of his three children, grandmother of their ten grandchildren and great-grandmother of their two great-grandchildren. He has been practically lost without her. And that is breaking my heart.
Today’s responsorial psalm stood out to me for him. But on further reflection, it is for me as well. My dad has been very sick recently. He was hospitalized in intensive care and although since transferred to acute rehabilitation he continues to be ill and weak and is still grieving. And for me to see my dad suffering both in body and in spirit, I realize that I, too, am brokenhearted.
So, today’s psalm speaks to me for him as well as for myself, and maybe it speaks to you too. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. Many are the troubles of the just (one), but out of them all the Lord delivers (them).” (34:19,20)
I don’t expect God to miraculously heal my father. He’s at the end of his life and his body is failing, as all of our bodies eventually will. But it does give me some comfort knowing that God is especially close to him right now, and to me and my sisters, and to all who are brokenhearted or crushed in spirit.
As we continue on this Lenten journey, I give thanks that we have a God, a Savior, who knows what it’s like to suffer in body and even in spirit (scripture tells us Jesus grieved, Jesus wept). I am thankful, too, for the promise of the Resurrection, the promise of New Life. New life that I trust my mother is already enjoying while patiently awaiting my father’s arrival for the Eternal Easter celebration. May it be so for us all. Amen.
—Eileen Miller