Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Maybe you’ve heard the saying something like, “To grieve is to have loved.” We naturally grieve the loss of something or someone we have loved. This is what came to mind as I reflected on today’s psalm response, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” I can’t imagine anyone choosing to have their heart broken, yet being brokenhearted is the result of having cared, having loved, having risked opening our hearts enough to feel the loss, the hurt, the heartbreak when it comes.
And isn’t there plenty of opportunity for heartbreak? I’ve been feeling it not only in my personal life with more deaths and losses that come with age, but also on the national and global level. News of killings and destruction due to wars, news of deaths and losses due to climate change, news of forced separations of families due to their immigration status or simply the color of their skin.
If we open our hearts to all of this pain and loss, we will be brokenhearted. The alternative may be tempting but is not the way of true life and love. And if we believe the psalmist, then we will believe (and maybe have already experienced) that God is close to us when our hearts are broken; those “crushed in spirit” God will save. (34:19)
As we continue on this Lenten journey toward Easter, I give thanks that we have a God, a Savior, who knows what it’s like to suffer in body and even in spirit, who risked all for love. Let us pray for one another to also take that risk by opening our hearts to love, to life in its fullest, for it is where we will be closest to our God, to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
—Eileen Miller