Only through love
In these last days of Lenten 2025, I am thinking, “Where did it go?” It was the same number of days this year as any other, but somehow with the noise and chaos all around us it seemed to speed right by. I prayed with the daily readings, and I didn’t miss Laetare Sunday, but those slower days of remembering Jesus’ days in the desert eluded me this year.
The fact that the news headlines bore witness to a cut or a firing or another unknown was surely part of that. Perhaps like you, I like to make plans and know what is coming. But this is not part of the scene these days — except — except when we remember the words of today’s reading from Isaiah: “I will make you a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Someone else is really in charge, despite what the news feeds say.
The psalm — “For you are my hope, O LORD; my trust, you are my strength. My mouth shall declare your justice, I proclaim your wondrous deeds.” Our God is in all of this. He has experienced the worst of injustices by leaders and the state and he has triumphed. And, may I remind myself (and perhaps you), God continues to triumph in the people we are so privileged to serve, offer kindness to, accompany, listen to, and companion — all despite what external forces are doing.
At a gathering of my religious community early in Lent, I shared that I did not believe that any of what was happening in the US would change through anger or rage or retaliation, but only through love, as Dr. Martin Luther King so often said. I told my sisters that my Lenten practice was to attempt to love the person serving in the White House. It has not been easy, or something that happened every day, but every person is a child of God and every person is loved by our God. Jesus said to Simon Peter in today’s Gospel, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.” Perhaps that later is now!
Blessed Holy Week!
Sr. Betsy Van Deusen is a Sister of Saint Joseph of Carondelet who serves as CEO of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany. She enjoys swimming and spending time with her little “grands” – Noelle, Hoak, Nash, Patrick and Colter!