Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will provide”.

(JEREMIAH 20:11)

“In order to deal with the frustrations and tensions that can build up in us, we need to be connected to something beyond ourselves and the situation we’re in, such as God, a person, a friendship, a hand, a creed, or a perspective”.   

Scripture offers wonderful images for this. In the Book of Daniel, three young men are thrown into a blazing furnace. They walked around in the midst of the flames, untouched by the fire because they were singing sacred songs. They sustained their love and faith amid bitter jealousy and hatred by staying connected to something outside of the fiery forces that were consuming everyone else. 

Like Jesus and everyone else who’s ever walked this planet, we all find ourselves forever inside families, communities, church, friendships, and work circles that are filled with tension of every kind. Our natural temptation is to simply give back in kind, jealousy for jealousy, gossip for gossip, anger for anger. But what our world really needs is for women and men to step forward and help carry and purify this tension, to help take it away by transforming it inside themselves.
 

That’s not east for us adults, so when we volunteer to step into the fire, it’s wise not to go in alone. Like Jesus, we need to stay connected to some hand, some friend, some creed, and our God who will help sustain us in love and faith, right inside the madness and fire” (40).