Lord, save us from the dark
Of our striving
-- Fernando Ortega, "Come, Oh Redeemer, Come"
These words struck a cord with me this week as I breathed them in and out; there is something that seems very connected between darkness and our striving. We need more freedom, than we do of effort. Is it, in fact, our striving that keeps in the dark a lot of the time?
When I consider this day, in the sequence of 'passion' week years ago, I wonder how we are not like living on a Saturday...after something dashing, in terms of our hopes, and before the knowledge and wonder of Easter Sunday. We often return to our own striving. But, what would it have been like today, that Saturday, for the once followers of a crucified Christ. No longer with hope, no longer with the prospect of peace. Bewildered. Disappointed. Duped? Crushed. ...with no striving left within us.
Could we even have prayed such a prayer anymore, asking our Redeemer to come? Our hopes were pinned to Jesus and now he was dead -- no light now at all, just darkness. Are you yet saving us...from our striving?
