“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” Jesus cried as “he breathed his last.” The action of self-offering was the cornerstone of Jesus’ life from beginning to end, as Paul describes in his letter to the Philippians: “ . . . Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, . . . emptied himself . . . humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.” As our model of self-giving love, Jesus calls us to join him, to walk in his way, to follow in his footsteps from Bethlehem to Golgotha.

It is into God’s loving, merciful hands that we are called to surrender ourselves, to entrust ourselves to those hands that made us, and all creation, in love, through love, and for love. Part of my Lenten practice has been to kneel in prayer before The Beloved Disciple icon (suggested by Paula Huston in her Simplifying the Soul that the in-town Lenten supper group has been studying). The theme of the icon is circular it seems to me, giving-receiving-giving. Christ Jesus embraces the beloved disciple with one arm, while he blesses bread and wine with his other hand. The beloved disciple, which in my prayer is me, has hands extended to receive what the Divine has to offer, and in gratefulness I see me surrendering myself into the hands of God to complete the circle of love.

These weeks of Lent have been preparing us to respond to Jesus’ call to take up our cross and follow him, to let go of our attachments to the status quo and to abandon ourselves into God’s hands, trusting that the Holy One will not desert us on the Good Fridays of our lives, but will bring us to the joy of a new resurrected life of loving service in the world.