“… But when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” (John 21:18).
The other day, a person dear to me needed to visit the doctor to receive the results of a test that they had recently done.
This wait between the day of testing and the day of the results – the news, so to speak – was a difficult one. After all, it is a difficult thing to anticipate possible bad news and to wait patiently for that news at each step of the journey.
And I have been reflecting on this today as I have been praying for the souls who wait for the doctors to deliver them the bad news that they will hear when they receive the results of their tests. For it must be a terrible thing to have to wait patiently for results that we do not wish to hear.
But we are not the first to have to wait patiently for bad news. Saint Simon Peter had to wait for the martyrdom that awaited him. Christ told Saint Simon Peter, “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” (John 21:18).
And Simon Peter had to reflect on this news and then continue to LIVE his life knowing that he would one day be lead “where you do not want to go”… And this is just the same as every soul who hears bad news in a doctor’s office, or experiences grief when a loved one hears this news. This is the same for every spouse that is divorced when this was never something that they wished for their lives. This is just the same as every single person who waits for bad news – or good news, but fears the bad.
And most importantly, this is – in a way – the same for Christ, God the Son… You see, when Christ was conceived and born He knew that the purpose of His birth was to suffer and die to atone for sins. And as a result of this, He and His Holy Mother, knew that they would spend their lives waiting for this death. In reality, how is this any different from a patient with a terminal illness, waiting for the doctors to deliver the test results to them – test results that will confirm the fatal progression of their disease?
And God the Son and His Blessed Mother, waited patiently for that news. They had no timeframe and no estimate of when it would be. Would Christ die as an infant in Bethlehem during the Massacre of the Innocents? Would He die when the people of the village accused Him of blaspheme and threatened to throw Him off a cliff? Would He die on the road of a disease or accident? Or would He die on the day after the Last Supper, when He said that He would not drink of the wine again until He drank of the new wine of the Kingdom?
And the answer is that He would die when it was God’s Will that He would die. And it is the same news for you and for me too. And it is the same news for every single soul who is waiting for news today… After all, who are we to think that we are superior to Our Blessed Lord?
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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