Jesus, you were lifted up on the Cross, and by your obedience even unto death, you liberate me from all my sin. Jesus you restore me and redeem me by your sacrifice. You chose to suffer and die so that I might live. You have brought me back to life so I can serve you. Let me follow you all the days of my life. Let me die to myself so that I can live in you. Preserve me for eternal life, Jesus.
Sunday of the 5th Week of Lent (Liturgical Year B)
Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful reflection and meditation for your Lenten journey with Christ to Jerusalem.
Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
Opening Prayer
Enter into the prayer of silence before the Lord
Jesus,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. Jesus, you liberate me from my sinful nature. Jesus you were lifted up on the Cross to draw me to yourself, and I am drawn to you. I am not worthy of so great a gift and I want to contemplate how much you suffered for my sin in order to liberate me from eternal damnation. Through your willingness to be sacrificed and to die to liberate me and restore me you have drawn me to you. No one in my life has shown me the kind of love that you offer. Give me the desire to lay down my life for you so that by losing it I might have eternal life in you. I want to serve you.
I am here, Lord, because you liberate me from sin and have drawn me to yourself, first by curiosity, and now by love in my own heart. Please send me your Spirit so that I can worship you with a pure heart and without distraction. Help me to separate myself from all worldly attachments and spend these 15 minutes with my heart and mind completely fixated on you. Jesus, look at me as you did the repentant thief on the Cross who died with you, and rescue me from all my sinful inclinations. You know all my weaknesses and that I can’t elevate my heart or my mind without your help.
Please give me the grace right now to pray my mental prayer well and to love you in a way that is pleasing to you. I want to grow to love you more perfectly. Thank you, Lord, for every consolation, desolation, time of silence, difficult trial, and temptation of the evil one. I understand that everything that happens in my life is by your holy will, whether it be your divine providence or your permissive will due to my sin and negligence.
Please humble me as I walk with you toward Jerusalem. Help me carry my cross well and do so with great love in my heart for you.
AMEN.
Say Nothing Just Take Him In
Spend 1-3 minutes in silence gazing at the Lord with love and gratitude, in a prayer of silent contemplation
Reflection:
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. Jesus has just been to dinner in his honor in Bethany, where he is anointed by Mary and visits Lazarus.
It is just before Passover, and now Jesus is once again in Jerusalem after a triumphant entrance into the city. You know the time of his Passion is now coming soon and your heart begins to grieve what is in store….
Jesus Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
The Hour Has Come
John 12:20-33
Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.“
Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”
I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.“
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
Reflection:
Let us meditate on the phrase, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
Reflect a moment on your first profound encounter with Jesus. Let your mind revisit that memory. Can you recall how in your curiosity you wanted to ‘see Jesus’ and so you prayed to him?
How did he come to you? At that time where was your heart?
Seeing him and knowing him are not that same as loving him and following him.
Where are you now? Do you still only want to ‘see’ or do you also want to follow and obey the Holy Spirit and be conformed by Christ?
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ teaching, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
How has Jesus drawn you to himself? Has he changed how you live? What you believe? How you act? How has Jesus done this?
Take a moment to tell Jesus what he means to you. Give the Holy Spirit time to respond. Be honest with Jesus and tell him everything. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a meditation from Saint Teresa of Avila:
Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
The Foundations
by St. Teresa of Avila
I believe that, since the devil sees there is no path that leads more quickly to the highest perfection than obedience, he sets up many annoyances and difficulties under the color of good. Note this well and you will see clearly that I am speaking the truth.
The highest perfection obviously does not consist in interior delights or in great raptures or in visions or in the spirit of prophecy but in having our will so much in conformity with God’s will that there is nothing we know He wills that we do not want with all our desire, and in accepting the bitter as happily as we do the delightful when we know that His Majesty desires it.
This seems most difficult (not the doing of it, but this being content with what completely contradicts our nature), and indeed it truly is difficult.
Reflection:
Teresa of Avila is a Doctor of the Church who has written a profound book on prayer. She was gifted by the Lord with profound spiritual gifts and had many visions, dreams, and mystical experiences.
Yet she tells us that the most important virtue a soul must have is the virtue of obedience.
Why?
The devil can trick us when he knows we desire things that are in contradiction to the will of God. If we cannot conform to God’s will, if we lack love for God, we will easily be deceived. Just like Jesus, we have to submit to the will of the Father in all things so that God will be glorified through us.
As St. Teresa of Avila says, our will has to be in conformity to God’s.
How do we get there? We must practice self-denial. We must also learn the faith and obey Church teachings. We must remember that spiritual gifts are given to edify the Church and are not given for selfish reasons. So we test what consolations we have experienced and we pray for obedience to God before we act.
Take a moment to ask the Lord questions from your heart.
Lord, I understand that the gifts of the Spirit are given for the uplifting of the Church, and so I ask you to help me obey the Church and grow in the virtues of obedience, humility, and charity so that I can use the gifts you have given me to glorify you and build up your Church. Protect me from being deceived by the evil one and help me to glorify you in a way that pleases you. AMEN.
Next, let us meditate for a moment on the words of Hebrews 5. Reread this passage a second time, praying the words from your own heart. Then take a moment to speak to Jesus. What do you want to tell him?
Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
Obedience from What He Suffered
Hebrews 5:7-9
In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Reflection:
He was heard because of his reverence.
Do I have reverence for God? If not, might this lack of reverence cause my prayers to go unanswered? Am I praying the wrong way?
What does it mean to show reverence?
Reverence is a profound respect and love for God.
How can I show reverence?
I can honor God, thank him, obey his commandments. I can also love others that God has given me in my life with the same respect and reverence I give to God.
Let us pray for the ability to have more reverence toward God in our lives:
Lord, please give me the Holy Spirit’s gift of having a healthy fear of the Lord, so that by being afraid of offending you I might better imitate you in thought, word, and deed. Let me be Christlike in how I treat others. Please, Lord, make me like you. AMEN.
Next let us contemplate the words of the Lord spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
I will Write My Law in their Hearts
Jeremiah 31:31-34
The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
Reflection:
Ask yourself, is the Lord’s law on your heart? Have you made a covenant with God only to have broken it afterward?
If this is you, make a new covenant with the Lord right now. Use the words of Jeremiah to formulate your own prayer. Take a minute or two to speak to the Lord from your heart.
Listen for his response to your heartfelt prayer. After a moment of silent contemplation, let us finish our prayerful meditation with a prayer or repentance from today’s Mass readings in Psalms 51:
Lifted Up On the Cross, You Liberate Me
A Clean Heart Create in me, O God
psalms 51:3-4, 12-15
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 33 Mental Prayer Meditation
Love Them like Christ and Do Not Throw Stones
Jesus you love them. Lord, let me love them too and not throw stones using harsh words and deliberate actions to condemn them. Let me love them like Christ.