Last night, I completed Week 2, day 1 of the C25K program. One of the nice things about running is that it gives you a chance to think. I will be happy when I graduate from the program and can run continually for 30 minutes, so I don't have to concentrate on intervals.
But while I was on the treadmill, I thought about the Holy Thursday church service I had just come from. It was incredibly moving. The sermon was about how when the priest prepares the bread and wine on the altar, it gives us an opportunity to place ourselves there, as well. The good stuff and the bad. We can offer up our gifts and talents, gratefully surrendering them to God to consecrate and use in a way that is pleasing to Him. We can also offer up all of our failings, shortcomings, shortsightedness and selfishness. In other words, our sins. Sins are precisely what altars were made for. People are not designed to carry those kinds of burdens. We are crushed under the weight of them if we try to carry them ourselves. Someone else needs to do it. Which, of course, is the very purpose of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Through His sacrifice, Christ paid the debt for all of us; it is a debt that no one else could ever afford to pay.
Today, on this Good Friday, 2010, I will make a point of approaching Mass more mindfully in regards to offering myself up along with the gifts on the alter. As I labor to lighten my load physically through diet and exercise, I will also practice my faith and allow God to lighten my spiritual and mental loads as well.
Today, we grieve the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior. But, it is indeed a "good grief", because it saves the world. God Bless, and be well.
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