Taking it personally

Maybe many of us have been told something unpleasant but at the same time, whoever it was who was telling it to us said ‘but don’t take it personally’.

Maybe the person meant well or maybe they didn’t.

But as afar as the events of Holy Week are concerned, the One who proclaims the Good News to us not only means very well but invites us to take it very personally: the Passion of Jesus Christ is for you. St Paul went as far as to say that he lives by trusting in ‘the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ Gal 2:20

Take it personally because it was my death Jesus died and it was my debt that He paid. Take it personally because it was for my salvation that he was raided from the dead and if I was the only person alive he would have done it for me just the same. Take it personally because that is how much the Lord values each and every one of us. He would rather suffer and take the guilt of my sin on the cross than not giving me the chance to spend eternity with him.

Personal it is but it is not private. Responding to the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, we become more authentically human, more loving and more willing to be part of the community of faith who through their prayers, word and mission proclaim that “if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Rom 10:9)… and Jesus is to be Lord of my all, or Lord not at all.