Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Lamentations is honest about grief in a way that most spiritual writing is not. The Lamentations poet does not rush past the ruin or find the silver lining. He sits in it: the silence, the children dying, the false prophets who said everything was fine. Pour out your heart like water. That is the instruction. Not: move on. Not: find the lesson. Pour out the heart.

And then the centurion - not a member of the covenant people, no religious heritage, no standing in Israel. He has a paralyzed servant and the faith to say: Lord, just say the word. He understands authority because he lives under authority. He trusts the word that works at a distance.

In your twenties the Lamentations moment comes - the grief that doesn't have a quick resolution, the false prophet who said it would be fine and it wasn't, the poured-out heart. And the centurion moment comes too: the situation where the only move is to ask the one with authority to just say the word.

Which are you in right now - the Lamentations moment or the centurion moment? Both are valid. Both are addressed to the same Lord. If the Lamentations: pour out the heart, lift up the hands. If the centurion: just say the word, I trust your authority. Do the one that fits your situation this week.

Lord, hear the poured-out heart. Just say the word for what is beyond my reach. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.