In Mirrors

Bread and Wine Reading: "In Mirrors", by William Wangerin
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13: 8-13
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Wangerin reminds us that in mirrors we see ourselves. Perhaps we see more than we want to see, but we see the real self. As all of who struggle with weight, or those nasty lines on our face, or even just some piece of clothing that just doesn’t look the way it did on the headless mannequin in the store know, mirrors do not lie. He says that “mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. But this is the hurt of purging and precious renewal—and these are the mirrors of dangerous grace.”

Others can be mirrors for us, reflecting the “us” we’d rather not see either by gentle or harsh words or even an all-too-obvious facial expression. Wangerin says that Christ’s suffering and death is also a mirror, if only we choose to see it. Perhaps the reason that this season of Lent is difficult for us is that it forces us to face our real selves—our hurts, our failures, our sins. Because this walk of passion and death is not just Christ’s to walk; it is ours. It is a forced walk through the shadows of our own lives, a walk through our pains and failures and the late coming feelings of remorse for things we have done. This season also shows us those places where we have been complicit in the injustices of the world, where we have been part of the crucifixion of the love and compassion and goodness that is Christ. And in this way, “Lent can heal the soul’s blindness.” (Howard, 44)

The season of Lent is truly a mirror of our real selves and our real lives as they are revealed in Christ. Again, this walk to the Cross is hard. But, there…there in the mirror is also your Resurrection, reflected by Christ’s own!

Discussion Questions:
1.) What are the things in your mirror that you’d rather not see?
2.) What does the idea of your own death and your own resurrection reflected in the mirror mean for you?
3.) What reflection of this season of Lent does this provide for you?

So go forth with new awareness that Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection is a reflection of your own!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli