drown your sorrows
"My daughter has just died." —Matthew 9:18
Recall some of the saddest words you have ever said. Maybe you've said such things as "She's dead," "There's no hope," "He's gone," "I'm lost," or "I don't want to go on."
Like the synagogue leader, bring your sadness to Jesus, and Jesus will raise you from the dead. "Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you" (1 Pt 5:7). "We do not have a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weakness" (Heb 4:15). "So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need" (Heb 4:16).
Jesus may immediately take away your sadness and pain. He may do what you ask or surprise you with something even better. The Lord may love you so divinely that you will not realize for years how greatly He is loving you. Nevertheless, know for sure that the Lord is loving you personally with a perfect, infinite, unconditional, crucified, and eternal love. Drown your sorrows in "the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love" (Eph 3:18).
Prayer: Father, give me a godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Cor 7:10).
Promise: "I will espouse you to Me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord." —Hos 2:21-22
Praise: Maria Goretti's mother was widowed with seven small children. She suffered the brutal murder of her twelve-year-old daughter Maria. Yet she forgave her daughter's murderer. God rewarded her by allowing her to be alive to witness her daughter's canonization as a saint forty-eight years later.
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, November 29, 1997
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 2, 1997