"It is vain to serve God. What is the good of our keeping his charge?"

These words struck an immediate chord with me. Oftentimes I have muttered these words out of despair and in times when I have felt lonely. But then my eyes turn to my Lord, to that moment when he was crucified on the Cross. The friends who deserted him tragically outnumbered those who stood by him when he died. To most of his contemporaries, Jesus was a failure.

On hindsight, there is none in history who has managed to inspire millions to acts of salvific love as much as our loving Lord has done. So, I cannot but sing with the psalmist: "Happy are those who delight in the law of the Lord, They are like trees planted by streams of water."