The distance that Simon Weil speaks of in his essay with the same title is the expansive gap between humanity and God. Weil answers that the gap is filled by God’s initiating love that He has created and that He supplies. That love is seen most clearly in the disturbing suffering of the cross.
Weil contributes to the Lenten conversation by emphasizing some already observed themes. It is the theme of how Christ’s suffering informs our own suffering, the necessity of the cross, and the depth of evil that has been overcome. What Weil brings out so brilliantly is the breadth of love, to quote the hymn, “it reaches to the highest mountain, it flows to the lowest valley.” Weil sums it up with this, “It is thus the soul, starting from the opposite end, makes the same journey that God made toward it. And that is the cross” What a blessed reassurance that God, possessor and creator of supreme love, brought that love to us. Choosing not to hoard His love and make us come get it, but to bring His love toward us in its fullest extent. To quote another hymn, “O, love that will not let me go.”