O Lord,
who offered up
in pain and sorrow
your own life's blood
that we might live,
remember this day
all who grieve,
who suffer,
who will die,
and have mercy on them all.
May we who love you
be willing tools
in your hands,
tools of your mercy
wherever you might call us.
Transform us,
O Fountain of Mercy,
that we become
your hands to heal,
your voice to comfort,
your feet to seek out
those in need,
This day and always,
Amen.
It was no clean thing, this --
no easy walk into that dark night,
no staged and calm event
filled with memorable sound bites
and photo op moments,
soldiers in their dress uniforms
and dignitaries in their solemn regalia.
No clean thing, this --
filled instead with the sweat of pain
and the taste of blood,
the dust of the road,
the tears of grief,
the reality of betrayal,
the weight of sin.
No calm thing, this,
filled instead with noise:
the noise of mockery, bitter and undeserved,
punctuated with spittle and blows.
the noise of pain:
the slap of the flagellum against bare skin,
the sound of hammers driving spikes into wood
through human flesh,
cries ripped unbidden from the depths of the gut,
as flesh protested the hot sudden agony
that would not go away.
The noise of expediency: "Crucify him yourselves."
No easy walk this,
rushed through the crowded streets
beneath a crushing weight,
stripped of everything that matters most to man,
standing naked in the light of day
bruised and bloody and battered,
with nothing left to give
except the acceptance of pain,
except the final acts of love,
surrender
death.
Help me see, O Jesus,
beyond the pretty pictures
and sound bites
and images that we dress you up in,
to the reality of how God descended to death,
the dirty, miserable realness of it,
of man's willingness to be inhuman,
and you did this knowing how dark we can be,
and how unloving we can be,
and how we cling to the dark in spite of your light,
and you still chose to go.
BTTT
Amen, Knitting.
Mercy, mercy and more mercy.
Our priest urged us gently today to live this week in humility, to see the palm branch as Christ's victory over our pride and other waywardness.
Hopefully others will know Him through our kindness.