[ Today's Readings ]
Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
The eyes of the world look to you today, LORD, and see one more failure. They seem a common criminal, perhaps. Or maybe someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. They perceive the ugliness of suffering and death.
He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.
If there is nothing in you to attract us it is no wonder that the world is repulsed. If there is no stately bearing to make us look the world look is it any wonder that they turn away?
Yet you do draw us, LORD. In spite of all the ugliness of the cross you do draw us. But it is not stately bearing nor appearance that draws us. It is deeper.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
You speak, LORD. You invite us to recognize the truth. In your words we hear something more real than suffering and death. We hear a truth which we cannot own or contain. We can choose to recognize it for what it is and submit to it and belong to it. But we cannot simply take it as our own and use it as we will.
Pilate chooses to look the other way. Instead of letting the truth take possession of him he allows your lack of stately bearing and your marred appearance to repulse his gaze. Don't let us look away LORD. It would be easier, at first, not to look. It would be easier to not own up to the fact that you are bearing the suffering which is rightfully ours.
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
But we need to see. We need to keep looking. We need to let the truth possess us until we see the one made perfect as the eternal salvation for all who obey him. We need to recognize you as the great "I AM" even as you suffering and bleed and die for us. Not just even as you do, but especially.
We are lousy at continuing to look. We're all too ready to look away. But you give us help of the one whose gaze does not waver. Mary keeps her station by the cross. You give her to us as our mother. Help us to hide ourselves in her mantle so that we can endure with her the whole trauma of your cross. With Mary's help we can stay with you to the very end.
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
Death is ugly. It is painful. But we hear in your voice something deeper. We hope in you, take courage, and become stouthearted. We hear love incarnate speaking. We hear the great "I AM" and we know that this is not the end but a new beginning. We know that the blood and water the pour forth here are the source of salvation for all who believe.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
Behold the wood ...
Her station keeping ...
Sacred Head Surrounded ...
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