Good Friday- A Mother’s Call

Judea:

It was a quiet day.

Birds called and life went on.

Who would have thought,

On such a day that

Blood could flow,

The veil could be torn in two,

The earth could shake,

The tomb could await its faultless guest?

 

Here:

It is a peaceful day.

Birds call and old folk rest at home

Shakily but happily.

Young folk labour where they can,

Making ends meet.

Who would think,

On such a day that

Suffering continues,

Blood flows,

Women and men die both

Peacefully and in torment?

 

Judea:

Trial ended,

The path, the Via Dolorosa,  

The way of suffering.

Walked as they tore at His beard.

They spat on Him.

They spat on love and peace,

And all that He challenged them to be.

Each step an explosion of nerve end agony.

His mother looked on wishing to take His place;

To end His suffering.

He walked on.

 

Here:

The way of suffering

Walked over and over.

The steps worn deep into the soil

Of our life journey.

We know the way of suffering.

We know His mother’s agony

As we watch on, willing the suffering

Of loved ones’ to be our own.

Yet, because He walked Via Dolorosa before us

We walk alone no more.

 

Judea:

Love raised high on a lowly tree,

Pierced, beaten, broken.

His mother wept

But could not hold Him as death approached.

At the ninth hour, he gave up his spirit.

 

Here:

We wait, in silent witness

Of the horror of pandemic and death;

Entombed ourselves

In our own troubles and worries,

Unable to hold those in the clutch of death.

“Why are we forsaken?”

We give up our spirit in grief.

 

Judea:

Buried secretly with barely a few to witness,

His mother wept and held His friends.

“He is at rest now.”

The emptiness resounded around the world.

But not for long.

She remembered his promise.

She sensed God at work.

His absence, temporary,

His return, imminent.

 

Here:

We are stricken with His mother.

We feel the pain she felt for all of us.

We hold each other.

We hear a Mother’s call to us: “remember His promise.”

And we are awake to her call

To His message of hope

We are awake and watching now.

Today is Friday but Sunday will come.