Use appropriate Hymns at the beginning and in between
Into our broken world you came, Lord Jesus. You embraced our darkness, even though you are pure light.
You were born in a cave and wrapped in flimsy cloth, you who cover the heavens with the sun, moon and stars. You cried for your mother's milk, you who feed the entire world. You needed the warm arms of a mother, you who stretch out to embrace the universe. You submitted to the Law, you who make all laws of nature. You were baptized as a sinner in the Jordan. You who are sinless and all pure. You traveled about preaching to the multitudes, you who are the silent, everlasting Word of God. You touched the lepers, gave sight to the blind, and opened the ears of the deaf, because you came to give them abundant life.
You, the King of the universe, became like a humble servant. You were hungry and thirsty, you who provide food and drink for all. Sinners touched you and were healed of their loneliness. You were called a friend of harlots you the pure Bridegroom of Your Church. You were poor with no pillow for your head, you who possess the fullness of the Father.
You were the light, but the darkness did not comprehend. You offered love, but received rejection in turn.You wept for the sins of the world, you, the joy of the world. You washed the feet of sinful men, the Master who came to serve. Ours were the sufferings you bore, ours the sorrows you carried. You were struck low as a criminal, crushed for our sins. You were acquainted with sorrows, you who brought pleasure to Your Father. Your sufferings and punishment bring to us peace and forgiveness. And by Your wounds we can be healed.
O, Jesus, radiant Light, you entered into our darkness of sin, violence and shame, that we might have a share in your healing light. On the cross, like a valiant warrior, you entered into the battle of light against darkness, of love against selfishness, of giving against possessing, of forgiving against revenge, of letting go against holding on to.
The soldiers looked upon you whom they had pierced for they saw that to break your bones was useless for you were total brokenness. You were taken down from the cross, wrapt again in flimsy cloth and held in the arms of Your Mother.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, what more could I do for you?"
God has reached the limit of giving, of self‑emptying. No shade of blackness could be added to your darkness. No more void to absolute Zero!
O God, in Jesus may I learn that love becomes fiery light only in the total broken darkness.
I look at the crucified Lord here and in life. I see him stripped of everything:
-Stripped of support: even the friends and family who did not run away are powerless to reach him or help him ...
-Stripped of his God , the god he thought of as his father, who he hoped would save him in his hour of need ...
Finally, I see him stripped of life , this existence here on earth that he, like us, held on to tenaciously and was unwilling to let go of ...
As I gaze at that lifeless body, I slowly understand that I am looking at the symbol of supreme and total liberation. In being fastened to the cross Jesus becomes alive and free. Here is a parable of conquest, not defeat.
So now I begin to contemplate the majesty of the man who has freed himself from all that makes us slaves, destroys our happiness ... In gazing at that freedom, I think with sadness of my own slavery:
-I am a slave to the things that I possess : I think of the times I am controlled by the gadgets and things that I have or the way I appear before people
-I am a slave to public opinion : I think of the times I am controlled by what others/community will say and think of me ...
-I am driven to worldly acceptance : I see the times I run away from challenges and risks because I hate to make mistakes or fail ...the many initiatives that I fail to take …
-I am enslaved by the need for human consolation : how many times I was dependent on the approval and acceptance of others /friends/ community, their power to assuage my loneliness, the times I didn’t really express my opinion, I was possessive of my friends and lost my freedom ...
-I think of my enslavement to my God : I think of the times I try to use him to make my life secure and undisturbed and painless; also the times I am enslaved by fear of him, and by the need to insure myself against him through rites and exercises and ceremonies ...
-Finally, I think of how I cling to life : how paralyzed I am by fears of every kind, unable to take risks, for fear of losing friends or reputation, health, success or life or God ...
-And so, I gaze in admiration at the crucified who won his final liberation in his passion when he fought with his attachments and let go of them, and conquered…..
I too desire for myself the freedom and the victory that shine out in the body on the cross.
And as I continue to contemplate the mystery of his cross, I hear again his words re-echo in my heart:
"If you wish to follow me, you must follow with your cross..." and "unless it dies, the grain of wheat remains alone..."
