Daily Retreat 04/01/07
2007 Apr 1 SUN: PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION
Procession: Lk 19: 28-40. Mass: Is 50: 4-7/ Ps 21(22): 8-9. 17-18. 19-20. 23-24/Phil 2: 6-11/ Lk 22: 14 – 23: 56
Passion for the Passion
An English pastor named G.A. Studdert-Kennedy wrote a haunting poem I came across in my early teens, titled “When Jesus came to Birmingham”:
When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet,
And made a Calvary.
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns,
Red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham
They simply passed Him by,
They never hurt a hair of Him,
They only let Him die;
For men have grown more tender,
And they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street,
And left Him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them,
For they know not what they do!’
And still it rained the winter rain
That drenched Him through and through;
The crowd went home and left the streets
Without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall
And cried for Calvary.
When I first came across this poem, it immediately struck me how aptly it described our cold modern world’s indifference to the Love of Christ on the Cross. In fact, the need to address the world’s indifference was one of the inspirations leading me to the priesthood. I’ve always felt a wonderful comfort in praying before a crucifix. Many times in preparation for these virtual retreat reflections, I go and pray in my parish church, which has a beautiful crucifix. Once, after reading up on some studies that suggested that Christ’s cross more likely was a Tau cross (form of capital T) instead of a Latin cross (lower case t), instead of praying, I found myself wondering, “Well, was it a Tau or Latin cross? Is the cross that I’m looking at now an historically accurate representation?
It was at that moment that I had a crucial insight:
How many times I had looked at a crucifix, and made an objective artistic assessment, or remarked to myself that the nails didn’t belong in the hands (all evidence is that the nails actually went through the wrists); or sometimes I found myself debating whether the spear went into His right side or left side; or when I lapse into the persona of the “know-it-all” scripture scholar, I’ll be mentally reviewing what the letter I.N.R.I. stood for in the original Latin, Hebrew, and Greek.
So many times, contemplating a crucifix, and missing, almost completely missing, the entire purpose of the crucifix – not to enhance the artistic value of any church, not to demonstrate every awful aspect of crucifixion, not to quiz us about our knowledge of ancient languages, but to remind us of the Love of our Savior in laying down His life for us! I realized it wasn’t just the world that was indifferent about Christ’s crucifixion – I myself had become inexcusably calloused to the Passion, since I could so nonchalantly look at a crucifix and coldly calculate its artistic or realistic value, instead of having my heart overflow with gratitude and wonder at so great a Love, so great a Love! What was wrong with me that I had so little passion for the Passion of Christ?
As we begin this Holy Week, each one of us needs to re-discover renewed passion for the Passion, because it is the Passion of Christ that saves souls, it is the Passion of Christ that captures converts, and it is the Passion of Christ that makes saints!
Procession: Lk 19: 28-40. Mass: Is 50: 4-7/ Ps 21(22): 8-9. 17-18. 19-20. 23-24/Phil 2: 6-11/ Lk 22: 14 – 23: 56
Passion for the Passion
An English pastor named G.A. Studdert-Kennedy wrote a haunting poem I came across in my early teens, titled “When Jesus came to Birmingham”:
When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet,
And made a Calvary.
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns,
Red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham
They simply passed Him by,
They never hurt a hair of Him,
They only let Him die;
For men have grown more tender,
And they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street,
And left Him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them,
For they know not what they do!’
And still it rained the winter rain
That drenched Him through and through;
The crowd went home and left the streets
Without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall
And cried for Calvary.
When I first came across this poem, it immediately struck me how aptly it described our cold modern world’s indifference to the Love of Christ on the Cross. In fact, the need to address the world’s indifference was one of the inspirations leading me to the priesthood. I’ve always felt a wonderful comfort in praying before a crucifix. Many times in preparation for these virtual retreat reflections, I go and pray in my parish church, which has a beautiful crucifix. Once, after reading up on some studies that suggested that Christ’s cross more likely was a Tau cross (form of capital T) instead of a Latin cross (lower case t), instead of praying, I found myself wondering, “Well, was it a Tau or Latin cross? Is the cross that I’m looking at now an historically accurate representation?
It was at that moment that I had a crucial insight:
How many times I had looked at a crucifix, and made an objective artistic assessment, or remarked to myself that the nails didn’t belong in the hands (all evidence is that the nails actually went through the wrists); or sometimes I found myself debating whether the spear went into His right side or left side; or when I lapse into the persona of the “know-it-all” scripture scholar, I’ll be mentally reviewing what the letter I.N.R.I. stood for in the original Latin, Hebrew, and Greek.
So many times, contemplating a crucifix, and missing, almost completely missing, the entire purpose of the crucifix – not to enhance the artistic value of any church, not to demonstrate every awful aspect of crucifixion, not to quiz us about our knowledge of ancient languages, but to remind us of the Love of our Savior in laying down His life for us! I realized it wasn’t just the world that was indifferent about Christ’s crucifixion – I myself had become inexcusably calloused to the Passion, since I could so nonchalantly look at a crucifix and coldly calculate its artistic or realistic value, instead of having my heart overflow with gratitude and wonder at so great a Love, so great a Love! What was wrong with me that I had so little passion for the Passion of Christ?
As we begin this Holy Week, each one of us needs to re-discover renewed passion for the Passion, because it is the Passion of Christ that saves souls, it is the Passion of Christ that captures converts, and it is the Passion of Christ that makes saints!
posted by FrPitstick | 3/31/2007
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