April 6, 2007

Good Friday

May the Lord grant you His peace!

When I used to think of the crucifixion, I would get a one-dimensional vision of still art. My image was accurate, but not real. Over the years, that image has begun to be filled in and brought to life. I have gradually developed a picture of a vivid and real moment.

I can now see the thickness and the roughness of the wood. I can see the roundness of Jesus’ leg, the protrusion of His stretched out ribs. I can see the block of wood under His feet. I can see the nails; I see blood. I see the sweat; I see the purplish bruises, the torn flesh. I hear the loud murmuring of the crowd, the shouting of the soldiers, the wailing of the women. I can smell and almost taste the metallic of blood. I see His sorrow. I feel sympathy for the Victim’s Mother. I see His blood flowing down and dripping onto Her tender face. I can begin to feel the rugged terrain under my feet, the parching heat on my face and in my throat. The cold wind. The steel grey sky.

He hangs bloody, bruised, broken—no longer an idea, but a person, a Divine Person with a real human body. All time stands still; the forces of good and evil are unable to move at the sight. Why, Lord, did it have to be? The image would be enough, but You made it real—not an image, not a painting, but Your flesh and blood, Your soul and divinity, poured out until nothing is left.

May the dying Lord grant you the grace to wonder, and even be shocked, at what He did and why He did it. His wounds are real because His love is real.

Pax et bonum,

Br. Giuseppe Maria Siniscalchi, CFR

St. Joseph Friary, New York, NY

_________________________________________________