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| Crucifix at Jesuit Retreat Center ~ Oshkosh, WI |
Crucifixion by Irene Zimmerman, OSF
Stripped of godliness,
hands hammered open,
arms yanked wide,
the crossbeamed Christ
pours himself out
till rivers run red with
wine enough to satisfy
century-cries of thirst.
I Thank You For Being Wrong by Richard Rohr
From Hope against Darkness
I thank you for becoming weak, Lord Jesus, so I don’t have to be strong.
I thank you for being willing to be considered imperfect and strange, so I do not have to be perfect and normal.
I thank you, Jesus, for being willing to be disapproved of, so I do not have to try so hard to be approved and liked.
I thank you for being considered a failure, so I do not have to give my life trying to pretend I’m a success.
I thank you for being wrong by the standards of religion and state, so I do not have to be right anywhere, even in my own mind.
A Final Thought by Neil Vaney, SM
Helpless as could be
Jesus began the road to Calvary.
Hoots of wild derision greeted his
battered, bloody vision.
Alone without a friend
not a voice raised to defend
his head held bowed before the
jeering, mocking crowd.
The heavy wooden beam
what a torment it did seem
ripping open the gashes that were
the legacy of his lashes.
The sight of his mother called up
anguish he could not smother.
Without chance to explain each knew
the depth of other’s pain.
Jesus tasted deep within the dead
core of all sin,
that the price to atone is to
suffer utterly alone.
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