Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must be killed.
Peter took him aside
and said, “God forbid it, Boss!
This must never happen to you.”
—from Matthew 16.21-22
Oh, God, how we want to protect you,
to defend your name from being sullied,
prevent all ridicule, and above all,
assure that you or your Chosen One
should never suffer.
But you are the Suffering One,
who even in creation
had to carve out room in your own self
(being infinite, there was nowhere else),
you who love us perfectly
and so guarantee yourself heartache.
What we do to the least we do to you,
so you are daily judged, slaughtered,
trafficked, abused.
When we cry out it is not against you, but ourselves.
It is not you but we who must do the forbidding,
must rise up against unjust suffering,
not aside, but in the square.
This is the scandal of the cross:
you will not forbid. It is in our hands.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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