Thursday, 5 April 2012

For Good Friday


How much can a soul take?
How much can a body bear, of darkness, of solitude, of everything going the opposite direction of joy?
Someone said that there a certain of amount of sorrow
      that is sufficient for one life time.
Sufficient,  how can sorrow be sufficient? 
Too much.
    It can be too much.
Yet carrying the burden of sorrow
     we gather here on this day….
A day which calls us deeper into the darkness,
  deeper into the sorrow.

How much can a soul take?
    How much can a body bear   
         before it begins to bend and break
             before it begins to sway and bow
       in the wind of the gathering storm?

Yet you call us to this day,
  Beckon us further into the shadows, into the mystery
    Luring us with promises of light and joy,
                        as the darkness grows.

Do we dare trust you?
  Do we dare let ourselves be enveloped in the pain
        with only a possibility held out before us?

Who are you that we should follow?
  Who are you that we should trust
        our very lives to your keeping,
           O One who hangs on a cross
              and gasps for a final breath of air?
   Who are you?

Who are you?
   Stranger yet familiar?
            Unknown yet known?
Your voice seems to remind us
     of a place we once called home
            where life was safe and we were loved.
Are you the one who took us there?
Are you the one who left the gate open,
   Leaving us free to wander or to stay?
Wander we did,
    out from the peace and safety of our home.
  We wandered out,
    so far we lost even the scent  of you on the air,
      home a distant memory.

Now we are here, in this place on this day,
  and we hear the echo of our truest selves
      and the whisper of unfathomable love
            on the air that sweeps from the hill where you hang.
Through the darkness, through the sorrow,
     we catch the scent of home.

How much can a soul take?
   How much can a body bear?
     How much do we ache
        to return to the place from which from which we came?
So on this day as you beckon,
     we dare to wrap our courage around us,
            summon hope,
                join hands
and follow into the darkness, 
    the scent of you,
          the whisper of promise,
you who  comes to guide us home.
  
   


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