as we enter holy week, i find the hymn attributed to joseph of arimathea, which the eastern church sings at vespers on good friday, haunts me:
"give me this stranger, who has no place to lay his head.
give me this stranger, whom his evil disciple delivered to death.
give me this stranger, whom his mother saw hanging on the cross,
and with a mother's sorrow she cried weeping:
'woe is me, my child! woe is me,
light of mine eyes and beloved fruit of my womb!
for what simeon foretold in the temple is come to pass today:
a sword pierce my heart,
but do thou change my grief to gladness by thy ressurrection.' "
may the light of christ shine in even the darkest places of our sinful souls and our sinful world
please listen to the beautiful chant, and pray for all the sons of all the mothers who go each day to calvary, whether as the crucified or the crucifiers. we still seem to know not what we do.
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