4.14.2006
I sat in the church this morning alone and stared at a large, wooden crucifix. The sun had yet to rise above the fog line, and it was still dark and cold. The lights were dim, and some candles burned beside the wooden carved body in the middle of the altar. I wore all black and the pearls that my grandparents gave me. I stared at that crucifix, and it was as though I were staring up at Jesus on the cross. As though I stood there holding a vigil for Him so that He would not be alone.
He is so human to me. So real. He was only a few years older than me when He died, and I felt his human-ness this early morning as I fought off sleep in the silent church. The small chapel, usually so richly decorated with the acoutrements of high church, now stripped bare of all luxury to observe this Holy week, creaked at times, as it settled into this sad day. Good Friday. The culmination of the time in history when God came down to Earth to show us what it is to truly "be Human."
He came to teach them to love and to save their lives, and they nailed Him to a tree because He didn't follow the rules of the church. They spit in His face and wrapped Him in a purple robe, placed a crown of thorns on His head and mocked the Man who had come to give His life so that they might live. They beat Him to the point where He was unrecognizable and made Him carry His own instrument of death. And He never said a word, like a sheep standing mute before its slaughterer. They acted like animals, and He - God - acted human.
We act like animals, all of us. I have lost the perspective of what it is to be human. Lent reminds me. In a world where it is so easy to join the pack of animals, it is a constant challenge to
Stay Human.
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