Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Into your hands I commend my spirit
Good Friday Reflection – Peter Carey –
Gesturing to the fishermen, He called them
To set down their nets and become fishers of people.
His hands gave healing to the sick and the unclean
The spirit of healing flowed from his hands
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them
He laid his hands on one, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
Water became wine and a few loaves and fishes became a feast.
He predicted he would end up betrayed into human hands
But he continued to heal and to teach parables of the kingdom
The powers wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.
Though they tried, they did not lay hands upon him when he was a babe
They did not lay hands upon him in the temple
They did not lay hands upon him on the plain
They did not lay hands upon him when he healed
They did not lay hands upon him when he cleaned the temple
And he saw that they did not lay hands upon him
Day after day in the temple, they did not lay hands on him.
But this is their hour, and the power of darkness
Brought their hands upon him.
is nearly done,
but his work and his life will endure in a new way.
His work of healing,
of teaching,
of preaching,
of walking the way of God in the world.
Welcoming the outcast,
visiting the lonely,
the sick
those in prison,
healing those in turmoil,
liberating the oppressed.
He walked with them,
healed them
and offered hope.
But his work and his life will endure in a new way.
His life is gift,
God’s gift to God’s creation.
Ours, too are pure gift,
We are brought into the world
and are held in loving hands as infants,
hands of our parents,
hands of our guardians,
hands of the ones who baptize us,
the hands of our siblings,
and the hands of our teachers, priests and the hands of our friends.
We lay our hands upon others in healing,
we hold the hurt of others as we offer our open hands up in prayer,
we hold up our hands to receive the Eucharistic Feast.
We offer up our hands as we commend our lives to God’s service.
From your hands we have received our lives,
Into your hands we commend our lives and our spirit.
Their hands held him,
Their hands nailed his hands to the cross.
In the moment that worldly hands bound him
He offered no curse
No condemnation
But the gift of radical forgiveness
He saw the hands that would bring him home,
The hands that had supported him all along,
The hands that had held him up in the temple,
The hands that supported him in the wilderness,
The hands that had offered direction and comfort.
In that moment that the hands of the world bound him,
He commended his spirit to the hands that endure,
When he might have cried out in anger or fear
Jesus offered a prayer from the Psalms,
“Into your hands I commend my spirit”
No longer bound by the hands of his captors,
No longer bound by his hand to the cross,
Jesus makes his own funeral commendation.
This cry is no cry of loneliness
of dereliction,
but is a prayer and a deep hope.
He seeks out the hands of his father, from whose hands he became incarnate
The hands that hold the entire world, and caress us as newborn children.
He felt God’s hands reaching to him,
He saw the hands of his Father,
his Abba,
caressing him
offering love,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
In the moment when the hands of the world betrayed him
a prayer.
Calling out into the darkness
But, in hope and love,
God would hear him and hold him
Not a distant deity without care or concern
But a compassionate and loving God
He trusted the loving hands of his Father
He trusted those hands that had held him from the beginning
And were there all along
Holding him, supporting him, and guiding him.
His life is gift,
God’s gift to God’s creation.
Darkness came over the whole land,
The sun’s light failed,
The curtain of the temple was torn in two,
Crying with a loud voice,
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Peter Carey
Good Friday Meditation
7 Last Words: Father Forgive Them
“Father Forgive them, they know not what they do.”
It sounds like a miracle.
Forgiveness is there for us, whether we engage it or not.
Forgiveness is there, are we able to turn and inhabit it?
Jesus looks down from the cross and sees us below.
We stumble around, not knowing what we’re doing.
Jesus sees us, and despite ourselves, he forgives us.
Without any action on our part, he forgives us.
The forgiveness is there for us, are we ready to inhabit it?
Are we ready to turn away from our sin, and turn to God?
Traditionally, we might confess, be contrite, repent, and seek unity
We must remember those things which we have done
Those things we ought to have done.
We remember why we need forgiveness.
We remember the ways our society offers us privilege on the backs of others.
We remember that we keep putting others on the cross, and then divide their possessions.
We remember those systems from which we benefit.
Systems of oppression
Systems of slavery
Systems of dehumanization
Systems of the degradation of the environment
We remember those systems of sin and diminution that we regret.
And Jesus forgives us, for we know not what we are doing
Can we believe in Jesus’s forgiveness for us?
It sounds like a miracle.
How might we live as we embody this forgiveness?
What if we are really forgiven, what if we are freed from the ties that bind us?
What if we can let go of the despicable things which we have done?
Well…we are forgiven.
We know not what we are doing…
Being forgiven, really believing it, can we live forgiven lives?
Can we step away from the ways of fear and hatred?
It sounds like a miracle.
Once forgiven, we have the opportunity to allow God to transform us.
We have the opportunity to help to transform the world.
We have an opportunity to take on the oppressive systems of the world.
We have the opportunity to take on the genocide of
We have the opportunity to put an end to the wars in our cities.
We have the opportunity to put an end to the war in
We have the opportunity to transform our communities into authentic community.
God give us the courage to “know what we’re doing…”?
God give us the courage to engage our hearts, souls and minds…
We have the opportunity to remember Jesus’ forgiveness for us
However, this is not a cheap forgiveness
This is not cheap grace.
Jesus forgives us, but also beckons us to turn around.
Jesus beckons us to repent and turn to God.
He beckons us to turn to Him, and turn to those suffering in the world.
Jesus empowers us to come to those places of suffering
We are called to refuse to crucify him all over again.
We are called to refuse to crucify others.
We are forgiven for what we have done, but we are expected to do better.
We are forgiven, and we can be free of our sin, we can turn from our old ways.
We can turn to new ways that move us from the darkened underbrush
We can turn to a broadened perspective that carries us through the dense forest,
Through the maples and oaks, into the groves of pines, to the place where we can see the summit
We can enter that place where we can see from a broad perspective
Where we can see the world as God sees it, we can see that not only are we forgiven
But that we are called to forgive others…We are forgiven, and we can forgive others.
And we are empowered by the Spirit to not only see the world and its suffering, but to respond to it.
To offer ourselves to the world.
To transform the tears of suffering into shouts of joy.
It sounds like a miracle.
But, through God, all things are possible.
And he does.
It sounds like a miracle.
