Good Friday

I fear I am largely allergic to poetry. Too often, it seems to flow at a pace and by a course that my mind doesn't grasp. (Since Erudite Partner is a poet, this is an unfortunate disability.)

Lucas van Leyden, 1517

But very occasionally, a poem gets through to me. This meditation/poem did so this morning as I sought to engage with the commemoration of the execution of Jesus.

Nobody crucified Jesus

Religious leaders accused,
culture made excuses,
politicians gave orders,
people in the streets went along,
friends left him to the system,
and the army pounded nails.
Who do you blame for that?

We live in a cross-shaped world
that believes in the expedience
of other people’s pain.
The most injurious to God
are those with good reasons.

Even the most powerful
have only the power someone gave them.
What evil have I helped to empower?
What part of me helped create this evil?
Am I ready for it to be healed?

Just as we found ways, working together,
to do evil,
it will take a lot of us working together
to do good. 

By Steve Garnaas-Holmes; h/t Diana Butler Bass.