Contemplative Oasis: 2017

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Living in the Five Wounds and Passion of Christ

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.
Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.

The face of and Agony of Mary this this Easter is found in the faces of the Coptic Christian women grieving for their loved ones . The wounds of Christ are visible in the blood on the shattered pews the blood of all Martyrs killed in the name of Christ. For Christians the world over it is time to recognize that this is our blood united with the Blood of the Body of Christ across the world. It is long past time to keep putting the barrier of labels between us and fellow persecuted and dying Christians across the world. Our brothers and sisters in Christ were gathered for Palm Sunday as all Christian churches across the world. Our Coptic brothers and sisters hold some of the earliest Christian beliefs on the planet and are systematically being driven out of the Eastern World and anyone who hold the name of Christian with them. The news seems to want to isolate by reporting events as one time unrelated events but it is a genocide and Diaspora of Christians from what we as Westerners call the Eastern World. What was once the Eastern World far removed from us is now our world and our time.

At the same time there is a sympathy for all refugees from countries who have suffered under war and violence in such countries as Syria. I am currently trying to learn a few greetings in Arabic to enter into the struggle of learning a new language , living in a new country and full of challenges in a ways we as generational Canadians cannot fully comprehend. My new friend wears a hijab in public , and this puts her with other refugees grieving there lost love ones in recent airstrikes and gassing which we are not discussing in our short visits to learn a bit more about Canada , its culture, and routine day to day English.

We hold that tension in our hands . When we look up at the cross we realize Christ did also.

St Bernard opens his sermon on the five wounds with this :

Where can the weak find a place of firm security and peace except in the wounds of the Savior.

So while you walk and pray your Stations of the Cross this Good Friday , watch the Passion or Jesus of Nazareth or the Bible pause for a moment and see the faces of the Coptic Christian women as they grieve as the women who Christ addressed on the route of his Passion, as the face of Mary the Mother of Christ and Mary Magdalene as they stood at the foot of the Cross. See the nail marks in the hands , the feet the side of Christ, feel the weight of the Cross on wounded shoulders, the blood, the grief and the agony and enter into the wounds of Christ for refuge as you bring within your own pain and the pain of the world. It is as Bernard says our only place of firm security and peace.