O Jesus, “O my love crucified”. You had been hanging on “our sins” before they hanged you on the cross. Our sins killed you as we were amusing with them. We behold you now as having “no appearance that we should be attracted to you “bloody and pierced, yet not broken; an object of God’s love. You condemn our iniquities through your body but you do not condemn us because your heart cannot bear to have any person die in it. We are homeless oh Lord. You have stretched your arms to embrace us so you can bring us back to your Father a pure and whole humanity so that He (the Father) does not pronounce His judgment on us on the that day. And you tell Him (the Father) “What is it with them and death! Forgive the trespasses of those who lie, steal and murder because you love them the same way you love those who are pure. All of them are your children and all are my brethren. You enfold them with your mercy and no one can be saved except through this mercy. You have revealed to the “Beloved Disciple” that “God is love “.That is an understanding that Love is you and you dwell in him who loves. You also dwell in the unbeliever; you only ask him to believe in your forgiveness. That would bring him back to you. You forgive him because you long for him at all times.
You long for him because he is the offspring of your love, the love you want no one to be excluded from. If he ignores your love, then of what importance is anything else? Our great Fathers said that you brought us to being so that your love does not remain a captive of your own being. Father you are a god who reaches out to others embracing them. And you were resurrected in me (Jesus) so Man can know that (the resurrection) and live, becoming aware that he is God’s kin. I have been his companion even unto death so that his knowledge of you would be new; no more are you “up there” and he is “down here”. There is no distance between him and you anymore. The ancients knew that they were close to you, but when they got to know me they realized that your grace has made them in a better standing; they got to know that they are one with you. And that required that I be wounded. You have ordained that I be wounded so that they would love you and be healed. And when healed, you would become their song and joy. And joy is heaven.
You did not raise any one to You except when You have sent me down to them. In a little while, they will be ascending (to You) with me so that Your joy will be full in us and thus Your kingdom is revealed to them. I have told them that Your kingdom is in them and then I revealed that to them further in my death.
Jesus, take me to that love with which my sins are daily atoned for. Let me not see except your face, for every other face is a distraction. Constrain me in your love so that my passions will not “tickle” me, and people would be able to see your light manifested on my face; but let them know that this light is not from me but is poured on me through your tenderness. You have mixed with us so that we can taste you (experience you) and our relationship with you after you consummated the last supper is that you give us yourself in the form of the bread and the cup so that we will always thirst and hunger for you thus bridging the distance between us and your Father.
And when you come to us in that form (bread and wine) we know we are not brothers in flesh and blood only, but we have become so in your Spirit. We do not bring you to us; you carry us off to yourself. You, you reveal what we receive from the altar of salvation (i.e. the bread and wine) as “You”, the one seated at the right hand of the Father.
We see that your arms stretched on the cross embrace us binding us to you and your Father in the power of your Spirit. We return to your world so that we do not get dispersed in our world; but we return to you, you having become our world, so we do not stray away to another where there is boredom and death.
You have said: “He, who wants to follow me, let him deny himself, carry his cross and follow me.” We know that this is hard on us. But we believe that you have carried our misery; and so we get comfort from every word you have uttered. And you have said: “You are clean because of the words that I have spoken to you”. We become a new creation by listening to what you alone said and to none else. After that we delightfully enjoy your Kingdom. Jesus, be our Lord so we can be certain that your peace is in us. The peace you give gushes forth from your wounds healing our wounds waking us from the slumber of death.
This New Life you have called us to is in us and remains there when we keep your commandments. If we stay away from your commandments, we become merely a mirage and then dwindle to nothingness. Lord, do not leave us to the nothingness in which your words are not heard. Pull us out of the mire of our sinfulness that distracts us from beholding your cross and that makes us inclined to listen to the “voice” of deception. And deception is the “lust of the eyes and that of the flesh and pride of living”. We know that all those are “deaths” that obstruct the power of your cross working in us.
Oh Lord, we want you. Do not fail us nor let us be tempted with iniquity. You have decreed that the saints should fly away from that (iniquity). And as we follow you, we do so as if saintliness is a burden or impossibility. Change us into what you desire us to be so that we would want only your will thus becoming profoundly united with you. Make straight our thoughts so we do not miss your will for us, purify our intentions so that we would accept, with joy, what you intend for us; and so we become really your friends. Stay close to us in our weaknesses so that we can obtain your strength and not fear death.
Oh my Lord, keep every shadow of death away from us. And aid us with your resurrection power when the hour of our meeting the Father draws nigh. At our last moments, cast not us away so that the darkness does not overwhelm us. Reveal to us that our departure from this world is the door to your bosom. Remind us of this always so that when we realize that our time is near, we also realize that we are not alienated from your presence. Your face (presence), your face oh Lord is our comfort in this weary world. Permit it not that we despair of the hope of being close to you; such despair is death itself.
Call every dying person to you at the hour of his death because if he does not hear your voice he will remain deaf. Reveal your face to him so that he accepts the bosom of your Father. All those who die enter into His mercy. That was said by our Fathers who had practiced the ascetic feats. Your Mother, oh Lord, cannot stand that any one should end up in the fire (of hell). And you have told your beloved disciple standing at the cross that she is his mother conveying to us that she is the mother of everyone who is loved by you. She does not like anyone to perish for good; so when they get saved they realize that she has interceded for them. That is the meaning of the wedding at Cana of Galilee, oh Lord.
That wedding is the image of your wedding with humanity; a wedding in blood. That itself will be the eternal wedding when you gather those who love you from the ends of the earth; then their sufferings will end and they will exult in you. Those whom you have “kidnapped” to yourself will follow you wherever you walk up there.
All what we have seen of your goodness is but a preparation for this “last day”. The resurrection, of which we have tasted many “resurrections” in the love you have for us, that resurrection you accomplished after your passion, will be revealed to us as an in-gathering of those who have been drawn to your love. After that we will play, with the angels, music on the harps of victory, and each moment of Heaven will be in us a new song for you.
And all that in Heaven is an echo of what we on earth chant: Christ Is Risen.
Translated by Riad Mofarej
Original Text: “يا عشقي المصلوب” – 02.04.2010
