The art above forms part of a mixed media stations of the cross put together by our friends from ‘The Many’, who gave us permission to include some of the work here. The story of the art is itself deeply moving, as the work emerged in the wake of the death of the artist’s son. Dan talks about his process here. We highly recommend spending some time with the whole series. The image is paired with a beautiful song, and with this prayer;
Hear our prayers
For all who have taken on big things….
Injustice, inequity,
exclusion, hatred,
division, dissolution, destruction.
For those who don’t close their eyes to the pain of the world.
Who don’t turn away.
For those who sometimes feel like it’s more than they can bear.
Hear our prayers.
We are entering the end stage of our lent journey, and it seems appropriate to ponder again that most recognisable Christian symbol of the cross.
What does it mean to you now? Perhaps the meaning of the cross has shifted and changed, as faith itself shifts and changes. Like all powerful symbols, it has been employed and used in ways that seem to bear no relation Jesus. There is some evidence that it was not used as a symbol at all in the early church and was only used in public worship from around the fourth C BCE. How should we use it now? Might this execution device become once more a symbol of liberation and healing?
There is that story of Simon of Cyrene – an African man – being asked to carry the cross that Jesus no longer could carry.
Why him?
Why me?
Cross
They scratched it on the walls of caves
Formed it from pure gold
Festooned it with trinkets
Marched it towards crusader carnage
Carved it in flesh
There it is in neon against the city sky
Worn at the neck of a Nazi soldier
Standing in serried ranks
Over massed graves
Burning in the black Southern night
Tattooed on the chest of hooded men
We should all know better
The shape of it was made for murder
For pinning dissent like a butterfly
It points like a ragged sign towards disgrace
It is a rough pole to fly flesh-flags as warning;
Conform, or this cross is for made for you
Simon (he said)
Carry my cross
CG
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