Today, Christians around the world
gathered to remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Most of these remembrances took place within church walls.
Today, about 50 people journeyed
through downtown Albuquerque. The gathered peoples marked places where people continue to
experience pain, violence, and oppression; places where people wipe the brow of
Christ by helping those in deep need; and, places where people carry the cross
of Christ in their daily burdens.
The Urban Way of the Cross brought
together people of varied Christian backgrounds, ranging in age from one year
old on up. As the mass of people wound through parks, schools, around
courthouses and shelters, some onlookers honked car horns in support while
others gazed in wonderment.
At each stop, a scripture was read,
a reading shared, and a prayer offered, as the group sang, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord."
Concluding at Albuquerque Health
Care for the Homeless, people prayed for healing.
At every step between, the cross marked a place in
Albuquerque where the hope of Jesus Christ was made present.
A quote from Belden Lane, one of my new favorite authors:
ReplyDelete"God's very nature is disclosed in spirit-crushing poverty, among those experiencing deepest loss, at the point where life and sanity are most threatened. There, in a silence shorn of all meaning, God's heart remains stubbornly and painfully open to love. God's whispered speech, in the giving (and breaking) of God's son, emerges from that still point."