FOR THE SAKE OF YOU – Easter special

I order you

O sleeper

Awake!.

I did not create you

To be held a prisoner

A prisoner in hell.

 

Rise up!

From the dead

I am the life of the dead.

Rise up!

Work of my hands

You who were created in my image.

Rise up!

 

Let us leave

Leave this place

For you are in me

And I am in you

Together, we form only one person

And we cannot be

Cannot be separated for your sake

 

I, your God,

Became your son

I, the Lord,

Took the form of a slave

I, whose home is above

Above the heavens

Descended to the earth

And beneath the earth

For your sake

 

For the sake of man

I became like a man

Without help

Free among the dead.

For the sake of you

 

You who left a garden

I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden

I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received

In order to restore to you the life

The life I once breathed into you.

 

See there the marks of the blows

The blows I received

In order to refashion your warped nature

In my image

On my back see the marks of the scourging

I endured to remove the burden of sin

Sin that weighs upon your back.

 

See my hands

Nailed firmly to a tree

For you

You, who once wickedly stretched out

Stretch out your hand to a tree.

(Adapted from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday)