To Weep

Another poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti. This one entitled Good Friday:

Am I a stone and not a sheep
    That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy Cross
    To number drop by drop thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
    Who with exceeding grief lamented thee;
    Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the sun and moon
    Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
    A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
    But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
    Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

Do you weep for the Lord’s death? Do you mourn and grieve at the loss of your shepherd? Rossetti powerfully evokes the grief of those who witnessed Jesus’ death. The women’s heartfelt lament, Peter’s bitter tears, the thief’s remorse. Even the sun and moon were extinguished by their loss. The sun, whose very nature is brightness, gave up its light at midday; such was the horror of this one life’s loss. Do you weep for your Lord’s death?

I, only I, says the poet, do not weep. I, a stone, number drop by drop Jesus’ blood’s slow loss, yet do not weep. The stone of Golgotha, the bloody stone beneath the cross, the stone that held the cross heavenward as Jesus’ body hung upon it. The stone does not weep. For each of us there are times and places in our lives when we do not weep for Jesus’ death. Times, perhaps even most of the time, when we find it possible to contemplate Jesus’ death upon the cross and not weep. The poet is not alone. We, too, are the stone. Each of us carries some piece of it within our hearts. A place that does not weep for the loss of God.

Yet give not o’er, (the poet says to Jesus)
    But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
    Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

Do not give up on me, dear Jesus, you who are greater than Moses, turn and look once more and smite a rock. Do you recognize the allusion? Hear these words from the 17^th chapter of Exodus: "From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel." The children of God were whining, petulant and quarreling, yet Moses—filled with the power of God—smote the rock with his staff and water flowed. Water flowed from the stone in the desert and the peoples’ thirst was quenched.

Yet give not o’er, (the poet says to Jesus)
    But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
    Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

With the hard wood of the cross smite the stone of our hearts and let us weep. We pray that the staff upon which Jesus died may bring forth water in the desert of our souls. And that we may weep. Weep for the loss of God.

Smite the stone of our hearts that we may weep… weep for all that is broken in the world, all the pettiness and arrogance and indifference that debase our human nature.

Smite the stone of our hearts that we may weep for all whose lives are scarred by illness and for all who know misery, loneliness, sorrow or despair.

Smite the stone of our hearts that we may weep for sin, for human sin, for our sin… and for all that we have lost because of sin. Let us weep for the human lives that have been lost, for the love that has been poisoned, for the hope and creativity that have been snuffed out.

With the wood of the cross smite the stone of our hearts, dear Jesus, and let us weep for our loss of you. God is gone from our lives. Our Lord and Savior is dead. Let us weep.

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