Way back on Ash Wednesday during our school Mass, the children began to sing a song that I had not heard in a very long time. They sang it with such tenderness, but since it was about the crucified Lord, the song resonated even more because it was sung by our children. The song is "Above All" and the chorus is what gets me every time:
Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall
and thought of me
above all
The thought of our Lord who loved us so much being rejected, cast aside, insulted, and trampled upon. Isaiah foretold this. He was "crushed for our iniquity...though harshly treated, he submitted and did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter... (Isaiah 53:5,7)" Jesus was tossed aside, ignored. And this day my thoughts turn to all our brothers and sisters around the world who are tossed aside and ignored; those who are forgotten and who are the crucified Christs of our time. Those suffering persecution in Syria, Iraq, and Nigeria, and then of course, the deaths of 148 Kenyan students that were shot simply for being Christians. These are the roses that are being trampled upon today. The silent souls whose deaths cry out to God. Yet, they are souls that are blessed because they suffered martyrdom for their Savior. Their blood proclaims the glory of God, for while we look upon the cross and see a deformed, beaten, and lifeless savior, we know that what Christ did on that cross was done out of love for you and me and for all those who have suffered and died in his name. It breaks our hearts to behold the terror of the cross, for we too at times have tossed Christ aside and left him rejected and alone. But he continues to love us and bear those wounds for us because though trampled and beaten, when he took those nails, he thought of you...above all.
