The Hour of Darkness

To all the cast and crew of Passion Play 2011, Remember Him, I would like to offer my most heartfelt congratulations and thanks! You did a wonderful job of proclaiming Christ Crucified to a very forgetful world.

At our final prayer service, I mentioned Pope Benedict's prayer at the Via Crucis in Rome's Coliseum. Here it is with my emphasis in bold.





Lord Jesus,

you invite us to follow you

in this, your final hour.

In you, each one of us is present

and we, though many, are one in you.

In your final hour is our life’s hour of testing,

in all its harshness and brutality;

it is the hour of the passion of your Church

and of all humanity.

It is the hour of darkness:

when “the foundations of the earth tremble”

and man, “a tiny part of your creation”,

groans and suffers with it;

an hour when the various masks of falsehood

mock the truth

and the allure of success stifles the deep call to honesty;

when utter lack of meaning and values

brings good training to nought

and the disordered heart disfigures the innocence

of the small and weak;

an hour when man strays from the way leading to the Father

and no longer recognizes in you

the bright face of his own humanity.

This hour brings the temptation to flee,

the sense of bewilderment and anguish,

as the worm of doubt eats away at the mind

and the curtain of darkness falls on the heart.

And you, Lord,

who read the open book of our frail hearts,

ask us this evening,

as once you asked the Twelve:

“Do you also wish to leave me?”

No, Lord, we cannot and would not leave you,

for you alone “have the words of eternal life”,

you alone are “the word of truth”

and your cross alone

is the “key that opens to us the secrets

of truth and life”.

“We will follow you wherever you go!”

Following you is itself our act of worship,

as from the horizon of the not yet

a ray of joy

caresses the already of our journey.