Rossetti: Am I a stone?

Friday, April 14, 2017
    Good Friday
Meditation:
    Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)
    —Hebrews 3:1-4 (ESV)
Quotation:
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.
    ... Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), Christina Rossetti: the complete poems, London: Penguin Classics, 2001, p. 180-181 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 3:1-4; Eze. 11:19; 36:26; Matt. 27:55-56; Luke 22:61-62; 23:49
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my heart was made of stone till You took it over.

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