Crucified

This inauguration and this growth are both symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus,(5) and are foretold in the words of the Lord referring to His death on the Cross: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself".(6) LG 3

Arms in Surrender by Lynn O’Gorman Latchford

Listening to you as all color drained from the room
exhaling the breath of me.
Eyes stinging from a tortuous life of eighteen years
etched in a stricken face.
Watching you eviscerate a suffering self
until devoid of humiliation.
Raising your arms in surrender seeing the crucified Christ
in your tearing eyes.
Grief pouring from you in an endless stream covering a vast floor.

Words from you lie at my feet feeling them enter my skin
crawling to the heart of me.
Too familiar the refrain of violence echoed from your mouth
as you seek solace.
Wanting comfort from an audience of near apathy save one,
who hears and understands.
Arms aching with the emptiness that exists
wanting to cradle your head in warmth.
Loving you as I do from afar caught between words of comfort and restraint.

Captured by your distress and agony wanting only to soothe you
as you speak on.
This floor of dark suffering, this abyss of horror that strikes terror
into a fractured soul.
Watching you prostrated in this place of unspeakable torment
and abject anguish hoping,
Hoping you see the doors of escape that exist and are there
for throwing open to relief.
You speak of forgiveness of the unforgivable and I can finally breathe routing for you.

The purist of truths emanate from your mouth as you forgive
the evil that can exist in life.
Wondering do you know that seeing love in all, loving everything in everyone
is the key.
Unlocking the secrets to a life of peace and joy
repairing your heart with love.
Stitch a soul worth mending with the colors of life that exist
in unguarded love.
Embrace yourself gently, inhaling kindness, pull it around you as a mantle to evil,
arms in surrender to the Love that draws all things to it.


All things and people are meant to be drawn up into God. It is precisely why out of compassion for His wounded and suffering creatures, He came to us, died on a cross for us. It is why in others' suffering we see Him clearly in their face. He wants us to know He is with us. We are not alone. He has drawn us to Him at our worst moments.