Parable and Conscience Meditation April 6

Glorious Cross  April 6

I bore you up with manna in the desert, but you struck me down and scourged me.  My people, what have I done to you?  How have I offended you?  Answer me! (Reproaches, Good Friday).

I answer you.

To live a day without eating leaves a person weak;

    to live several days like that poses a risk to life.

You know that very well as our Companion on the way.

You are the one who cultivates the land to make it produce.

And even if the there is no harvest, you assure us food,

    as you once did in the desert.

The manna was sweet to the taste,

    but a vanishing substance

    that, in the end, did not satisfy.

You spoke of another Bread, identified as yourself,

    that gives life beyond life.

When people do not eat their full elsewhere,

    they look to this good wheat,

    and prepare bread by thrashing and sifting.

You complain of being struck and scourged.  

But you submit even to the ravages of harvest

    because you know that I hunger for you!

The tree does not withdraw its shade, even from the lumberjack who fells it.  (African proverb)