Holy Cross Day

 

Matthew 27:55-56

Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

The creaking of wood

The flapping of cloth in the breeze

And a deathly silence

hung like a pall

Spectacle over,

the crowd dispersed

Except for the women

who waited

They had accompanied him all the way

and would not abandon him now

They stayed with the pain

and the brutality

with the grief

and the barbarity

They refused to look away

They stayed

and glimpsed evil

overcome by love

in the cross of Christ.

They stayed

and bore witness

to the promise 

of Resurrection