Who am I?

The church song, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord" always gives me chills and goosebumps when we sing it in Mass at home.  Clearly I was not.. or was I?  ...   The following was shared by our Cap Corps directors via Facebook and really got me thinking..  (Although I do not have time at the moment to provide a complete reflection, I'll share my initial thoughts  afterward)...

Where were you when they crucified my Lord? 


Were you there to halt the genocide of Native Americans? Were you there when Sitting Bull died on the cross? Were you there to halt the enslavement of African‐Americans? Were you there to halt the mobs that terrorized black men, women and even children with lynching during Jim Crow? Were you there when they persecuted union organizers and Joe Hill died on the cross? 


Were you there to halt the incarceration of Japanese‐Americans in World War II? Were you there to halt Bull Connor’s dogs as they were unleashed on civil rights marchers in Birmingham? Were you there when Martin Luther King died upon the cross? Were you there when Malcolm X died on the cross? 


Were you there to halt the hate crimes, discrimination and violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and those who are transgender? Were you there when Matthew Shepard died on the cross? 


Were you there to halt the abuse and at times enslavement of workers in the farmlands of this country? Were you there to halt the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Vietnamese during the war in Vietnam or hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan? Were you there to halt Israel’s saturation bombing of Lebanon and Gaza? Were you there when Rachel Corrie died on the cross? 


Were you there to halt the corporate forces that have left working men and women and the poor in [the United States of America]  bereft of a sustainable income, hope and dignity? Were you there to share your food with your neighbor in Liberty Square? Were you there to become homeless with them? 


(Chris Hedges, 12/5/11) From the Capuchin Re-Cap 

Was I there when my Lord was crucified?

If what is done to the least of my brothers and sisters is done unto the Lord, then yes, I was there (I am here!). 

... So, if I was there, who was I and how did I respond?   


Was I one of Pilate's soldiers, neglecting Love and causing so much pain in blind obedience of authority? 


Was I a bystander, merely a witness on the street? Likewise, did I see what was happening on the television, read about it in a book, or hear about it at work or school?  Did I encourage it? Fight back? Or, worst of all, witness and then turn my back in intentional ignorance? Did I see, understand, and still ignore it? 


Was I a child on the street, witnessing such an injustice (so out of my young hands) for the first time? Regardless of my age, how did I respond and how did I allow it to change me and my future?

Was I His Mother or family member, watching a loved one be tortured and killed, feeling His pain in my own being? 


Was I His neighbor, His friend, His co-worker? Did I accompany Him in His pain? Did I clean His face or offer to carry His cross? Did I do "enough" and then forget about it? Or, did I do what I could, with my whole being and all my resources?  Did I share His story with others, hoping and praying that they would do the same?


Or, Was I Jesus?  Did I fight back, an eye for an eye?  Did I "offer it up", relying in my faith to ease the pain, praying that God's will be done so that others may be saved? 






Who am I? 


How am I responding? 


How am I acting?