One Minute Reflection – 2 April – “The Month of the Resurrection” – Palm Sunday – Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:36-75; 27:1-60. – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“Behold the hour is at hand and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.” – Matthew 26:45
REFLECTION – By St Nerses Chnorhali (1102-1173) Armenian Bishop (Jesus, Only Son of the Father, § 708-724)
“Because of sin, O innocent One,
You were set before the criminal’s judgement seat;
When You return in the Father’s glory
Do not judge me together with him.
You were put to scorn with sacrilegious spittle
On account of the first created man’s shame;
Wipe away the dishonour of the impudent man’s sins,
With which my face is covered…
You have put on crimson,
Set the scarlet cloak over You
As a dishonour and an affront,
As Pontius Pilate’s soldiers thought it to be (Mt 27:28).
Remove sin’s shirt of hair from me,
Crimson red, colour of blood,
Reclothe me in the garment of joy
With which You clothed the first man.
Kneeling, they made sport,
Acting ridicule, they mocked;
When they saw it, Heaven’s armies
Worshipped in fear.
This You underwent that You might remove
The shame, of being sin’s accomplice, from Adam’s nature in us
That, from my soul and my conscience,
You might suppress my sorrowing shame…
Following the judge’s verdict,
You received the terrible blows of flagellation
Over Your whole body
And on Your limbs’ every part.
As for me who, from foot to head
Suffer unbearable pain:
Be pleased to heal me once again
As through the grace of Baptism’s fount.
In exchange for the thorns of sin
That the curse caused to grow up for us (Gn 3,18)
A Crown of Thorns was set on Your Head
By the labourers in Jerusalem’s vineyard (Mt 21,33f.).
Pull out the thorns of sin from me,
Which my enemy planted within me,
And heal in me the bite of the wound
That the marks of sin might be erased.”
PRAYER – Almighty, eternal God, Who, to provide mankind an example of humility for it to imitate, willed that the Saviour should assume our flesh and suffer death upon the Cross, mercifully grant that we may be found worthy of the lesson of His endurance and the fellowship of His Resurrection. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
AnaStpaul 