If today and tomorrow you are interested in reflecting on the significance of the Easter Triduum, particularly on Good Friday and Holy Saturday can I direct you to Bruce Springsteen the 62 year old American singer-songwriter-performer?
In my column to The Sunday Times coming Easter Sunday I refer to "The Boss", a Catholic from New Jersey, particularly to his latest album Wrecking Ball (March 2012). The track We are Alive should help you with your meditation. It begins with the line “there is a cross up yonder, up on Calvary hill”. In line with Pauline theology, he gives political examples of how we consummate in our bodies the suffering of Christ. “The Boss” then sings the praises of those who died fighting for justice, particularly within the civil rights movement.
These are the lyrics of We are Alive.
There is a cross up yonder up on Calvary hill
There is a slip of blood on a silver knife
There is a graveyard kid down below
Where at night did come to life
And above the stars, they crackle in fire
A dead man's moon throws seven rings
Well, we put our ears to the cold grave stones
This is the song they'd sing
We are alive
And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark
Our spirits rise to carry the fire and light the spark
To stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart
A voice cried out, I was killed in maryland in 1877
When the railroad workers made their stand
Well, I was killed in 1963 one sunday morning in birmingham
Well, I died last year crossing the southern desert
My children left behind in san pablo
Well they left our bodies here to rot
Oh please let them know
We are alive
Oh, and though we lie alone here in the dark
Our souls will rise to carry the fire and light the spark
To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart
Let your mind rest easy, sleep well my friend
It's only our bodies that betray us in the end
I awoke last night in a dark and dreamy deep
From my head to my feet, my body gone stone cold
There were worms crawling all around me
Fingers scratching at an earth black and six foot low
And alone in the blackness of my grave
Alone I'd been left to die
Then I heard voices calling all around me
The earth rose above me, my eyes filled with sky
We are alive
And though our bodies lie alone here in the dark
Our souls and spirits rise
To carry the fire and light the spark
To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart
To stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart
We are alive
If you feel like spending some more time in reflection another song of Bruce Springsteen can be of help. It is called: Jesus Was An Only Son. Its lyrics follow.
Jesus was an only son
As he walked up Calvary Hill
His mother Mary walking beside him
In the path where his blood spilled
Jesus was an only son
In the hills of Nazareth
As he lay reading the Psalms of David
At his mother's feet
A mother prays, "Sleep tight, my child, sleep well
For I'll be at your side
That no shadow, no darkness, no tolling bell,
Shall pierce your dreams this night"
In the garden at Gethsemane
He prayed for the life he'd never live,
He beseeched his Heavenly Father to remove
The cup of death from his lips
Now there's a loss that can never be replaced,
A destination that can never be reached
A light you'll never find in another's face,
A sea whose distance cannot be breached
Well Jesus kissed his mother's hands
Whispered, "Mother, still your tears,
For remember the soul of the universe
Willed a world and it appeared
You can also listen to The Boss singing it and commenting about it on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnQTYhU3Ty4