The words of a song

Strangely irritated today. Not a good sign. So I'm going to post the words of a hymn that moved me this past weekend. `O Crucified Redeemer' is sung to a lilting Welsh tune and it draws a parrallel between Christ's anguish on the cross and our bloody wars and battlefields.

Frankly, I have never thought of it this way. Our wars, our blood, our epidemics, our hungry, dying, sick children, have always seemed to be our problem, not his. But this hymn seems to say that it is Christ himself who is crying out in anguish in the most horrible and shameful moments of history.

The author of the hymn, Timothy Rees (1874-1939), was a chaplain in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I and must have seen the worst of what human beings could do to each other. He received the distinguished Military Cross for his service, and became a bishop in 1931.

O crucified Redeemer, whose life-blood we have spilt,
to you we raise our guilty hands, and humbly own our guilt.
Today we see your passion spread open to our gaze;
the crowded street, the country road, its Calvary displays.

We hear your cry of anguish, see your life outpoured
where battlefields run red with blood, our neighbours' blood, O Lord;
and in that other battle, the fight for daily bread,
where might is right and self is king, we see your thorn-crowned head.

The groaning of creation wrung out by pain and care,
the anguish of a million hearts that break in dumb despair;
O crucified Redeemer, these are your cries of pain;
O may they break our selfish hearts, and love come in to reign.