The Pieta - Rome 2001

The Pieta - Rome 2001
I wrote this after seeing Michelangelo's Pieta.. one of the most beautiful carvings I have ever seen.. and as a parent, I was struck by it. Not by it's religious significance, but by what the parent of jesus must have felt.



Poor woman, Chosen of God
Chosen to a suspected birth
Chosen to flee the killer of children
Chosen to live in a foreign land
Chosen to wonder at the son who was more than your own
Chosen to watch the unfolding of his mysterious destiny

Chosen to feel the press of crowds, needy crowds
Chosen to hear as he spoke dangerous words
Chosen to fear, fear for his safety
Chosen to pity, as he wept tears of blood
Chosen to watch as he bore the cruel lash
Chosen to feel each strike of hammer to nail
Chosen to be helpless in the presence of death

Chosen to bear, once more, his body, to the ground
Chosen to mourn over your beloved child
Chosen above women
to suffer
"My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"
"Why have you chosen me?"