[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n That\u2019s what hit me the other day, Palm Sunday, those words from the Psalm: \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d You know how it is when one word, one phrase will do it\u2014in a song or movie or in a bit of poetry\u2014when you get choked up, tear up, when the wound is opened by that one thing that\u2019s said. That\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about; that\u2019s what happened to me hearing those words. \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d I can\u2019t explain why, of course, but it\u2019s just that I\u2019ve since been thinking about it all week. Over and over, haunted by it almost: \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how, but they\u2019re words which evoke extreme pain. It\u2019s poetry, isn\u2019t it? Good poetry, that\u2019s what good poetry can do. It can make you feel something with words. \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d The feeling of these words is terrible pain. That\u2019s the feeling that took my breath, gave me tears\u2014to think of the pain, the horrible pain. So comfortable am I, so wounded is he. Beholding the man is a frightening thing\u2014to think of it, how it must\u2019ve really been. \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d I am still haunted by it.<\/p>\n Christians, of course, think of the Lord here. These words, we believe, are his. As Saint Augustine put it, \u201cthe words of this psalm are spoken in the person of the crucified one.\u201d[2]<\/a> These are prophetic words, words Jesus speaks from the cross, sharing in our humanity. \u201cMy God\u2026why have you abandoned me?\u201d[3]<\/a> This is Christ speaking, speaking for us these words about a death he died for us. Which makes these words so heartrending. \u201cThey have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones.\u201d[4]<\/a> The mind thinks of it\u2014the nails, the hammering, the pain. It\u2019s almost as if the Scripture, the Church too, wants us to see it, to hear it, to feel it. So comfortable are we, so wounded is he. Don\u2019t think about Easter too much just yet. \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d We need to experience that first, to feel it; maybe tears are good here. We must see it. We must see him die.<\/p>\n There is something about seeing the Crucified that matters very much. I\u2019m trying to explain why we\u2019re doing what we\u2019re doing today. You need to see<\/em> Jesus Christ crucified\u2014liturgically, spiritually, mystically, of course. We need to see him. If you\u2019ve spent any time with John\u2019s gospel, you know this. Jesus talked about seeing the kingdom God; he was talking to Nicodemus. To see the kingdom, one had to be born again, born from above; and one had to see the \u201cSon of Man\u2026lifted up.\u201d[5]<\/a> Nicodemus didn\u2019t understand what he was saying. Later in Jerusalem, Jesus said that when the Son of Man would be lifted up, then \u201cyou will realize that I AM.\u201d[6]<\/a> And then a little later he healed the man born blind, and he scorned the presumptuous Pharisees for remaining in blindness. To come to see is another way to describe faith and what early Christians called illumination\u2014baptism\u2014and even salvation. Seeing Jesus\u2014that\u2019s it, that\u2019s the thing, the task, what your soul wants, what you\u2019ve been wandering around looking for all your life. Simply to see him, the one you can see today.<\/p>\n But how will you see him? Again, that haunting verse: \u201cI can count all my bones.\u201d In the very next verse, it reads: \u201cThey stare at me and gloat; they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots.\u201d[7]<\/a> Clearly, it is possible to see the Crucified with the wrong sort of eyes. It\u2019s possible to see the Crucified with cynical, flippant eyes; the jokers, all the sophisticated wits of the world: that\u2019s how they see him. It\u2019s possible to see him and still think of oneself, to be so trapped in materialist greed that all you can do is wonder what\u2019s in it for me, wonder how to divide Christ\u2019s garments, wonder what I can get out of it for myself. There\u2019s always that person, isn\u2019t there, when someone\u2019s dying, that person who needs to show out, make it all about themselves, who\u2019s already thinking about the will; you know you what I mean. It is possible to fail to see.<\/p>\n This, by the way, is the moral point of all that I\u2019m talking about\u2014our ability or inability to see other people, to recognize suffering in others, to practice empathy. This is what Pope Francis has been talking about: our tendency \u201celegantly,\u201d he said, to shift our gaze from those in our world who suffer\u2014alongside the unborn: the poor, the migrant, the exploited laborers at the ends of the supply chains that make our lives so next-day deliverable and comfortable.[8]<\/a> These are what the Texas writer, Lawrence Wright, calls the \u201cshadow people.\u201d[9]<\/a> They comprise what Michael Harrington half-century ago called the \u201cother America.\u201d[10]<\/a> Not seeing them truly and not seeing Crucified truly are indeed the same thing, but I don\u2019t want to get into a fight about it. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re spiritual enough to argue about it; in any case, my theme today is more mystical than moral. I simply want to suggest that what we do here\u2014in trying to see Christ well\u2014should make us more moral. Seeing him suffer should help us see them.<\/p>\n How we see the Crucified matters. As I said, it is possible to see the death of Jesus with the wrong sort of eyes\u2014with faithless, selfish eyes. Saint Augustine talked about this too. There were people, he said, who had eyes to see his body but who had not the heart to see the Word.[11]<\/a> They saw him crucified, but \u201cin no way were they changed,\u201d he said.[12]<\/a> Which really is the test of Good Friday. How do you see him? Are you moved by what you see? Are you changed by what you see? That\u2019s what we\u2019re about to do. Again, the way Augustine put it is exactly right: the Crucified today \u201cis now presented throughout the whole world to the gaze of faith as though it were happening today.\u201d[13]<\/a> What we do here is meant to move us, he said, \u201cas if we were actually watching our Lord hanging on the cross, but watching as believers, not mockers.\u201d[14]<\/a> How will we see him?<\/p>\n When I sing to you to behold the wood of the Cross, what will you see? I hope you see what God has done for you, for love of you. I hope you\u2019re moved a little, wounded a little, changed a little. For who doesn\u2019t cry at the death of those one really loves? And who doesn\u2019t know that things have changed? Amen<\/em>.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Psalm 22:18<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Augustine, Exposition 1 of Psalm 21<\/em> 1<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Psalm 22:1<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Psalm 22:17-18<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> John 3:3, 14<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> John 8:28<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Psalm 22:18-19<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti<\/em> 76<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Lawrence Wright, God Save Texas<\/em>, 300<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Michael Harrington, The Other America<\/em><\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Augustine, Exposition 2 on Psalm 21<\/em> 19<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Augustine, Exposition 1 on Psalm 21 <\/em>18-19<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Augustine, Sermon<\/em> 218B 1<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Augustine, Exposition 2 on Psalm 21<\/em> 1<\/p>\n