How many dimensions there are to this text of Scripture! We obviously hear Christ crying out in His Passion. We hear ourselves, in our sorrow, our sadness, our weakness and imperfections. We hear the Church crying out, the Bride of the Forsaken One. How far we are from Him, Whom we have scourged and crucified. How far we stray from the Truth.
The third lesson for Tenebrae of Good Friday:
Lam 3:1-9
1 Aleph. I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation.
2 Aleph. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light.
3 Aleph. Only against me he hath turned, and turned again his hand all the day.
4 Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones.
5 Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall and labour.
6 Beth. He hath set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.
7 Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.
8 Ghimel. Yea, and when I cry, and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer.
9 Ghimel. He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath turned my paths upside down
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Return unto the Lord thy God.
R. I had planted thee a noble vineyard;
* How then art thou turned into a degenerate plant, which willest that Barabbas should be released unto thee, and that I should be crucified.
V. I fenced thee, and gathered out the stones from thee, and built a tower in the midst of the land.
R. How then art thou turned into a degenerate plant, which willest that Barabbas should be released unto thee, and that I should be crucified.
R. I had planted thee a noble vineyard; * How then art thou turned into a generate plant, which willest that Barabbas should be released unto thee, and that I should be crucified.
Crux Stationalis 