TREMBLE, TREMBLE, TREMBLE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in Holy Week  is, “Tremble, Tremble, Tremble.”

One of the moments I look forward to every Holy Week here at St. Mary’s – is when Harry Thompson sings and plays the Negro spiritual, “Were You There.” 

Have you ever been there when Harry sings that? It can make you tremble, tremble, tremble.  This 1926 spiritual song by J.W. Johnson and J.R. Johnson captures Good Friday for me.

You know the first two verses and you know them well. You’ve been there.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

We have meditated on the moments when Jesus – on the cross - shook in horror and pain – when he trembled, trembled, trembled. One moment there on the cross he felt the total absence of God – and he screams out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

We also know Jesus felt just that in the garden – in the agony in the garden – which we read about in Matthew, Mark and Luke.[1]  Some scholars think the opening words in today’s gospel is John’s way of presenting those same feelings of Jesus - but in the upper room. [2] We read there that Jesus was deeply troubled and declared openly, “I am telling you the truth: one of you will betray me.”  The scholars think this is John’s way of capturing the  tremble, tremble, tremble of Jesus in the Agony of the Garden. John has Jesus go to the garden – but he’s arrested almost immediately just after he arrives. The others have him praying and asking his disciples to pray one hour with him – before Judas arrives with the soldiers for his arrest.

TREMBLE, TREMBLE, TREMBLE

The tremble, tremble, tremble moments of life happen when tragedy and trouble hit home: deaths, divorces, drugs, being dropped, alcoholism, betrayals, cancer, and the crush of so many other things – like being out of work – and deep inner itches – like feeling like a motherless child.

Those are the moments we know Good Friday in our own soul – in our own family – in our lives. Those are the moments the Stations of the Cross are not just on the walls in our churches – but they are on the walls of our soul – and we are making them – and hopefully we’ll say and pray, “Thank you, Lord, for the gift of faith.”

Tremble, tremble, tremble….

CONCLUSION

As Christians we begin our prayers with the sign of the cross – perhaps because we know it’s the cross is so often the beginning of our knowing Christ and life. It’s being on the cross that we so often realize Christ is hanging in there with us – and we can be the good thief and steal our way into his kingdom – at any moment – but especially when we’re feeling tremble, tremble, tremble moments.

NOTES:

[1] Matthew 26: 36-56; Mark 14: 32-52; Luke 22: 39-53; John 18: 1-11]

[2] Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, The Anchor Bible, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, 1970,    page 577.