Where Innocence Dies Young [Good Friday]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John's Passion Where Innocence Dies Young There is a sadness here – in this space we call Good Friday. It hangs in the air, an innocence so brutally assaulted by the pain and the struggle, the envy and the prejudice, the hatred and the violence of our world. And we pray that it will pass; we pray for the pain to be overcome by God's Easter answer. And as we wait, we find ourselves confronted by the harsh reality that in this world innocence too often dies young. And I am reminded of a poem a young black optometrist, Frank Horne, wrote in the deep South of the 1920's, a poem he called On Seeing Two Brown Boys in a Catholic Church: It is fitting that you be here, Little brown boys With Christ-like eyes And curling hair. Look you on yonder crucifix Where He hangs nailed and pierced With head hung low And eyes all blind with blood that drips From a thorny crown... Look you well, You shall know ...