This image of a child standing before Jesus on the cross touched my heart with many thoughts. My first thought was about the exchange of loving glances between the innocent child and the innocent Lamb of God. Christ looking down from His wooden throne of sorrow and the young child looking up. In the midst of His pain and agony, Christ still finds the strength to gaze at the child standing before Him. The child looks at Sweet Jesus and silently wonders, “Who did this to you? Why?” I’m sure you have experienced those times when words don’t come to you or words seem too trivial for the situation. Well, I think this encounter is such a time. All that is necessary is a quiet gaze into Christ’s eyes—like this one–to erase the awkwardness of the child’s feelings.
The other thought that occurred to me is “Who is this child?” I think the child could be you and I. When we look at a crucifix, we return to Calvary and find Jesus on His cross. As adults, we know the answer to “Why?” It is because of our sins that He suffered and died. Our personal sins and the sins committed by others.
A final thought that entered my mind was of all the suffering children in the world. Those young ones are victims, like the Lamb of God. Victims from hatred, hunger, war, disease, neglect, and abuse. This type of suffering I find very painful to contemplate because, thanks be to God, my childhood was void of these evils and sufferings. As St. Teresa said we are the hands and feet of Christ in this world. So perhaps through the love and care of strangers the sufferings of suffering children can be minimized, if not eliminated.
One of my personal devotions is to kneel below the large hanging crucifix in our church sanctuary. Although there is physical distance between the Corpus and me, contrition and sadness mixed with love rush through my heart and soul. Like the child in this picture, Christ and I exchange silent loving gazes with one another.
Prayer Before a Crucifix
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus
while before Your face I humbly kneel and,
with burning soul,
pray and beseech You
to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments
of faith, hope, and charity;
true contrition for my sins,
and a firm purpose of amendment.While I contemplate,
with great love and tender pity,
Your five most precious wounds,
pondering over them within me
and calling to mind the words which David,
Your prophet, said to You, my Jesus:‘They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones.’Amen.