A dramatic litany for Easter morning
At the Tomb — A litany for 5+ voices
1st voice: Woman, why are you weeping?
1st woman: We mourn these dark days of death and denial.
Abandoned, betrayed, forsaken.
Left alone. Jesus gone.
Where have they laid him?
1st voice: Woman, why are you weeping?
2nd woman: We are afraid for our Leader.
Humiliated in both life and death.
Robbed from the grave.
O where have they laid him?
2nd voice: Mary, do not hold onto me.
1st voice: Women, why are you weeping?
Women: We weep for Jesus, missing.
We weep for Columbian/Palestinian/Somalian* kin, missing.
We weep for children entangled in bitter domestic disputes, missing.
1st voice: Men, why are you weeping?
Men: We weep for Jesus, humiliated and tortured.
We weep for all political prisoners, suffering at the hands of oppressors.
We weep for Muslims vilified by world powers and the media.
We weep for peaceful protestors violently opposed.
1st voice: Women, why are you weeping?
Women: We weep for Jesus, abandoned and alone.
We weep for the elderly, separated from family and community.
We weep for children, orphaned by AIDS.
We weep for the our young, devastated by war.
2nd voice: Do not hold on to me as I was.
For I am with you, now, in the least of these.
As you weep for them, you weep for me.
As you serve them, you serve me.
All: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ lives in the gardener,
in the immigrant who mows our lawns and trims our shrubs.
Christ lives in the teacher,
the day care worker who minds our children.
Christ lives in the tortured,
the prisoners of “the war on terrorism.”
Christ lives in those for whom we weep.
Alleluia!
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
*Columbian/Palestinian/Somalian: consider changing this reference to a nation currently in crisis.
The featured image above comes from ‘The Life of Jesus Mafa,’ a set of 63 pictures from the life and teaching of Jesus, viewed by the artist as if the events had taken place in a village in Cameroon.
