By his Cross and Passion.

Psalm 55

Open your ears, O God, to my prayer,

and do not hide when I call on you:

turn to me and answer me.

My thoughts are distracted and I am disturbed

by the voice of my enemy and the oppression of the wicked.

They let loose their wickedness on me,

they persecute me in their anger.

My heart is tied in a knot

and the terrors of death lie upon me;

fear and trembling cover me;

terror holds me tight.

The Psalm appointed for the Office of Readings this morning strikes me as an apposite one for the LGBT community in Uganda today. Friday is traditionally the day on which catholic Christendom recalls the Cross, Passion and suffering of Jesus. The sense of fearful waiting for the axe to fall must be truly horrible if you are gay and Ugandan just at the moment. But Jesus Christ (if the Gospel accounts are in any way reliable ) knew that horrid feeling only too well. He knew it in the Upper Room, he knew it in Gethsemane, he knew it before the Court and he knew it before Pilate.

Perhaps my strongly incarnational theology and my sense that My Lord stands always in the darkest place alongside those who feel crushed and burdened leads me to offer my prayers today for my gay and lesbian sisters and brothers in Uganda. If I do nothing else today, I will find a church and light a candle for those who feel they are dwelling in the valley of the shadow of death just now. I may be weak and powerless myself and on the road to I know not where, but I can pray and for others who are worse off than myself. That little bit I can offer.