Veronica
Copyright 2006 Gregory Stephen Popp
The sound of thunder rolled through the street
She knew the storm was raging at her feet
She saw Him under all that man could bear
She closed her eyes, but still she saw Him there
No hand could stop the fury of her flight
She ran through twisted faces to his side
She fell and tore her veil from on her head
And touched the face of God so streaked with red
Oh Veil of tears, His visage here appears
On cloth so crudely sewn.
Oh act of love, reminder from above
Behold The Cornerstone
A single moment, frozen there in time
She thought of all the gifts He’d given her; divine
And now his blood ran, as freely as His gifts
Underneath a burden He could barely lift
A gift of love
Veronica
A gift of grace
Veronica
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Greg's Story
For the past few years our parish has been presenting a musical version of the stations of the cross during Lent. There are two of these put on each Lenten season. The genius behind this idea is our resident deacon, Paul Crafts. He gives us free reign to deliver the musical selections for each station and he then expounds upon the theme of both the music and the station in his meditation, tying each together beautifully. Naturally, we select songs that reflect the station itself.
I couldn't come up with anything for the sixth station. The first year we played these stations, I used "Breathe" by Marie Barnette and Paul wrote a beautiful meditation on how Veronica had listened to our Lord as he preached and He became as the very air that she breathed. This got me to thinking, and so I began to write "Veronica".
I had never realized that the story of Veronica appears nowhere in the bible. None of the gospels mention it. Even though I had read them several times, I just sort of assumed that it was in there somewhere. Her story is a legend and verbal tradition of the Catholic church. A cloth which is claimed to be her veil which legend has it contains the very image of Christ's face is venerated as a sacred relic and kept at St. Peter's in Rome. Is her story true? Did she really exist? I believe she did. The selfless act of love of this woman lives on through the centuries as sacred tradition and the fact that it was not recorded in the gospels has not wiped it from our memories.
I intentionally used the term "Veil of Tears" as a play on the term "Vale of Tears", which refers to Earth and the trials and tribulations of this life. Vale is an old-English word meaning "valley" and "Vale of Tears" conjures up images of the valley of the shadow of death. Certainly Jesus was going through excessive trials and tribulations when Veronica wiped his blessed face. "Vale of Tears" is commonly misspelled as "Veil" and so this twist is kind of a double whammy, by intentionally using the misspelling as a play on the misspelled term itself.
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