Luke tells us that those who knew Jesus stood at a distance, looking on, during his hours on the cross (Luke 23:49). His closest friends and his mother stood witness during his terrible suffering. They stood together and they did not look away.

What does it mean to keep looking at the atrocities, large and small, that are unfolding around us every day? The everyday crucifixions? A hungry child. A black man murdered. An elder dying of COVID, alone. Another species approaching the tipping point towards extinction. Another tornado. A woman weeping in the park.

We want to look away.

Activist Joanna Macy speaks of the necessity of “sustaining the gaze.” In her book, World As Lover, World As Self, she says that a new relationship with the world must begin with a new spiritual outlook. She writes: “It is essential that we develop our inner resources. We have to learn to look at things as they are, painful and overwhelming as that may be, for no healing can begin until we are fully present to our world, until we learn to sustain the gaze.”

As I watched the excellent PBS series “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This is Our Song,” I continually wanted to look away. This series deftly tells the long story of racism against African-heritage people in the United States, and asks us: what does it really mean to follow Jesus the Christ?

How do we sustain the gaze, keep looking, when there is so much suffering and horror in front of us?

We must do it together. We must take a breath, open our eyes and reach for one another in whatever way we can. Listen to one another, pray for one another as we weep and rage in despair. As we slowly make our way towards the radical love we know God is calling us to in Christ.

Together we must stand at the foot of the cross, and not look away.

Submitted by the Rev. Christine Marie, Small Group Ministry Developer for her Listening Hearts column in the Easter 2021 Bellringer.