O Crucified Redeemer

Above:  A Crucifix

Photograph by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Text by Timothy Rees (1874-1939)

Hymn Source = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)

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O crucified Redeemer, whose lifeblood we have spilt,

to you we raise our guilty hands, and humbly own our guilt.

Today we see your passion spread open to our gaze;

the crowded town, the country road, its calvary displays.

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Wherever love is outraged, wherever hope is killed,

where man still wrongs his brother man, your passion is fulfilled.

We see your tortured body, we see the wounds that bleed,

where brotherhood hands crucified, nailed to the cross of greed.

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We hear your cry of anguish, we see your life outpoured,

where battlefield runs red with blood, our brothers’ blood, O Lord.

And in that bloodless battle, the fight for daily bread,

where might is right and self is king, we see your thorn-crowned head.

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The groaning of creation rung out by pain and care,

the anguish of a million hearts that break in dumb despair:

O crucified Redeemer, these are your cries of pain.

O may they break our selfish hearts, and love come in to reign.