For those of us hard-headed

Beneath Thy Cross

AM I a stone, and not a sheep,
      That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
      And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
      Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
      Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
      Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon–
      I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,

      But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
      And smite a rock.

~ Christina Rossetti