Prayer Thirty-Nine
Father forgive them,
for they know not
what they do.
Luke 23.34
This image of crucifixion is undeniably angular. Influenced in part by Cubism, the Iranian artist Houshang Pezeshknia (1917-1972) offers unyielding, geometric lines and jagged edges to convey the human cruelty behind the suspension of a body on wood by nails. Even the cliffs and clouds have sharp corners.
There is a similar jagged quality to the first of James MacMillan’s “Seven Last Words from the Cross” (music and words below). It is not easy listening. Above chords charged with cosmic lament, rising sopranos sing Jesus’ prayer above. Then, as the music swells, we hear the crowds taunting Jesus, using words with which, only a few days before, they’d fêted him. An anguished violin becomes increasingly agitated, tortured. The sopranos continue as the voice of Jesus, ending the piece utterly alone.
The spiky torment of both music and painting underlines the astonishing nature of Jesus’ words inviting God’s forgiveness: something tender, holy, redeeming is held against the brutality. “Forgiveness is truly not the easy option,” writes Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani. “It is costly, messy and painful but it does open up the way of life.” And she should know. Soon after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, as part of the persecution waged there against the Anglican Church of which her father was Bishop, her brother Bahram was murdered. At his funeral, an extraordinary prayer written by Guli’s father was read in the original Persian. It has become known as The Forgiveness Prayer.
The Forgiveness Prayer
This prayer was originally written in Persian by Bishop Hassan Dehqani-Tafti and read at the funeral in 1980 of his murdered son Bahram. The translation below can be found on p9 of a book by his daughter, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani. It is called Cries for a Lost Homeland and is published by Canterbury Press.
O God,
we remember not only Bahram but his murderers.
Not because they killed him in the prime of his youth
and made our hearts bleed and our tears flow.
Not because with this savage act
they have brought further disgrace on the name of our country
among the civilised nations of the world.
But because through their crime we now follow more closely
your footsteps in the way of sacrifice.
The terrible fire of this calamity
burns up all selfishness and possessiveness in us.
Its flame reveals the depth of depravity, meanness and suspicion,
the dimension of hatred and the measure of sinfulness in human nature.
It makes obvious as never before our need to trust in your love
as shown in the cross of Jesus and his resurrection:
Love which makes us free from all hatred towards our persecutors;
Love which brings patience, forbearance, courage, loyalty, humility,
generosity and greatness of heart;
Love which more than ever deepens our trust in God’s final victory
and his eternal designs for the Church and for the world;
Love which teaches us how to prepare ourselves to face our own day of death.
O God,
Bahram’s blood has multiplied the fruit of the Spirit in the soil of our souls:
so when his murderers stand before you on the Day of Judgement,
remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives,
and forgive.
Reproduced with permission
SEVEN LAST WORDS FROM THE CROSS by James MacMillan
1. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do
Text
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Luke 23.34
Hosanna filio David:
benedictus qui venit in nomine Domine.
Rex Israel, Hosanna in excelsis.
Hosanna to the Son of David:
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
The King of Israel, Hosanna in the Highest.
Palm Sunday acclamations
The life that I held dear I delivered
into the hands of the unrighteous
and my inheritance has become for me
like a lion in the forest.
My enemy spoke out against me,
‘Come gather together and hasten to devour him.’
They placed me in a wasteland of desolation,
and all the earth mourned for me.
For there was no one would acknowledge me
or give me help.
from the Good Friday Tenebrae Responsories
