Guided reflection:

It is one thing to kill someone. Bang, he is dead. But to torture and humiliate a person on their way to being dead, is the most loathsome thing humanity has ever devised! People, just dehumanizing another person! I guess that is why bullying is so horrific to me… it sets up another as more powerful for the very sake of torturing another. Cruelty at its cruelest! We cannot go back and fix any of this story, but we can do something about making sure we teach our children (and ourselves) that all persons were created in God’s image and Christ went through all if this for all humanity – even those who make you mad or think differently than you. Let’s do something about bullying – OK?

Guided prayer:

“My heart aches to imagine what Jesus went through in this story. Even if it is a person I do not even know, my heart breaks, but this is my Savior we are reading about! How you must weep at our inhumanity to each other. . Forgive us, I pray. Amen”