“I will not serve.”

“I will not serve,” man says to his Creator.

“Then I will serve you,” his Creator says to man.

“You sit down,

I will minister, I will wash your feet.

“You rest;

I will bear your weariness, your infirmities.

“Use me as you like in all your needs,

not only as your slave but also as your beast of burden and as your property.

“If you are tired or burdened,

I will carry both you and your burden,

so that I may be the first to keep my own law:

‘Bear one another’s burdens,’ we read, ‘and so fulfill the law of Christ.’

“If you are hungry or thirsty

and have nothing better at hand perhaps,

and no other calf so well fattened is available,

behold I am ready to be slaughtered so that you may eat my flesh and drink my blood.

“Neither need you fear that through the death of your slave you will suffer the loss of his service;

even eaten and drunk you will still have me whole and alive,

and I shall serve you as before.

“If you are led into captivity or sold,

here I am, sell me

and redeem yourself at my cost, or with myself as the price.

“I may seem to be a worthless serf,

but although I am put up for auction by night and in secret like stolen property,

although I am bought by the most avaricious of the Jews, the priests,

yet I shall be able to fetch a price of at least thirty silver pieces.

“With this price given for me

a burial place for strangers can be bought,

with myself as price,

the life of those who are buried here.

“If you are ill and afraid to die

I will die for you

so that from my blood you may make yourself medicine that will restore life.”

– Guerric of Igny, first sermon for Palm Sunday –