Belgium, 1918
YOU, who on the tree of shame show forth again the Sacrifice of Calvary: you for whom scourge and thongs and the mockery of dull beasts are the circumstance of martyrdom: you who freely offered yourself that man might be saved, “yet so as by fire”:—Belgium! in the depth of your agony and the long torment of a red martyrdom, remember that the Cross of your own Passion endures only until the Resurrection that comes after the third day.
God, in mercy Incarnate, as Man suffered the shameful death of the Cross that the world might be saved from the penalty of its sins. The Tree of Scorn is raised up on Calvary, becoming the instrument of shame and of death, yet “the leaves of that Tree shall be for the healing of the Nations.”
Nails and spear, scourge and thongs, crumble and fall away; the obscene mockers “that watched Him there,” and watch you, O Belgium, go hence to that place prepared for them by Eternal Justice, but with the sun of Easter morning, behold a great wonder! The Cross, that was a dead engine of death, is transformed by Divine miracle. It lives, it throws out branches and leaves; it is now the Tree of Mercy, “and the leaves of that Tree shall be for the healing of the Nations.”
RALPH ADAMS CRAM.