"He never spoke a word to me,
And yet He called my name;
He never gave a sign to me,
And yet I knew and came."
These are the opening words of the poem, constituting the first four lines of the poem. The second couplet seems to simply be repeating the same idea as the first. The difference is subtle but critical. While not speaking a word and not visually gesturing may be basically identical, the content of lines two and four are almost completely oppositional despite contributing to creating the same meaning. The reference to the other person not calling the speaker by name is placed in juxtaposition to the speaker making himself the subject of the fourth line. The other does not call but it is the speaker himself who recognizes the silent bid and responds. The identity of the other character is suggested by the capitalized pronoun which is a long-established tradition of identifying God. What the poet is describing here, then, is nothing less than the process of conversion to Christianity. Jesus (or God) calls silent to the uninitiated and the person responds to the silent invite which results in a spiritual rebirth.
“I will not bear
His cross upon my back;
He only seeks to place it there
Because my skin is black.”
The character of Simon the Cyrenian makes a very brief appearance in Christian scripture in the very story that is being related here. The biggest divergence between the biblical account and the poet is that there is no indication at all regarding Simon’s race in the gospel version. The color of Simon’s skin and what that pigment indicates about his cultural background are not deemed significant to the event. Thus, this line in which Simon identifies himself as a black man is an invention of the poet. It is an example of dramatic license in which additional information is added to a pre-existing story for thematic purposes. The significance of Simon’s quote is not just the introduction of the race into a story where it had not existed before, but an illustration of why race has been introduced. Simon’s initial reaction to the unspoken command of Jesus Christ to assist him with the burden of carrying the cross to the site of his own crucifixion is a demonstration of the historical reality that when race has been introduced into circumstances, racism is almost always the result. Simon leaps to the conclusion that he is being singled out from the crowd specifically on account of the color of his skin. This is an implicit acknowledgment that Simon’s life has been one in which he has been victimized by racism so often that its presence becomes an expectation of normality.
"I did for Christ alone
What all of Rome could not have wrought
With bruise of lash or stone."
Ultimately, Simon recognizes his initial error in leaping to a conclusion about racism. He finds in the burden of Jesus a fellowship of suffering and is moved by this spirit of brotherhood to pick the cross and temporarily relieve Jesus of his burden. It was the word of Jesus heard only inside his head—the rapid-fire process of conversion—that brings about this decision. The circumstances of this decision have become of increasingly supreme importance over the course of time between when it took place and his current recollection. He has had time to contemplate the full extent of this inexplicable power of a man more oppressed than himself to speak not a word and lift not a finger and yet still be able to convince him of the wrongness of his misassumption of racism and, furthermore, to pick up the burden of this strange. This long period of contemplation has convinced me that events would not have played out, in the same way, had it been the Roman soldiers physically abusing him as motivation to carry the stranger’s cross. This recognition completes the process of conversion as it becomes an unquestioned acceptance that this man suffering at the hands of those Romans has proven to be infinitely more powerful in silence than all the combined strength of their weapons of torture.
