“Crucify Him!”
Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66
It suffices to be a Christian or live in a Moslem dominated country for the reality of death to be omnipresent. It used to be that life was loved and protected, not anymore because the Angels of death have multiplied in their millions. For those who escape religious violence, scientific violence eliminates them – abortion is one form of this killing. The rumors and reality of fratricidal wars, economic strangulations and ethnic cleansing make one smell death everywhere. It is no longer the name by which death goes that matters, but the degenerate situation of the human person before the question of death.
“The Lord God has opened my ears [to hear about violence and incessant killings]” according to our first reading, “and given me a tongue [to console the persecuted]” begins a new chapter, albeit an old scenario, that the remedy to violence and death are the words of those men and women who advocate against violence and death. The barrel of the gun and explosions of bombs and projectiles of missiles do not offer peace, but the power of human words, the activities of the “tongue” can guarantee peace and security.
Doubts that “words” can guarantee peace and put an end to wars only persist in the hearts and minds of those who limit the meaning of “words” to spoken words. For a Christian, every authentic and real word takes flesh. “Words” are human beings molded and fashioned after the mind of Jesus Christ, the first Word that became human in order to die a violent death to sue for and guarantee peace. Yes, every word looses its efficacy to bring about peace, as long as it remains just a spoken word and not a human being. For us Christians, we do not talk peace, we live peace.
“My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting,” says our first reading. Indeed, in the face of humiliation and injustice, a Christian doesn’t chicken out, he weathers the Storm through thick and thin. Shame and humiliation have a different meaning for a Christian, for the “spittle” heaped upon a Christian is the cost and price of peace because “I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame,” continues our first reading. A Christian’s face can become a “flint” because “the Lord is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.” To take flight before ignominy is to offer violence and death an operating field and an environment to thrive.
Words cease to be words when they serve to promote the rhetoric of war. Words mutate their meaning when they fuel crisis and cause harm and hateful feelings. Words are denatured in every exploitative usage. But when words take the form of human beings, just as Jesus, “although he was in the form of God, became obedient unto death,” says our second reading, “and he died the death of the Cross,” and culminating in the glorious sentence, “but God highly exalted him, giving him a name above every name,” then the meaning of a Christian’s death is changed to the triumph of a Christian, and the reward of a Christian, who is not just a spoken word but a lived word that dies to receive glory and honor and power.
It is only the death of a Christian that speaks out peace, not just his words. Tertullian must be thinking about this power of the word when he says, “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith.” The faith is already among us, but the spread of the faith and its permanence is only guaranteed by the death of the Word – the persecution of Christians! “Crucify Him” – I am the new victim that must die; Jesus dies again everyday, in every life that is taken for whatever reason.
“What are you willing to give me, if I hand him over to you?” was the question of Judas Iscariot to the chief priests. As it were, every life has a price – “thirty pieces of silver” was the value of Jesus’ life. Even today, the blood and life of a Christian too is up for sale and negotiation. The negotiators are well know to us, just as those who followed Jesus with palm branches today and shouting “hosanna,” the same group will yell out “crucify him.” For those living among Moslems, the inconvenience of having an infidel is enough reason to snuff out the life of a Christian. In an area of technological advancement, the pretext that pregnancy has become a disease warrants the termination of a fetus. Within segregated neighborhoods, the fact that some look different and talk differently is already a judgment of a condemnation upon them.
In our contemporary world, for those who fail to put a price on other people’s lives, their lives have got a price tag on it. On which side of the equation or divide do you stand? The joy of it all, and the hope that keep Christians and Christianity going is this: “Truly, this was the Son of God,” the concluding statement of today’s gospel. That confession was only made after the death of Christ on the Cross of Calvary. That realization was made outside of the city, with Jesus in the company of criminals hanging to his left and right side, and when the deed was already done. How many deaths will it take for violence to come to an end? Oops, in me, Christ dies daily for the salvation of the world. In my pain and misery, a new earth is being created. Through the sacrifices of many lives, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross continues its everlasting efficacy. Oh yes, if a Christian willingly offers up his life, it is because there is another life after the grave; there is the resurrection on the Third Day!
Assignment for the Week:
Can you advocate for life or join the pro-life campaign this week?