Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C EASTER SUNDAY Acts 10,34.37-43; Col 3,1-4; Jn 20,1-9 Sharing in Christ’s dying & rising ‘Pass-over’
has many meanings. Over the last three days, we have been deeply touched by the sacred
events we have celebrated: it’s as if we’ve been at table with the Lord at
Last Supper; as if we’ve had our feet washed by the Lord; as if we were there,
when He went through his suffering passion & horrendous death: for us, all
over again; the stripped altar in church has kept us in mourning with Mary &
the disciples for our Lord’s death &
burial. Remember the awesome hymn: ‘Were you there when they crucified
my Lord... Oh! sometimes it makes me tremble, tremble, tremble; were you there
when they cruci-fied my Lord... (-when they nailed him to the tree... -when they
laid him in the tomb)’... But this
is not the end of story. We know, -and for it we have 2000 years of Christian
faith- that Jesus is God’s: Messiah, King and Son. He unites us to himself
into his suffering, death and resurrection, and makes us share in his risen life
here and in eternity. Mocked and nailed to a cross, he still is a real king, the
King of kings; He is the real Passover-Lamb that takes away the sin of the
world; He is the Humble Servant who carries our hurts; He is our Eternal Judge.
Uncanny as it may seem, Jesus reigns from the shame of the cross; indeed from
his cross, He sits on a throne of judgment to condemn those who condemned him,
while His way of the cross becomes an example for all disciples to follow, since
we -like him- go from cross to glory, here in this present life and later in
heaven. Yes Jesus is our King and his enthronement is the cross. Unlikely as it
may seem, the ‘fixed-idea’ of a political Messiah cannot replace the meaning
of Christ’s mission. In God’s plan, things had to happen in such a way, that
Jesus came to redeem us: to rescue us from our hopeless ways and lead us into
his own new risen life. Death
& Resurrection.
For 40 days of Lent and for the
time of Holy Week, we have been urged to discover the meaning of Christ’s
suffering, death and resurrection in our life, to experience it in our daily
trials & hurts, following His example and applying His logic. The logic of redemption through sacrifice is again and again
presented in Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion of
the Christ’ through its ‘Flash-backs’. The brutal scourging of Jesus
nearly succeeded in killing Him prior to his crucifixion; we should not turn
away from the sufferings of our Lord; rather we should open our hearts to
experiencing the profound meaning of Christ’s Passion and applying it to our
life. The gesture of washing feet wants to get across the meaning of true love:
it always includes suffering with, dying to selfish-ness & living for
others. The way of love is sacrifice: it’s laying down our life or better,
it’s pouring our life so others may have life in abundance; and this not just
in a general way, but down to the small and big acts of daily life, like washing
one another’s feet. When it comes to embracing our cross, we Christians have
no option: sooner or later suffering will cross our path; when it does we must
embrace it, -as Jesus did- if we are to grow in our love and trust of God. And
this applies to any kind of suffering, even the one that hits us through no
fault of ours. Indeed we must carry one another’s burdens. Remember the
example of Simon of Cyrene: when we - like him- help someone to carry his cross,
we become transformed ourselves; we discover then, that God has chosen us to
play an intimate role in alleviating someone’s burden, thus participating in
Christ’s redeeming work. Lesson: We
are Easter-people: our life is sharing in Christ’s cross and resurrection,
it’s ‘passing-over’ death to life while we are still in our mortal life
(St Leo) ______________________________________ |
