Jesus on His Cross is the human face of God’s mercy reflects Offaly influencer

Each Holy Week, I try to resist the temptation to rush too quickly to the joyful end of the week without first dwelling on Jesus’ suffering and the full meaning behind the cross. In his passion, Jesus’ sufferings were unequalled. For the Son of God offered himself as a sacrifice and a gift for all. And it is this gift of faith, at the heart of our Lenten journeys, that we are invited during Holy Week to reflect not only on the historical event of the Lord’s crucifixion, but the redemptive meaning of Jesus’ suffering love, poured out for all humanity and for each of us.

It is particularly poignant in these challenging times for our world as we walk the path of Jesus’ on his paschal journey from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Jesus on His Cross is the human face of God’s mercy, faithfulness and hope. Nowhere is this fundamental truth more evident than in Jesus’ giving of his life out of love and compassion for us. This is the fundamental message of John’s Gospel: “God so loved the world that he sent his only son into the world, not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).  That unfathomable love and compassion is what we celebrate this Holy Week. Jesus Crucified is a work of love. The miracle of miracles of love. The most stupendous work of the love of God. The bottomless sea of the love of God, where virtues are found, where one can lose oneself in love and the most beneficial means of abandoning sin and growing in virtue, and so in holiness.

Suffering

“My God, why have you forsaken me?” are the words Jesus cried out as he died on the cross. His dramatic cry resonates with many people across the world as they commemorate the crucifixion on Good Friday, and reflect on how Jesus gave his life so that we may be saved. Those words bring us to the very heart of Jesus' passion, the   culmination of the sufferings he endured for our salvation so that we may have life and live it to  the full. 

With Jesus we can see how fragile and ugly, life and the world can be. In his homily on Palm Sunday last which I  will try to capture some  of its richness in this my thought for the week, Pope Francis spoke about the many sufferings of Jesus during Holy Week, and that whenever we listen to the account of Jesus' Passion, they pierce our hearts, minds and souls. There were sufferings of the body such as slaps and beatings, floggings and the crowning with thorns, and in the end, the cruelty of the crucifixion.

There were also sufferings of the heart and soul such as the betrayal of Judas, the denials of Peter, the condemnation of the religious, political and civil authorities, the mockery and name calling of the guards, the jeering at the foot of the cross, the rejection of the crowd, the utter failure and the flight of the disciples. Yet, amid all these sorrows, Jesus remained certain of one thing: the closeness of the Father. He had said: “The Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30). Now, however, the unthinkable has taken place. Before dying, he cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Forsaken

This is the most searing of all sufferings, the suffering of the spirit. At his most tragic hour, Jesus experiences abandonment by God. The event is terribly real, and the Lord’s humiliation is so extreme. We find it hard even to grasp what great suffering he embraced out of love for us. He finds himself at the cliff's edge, the shipwreck of life, the collapse of certainty. And he cries out: “Why?” A “why” that embraces every other “why” ever spoken. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In holy scriptures, the word “forsaken” is powerful.

We ourselves in our own living hear it at moments of extreme pain and worry when things like a love that fails, or is rejected or betrayed; children who are rejected and abandoned; situations of bullying and defamation, the lot of widows and orphans; broken marriages, forms of social exclusion, injustice, racism and discrimination of all kinds, oppression and especially in the solitude and the loneliness of sickness. In a word, in the drastic severing of the bonds that unite us to others. Jesus brought all of this to the cross. For upon his shoulders, he bore the sins of the world. And at the supreme moment, Jesus, the only begotten, beloved Son of the Father, experienced a situation utterly alien to his very being: the distance of God.  

He did it for us

We can ask ourselves why it had to come to this. There is only one answer: he did it for us.  He became one of us to the very end, in order to be completely and definitively one with us. So that   none of us would ever again feel alone and beyond hope. He experienced being 'forsaken' in order not to leave us prey to despair, in order to stay at our side forever. He did this for us, because whenever you or I or anyone else seems pinned to the wall, lost in a blind   alley, plunged into the abyss of abandonment, sucked into a whirlwind of “why’s,” there can still be hope. It is not the end, because Jesus is there and even now, he is at your side.

He, the Father and the Holy Spirit have endured the distance of abandonment and forsakenness in order to take up into their love every possible distance that we can feel. So that each of us might say, in my failings, in my desolation, whenever I feel betrayed, cast aside and forsaken, you, Jesus, are there. In my failures, you are at   my side. When I feel lost and confused, when I feel that I can’t go on, you Jesus are beside me. Amid all my unanswered questions Jesus is there with me.

He saves us

That is how the Lord saves us, from within our questioning as he opens the horizon of hope. On the cross, even as he felt utter abandonment, Jesus refused to yield to despair; instead, he prayed, hoped and trusted. Even more, at the hour of abandonment, he continued to love his disciples who had fled, leaving him alone, and he forgave those who crucified him. Here we see the depth of our evil immersed in a greater love, with the result that our isolation becomes fellowship, our distance becomes closeness, and our darkness   becomes light. The depths of our misery are embraced by his mercy. We see who God truly is, and   how much he loves us. We see how dear we are to him, and how dearly we have cost him!  

Seek Him in everyone

A love like Jesus' love, embraces us totally and to the very end and it can turn our stony hearts into hearts of flesh, and make them capable of mercy, tenderness and compassion. Jesus, in his abandonment, stirs us to seek him and to love him and those who are themselves abandoned. For in them we see not only people in need, but Jesus himself, abandoned: Jesus, who saved us by descending to the depths of our human condition. That is why he wants us to care for others who resemble him most, those experiencing extreme suffering and solitude. He wants us to care for the  people in our world who are exploited and abandoned; the poor who live on our streets and we look the other way; migrants who are no longer faces but numbers; prisoners who are disowned; people written off as problems.

Countless other abandoned persons are in our midst, invisible, hidden, discarded such as children whom are seen in some cases as problems or will affect our lives schedules, the elderly who live alone, the sick whom no one visits, the disabled who are ignored, and the young burdened by great interior emptiness, with no one prepared to listen to their cry of pain.  

Listen to the cries

Jesus, in his abandonment, asks us to open our eyes, ears and hearts to all who find themselves 'forsaken'. For us, as disciples of the “forsaken” Lord, no man, woman or child can be regarded as an outcast, no one left to himself or herself. Let us remember that the rejected and the excluded are living portrayals of Jesus  and they remind us of his reckless love, his forsakenness that delivers us from every form of loneliness and isolation. During Holy Week and always, let us implore this grace, to love Jesus in his abandonment and to love Jesus in the abandoned and forsaken all around us.

Let us ask for the grace to see and acknowledge Jesus who continues to cry out in them. May we not allow his voice and their cries to go unheard amid the deafening silence of indifference. God has not left us alone; let us care, then, for those   who feel alone, abandoned, homeless, rejected and forsaken. Then, and only then, as Pope Francis said, will we be of one mind and heart with the one who, for our sake, “emptied himself for us”.

The empty Easter egg

“The empty Easter egg” is a story that was told to me by my Nana Scully when I was a child and it goes as follows.
"John Scully was born with a broken body and a slow mind. At 12 years of age, he was still in second class and seemed unable to learn. His teacher, Mary Dunne, often became exasperated with him. He would squirm in his seat and make irritating noises. At other times, he spoke clearly and distinctly, as if a spot of light had penetrated the darkness. One day Mary called his parents in for a consultation. “John really belongs in a special school. It isn’t fair to him to be with younger children who don’t have learning problems.” Mrs. Scully through tears said. “Miss Dunne, there is no school of that kind nearby and we know he really likes it here.”

Mary sat for a long time after they had left, staring out the window.  She wanted to sympathize with the Scully’s, but it wasn’t fair to keep him in her class. She had 27 other youngsters to teach. Furthermore, he would never learn to read and write. As she pondered the situation, guilt washed over her. Here I am complaining when my problems are nothing compared to that poor family. From that day on, she tried hard to ignore John’s noises in class.

Spring came and the children talked excitedly about the coming Easter. Mary told them the story of Jesus and then, to emphasize the idea of new life springing forth, she gave each of them a large plastic egg. “I want you to take this home and bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows new life. Do you understand?” The children responded enthusiastically but John said nothing. Had he understood what she had said about Jesus' death and resurrection? Did he understand the assignment?

The next morning, 28 children came to school, placing their eggs on Miss Dunne’s desk. After they completed their math’s lesson, it was time to open the eggs. In the first egg, Mary found a flower. “Oh yes, a flower is a sign of new life,” she said. “When plants peek through the ground, we know that spring is here.”   A small girl waved her arm. “That’s my egg, Miss Dunne,” she called out. The next egg contained a plastic butterfly, which looked very real. Mary held it up. “We all know that a caterpillar changes and grows into a beautiful butterfly. Yes, that’s new life, too.” Little Judy smiled and said, “Miss Dunne, that one is mine.”

Mary opened the third egg and gasped. It was empty and she knew immediately that it was John’s. He did not understand her instructions, she thought. If only she had remembered to phone his parents to explain it to them. Because she did not want to embarrass him, she quietly set the egg aside. Suddenly, John spoke up. “Miss Dunne, aren’t you going to talk about my egg?” Flustered, Mary replied, “But John, your egg is empty.” He looked into her eyes and said softly, “Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty, too.” When she could speak again, Mary asked him, “Do you know why the tomb was empty?” “Oh, yes,” John said, “Jesus was killed and put in there. Then His Father raised Him up.” Mary cried and the cold inside her melted completely away. Three months later, John died. Those who paid their respects at the mortuary were surprised to see 27 eggs on top of his coffin, all of them empty.

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week and as Easter Sunday approaches, we need to acknowledge that we are doing our best, from under the weight of all that’s wearing us down. We need now to turn our eyes and gaze to Jesus. Think of Him on his Cross, overwhelmed physically, emotionally, spiritually and totally beaten. Think of Him with His eyes focused upward, to the ultimate goal. Jesus is a perfect example of what to do when we feel beaten and bruised. It is a matter of fact that most of us are stuck, whether it be with a particular sin, difficulties in the Spiritual Life, or difficulties in the physical day-to-day life; and we sometimes lose hope in all of this. The events of Holy Week teach us that there is always hope.

The Cross is truly the throne of Mercy and Hope. Without the action of Good Friday there could be no Easter Day and all that it brings. We are a people of the Resurrection, but for every Easter there has to be a Calvary. Our faith, our hope and our salvation rest on the events of this week. So, if grace abounds, surely it abounds more abundantly during this Most Holy of weeks. May we unite ourselves more closely with the crucified and Risen Lord over these days.

May the Cross be our protection and blessing, and may the Resurrection be our new life and hope. And as we move towards Easter Sunday, let us try to remember all that Jesus went through. That He prayed for the circumstances to change. And so can we. That He ministered to others in the midst of His suffering. And so can we. That He prayed for those who abused Him. And so can we. That He forgave those who did him harm. And so can we. That He rose from the grave, and brought victory and salvation to the world. So that we might have life and hope in the midst of our own suffering. In our weaknesses, He is strong. In His miraculous resurrection, we have hope eternal. And, really, what else do we need? 

So rise up and never give up on yourself or on others because life is short and we all need a bit of a resurrection experience in our life no matter who we are now and then and when it happens everything falls into place. So rise up and give your faith a chance this Easter whatever you believe that to be.

Let me leave you with a famous prayer written by St. Charles de Foucauld called the Prayer of Abandonment which I love to pray each morning. "Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures - I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.  Amen”