Whole church remembers
today and tomorrow the suffering and death of Christ, his spouse and saviour of
the world. Celebrating his suffering and death is to celebrate his great love
for all mankind up to the last consequences. Jesus is the greatest gift of God
and expression of his love for whole world: “For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son... For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (Jo 3, 16-17).”
The Son of God brought the salvation into the world dying on the cross and
overcoming the death through his glorious resurrection. For that through the
holy cross we remember not only the suffering and death of Christ, but also his
victory and our salvation.
The First
reading presents the dramatic history of the servant of the Lord who is
faithful to the mission entrusted to him, assuming the sins of all people. This
servant brought liberation, carrying the sorrows of all, letting himself to be
wounded for their transgressions and iniquities. Although he was oppressed and
afflicted, was able to surrender his life into the hands of God, guaranteeing forgiveness
for all sinners. The success of his mission didn’t come from human
appreciation, but from the strength of God present in him. The Christian
community interprets the mission of this servant as prophecy of the life of
Christ who chose to be a servant, accepting the humiliation and suffering in
order to do God’s will. Like this he performs his priesthood as unique mediator
between God and the humanity.
The narrative
of the passion according to John helps us to go deep about the meaning of the
suffering and death of Jesus. We contemplate at the crucifixion the supreme
gesture of love of the Son of God, whom surrenders his life for the life of the
sinner humankind. His passion is the beginning of his victory over death,
making to revive the hopes of the peoples. For him, there is no greatest love
than to give the life for the good of the friends. His attitude helps us to
reflect on the hard reality of the human suffering and to believe that God
doesn’t abandon the ones who are suffering. Jesus didn’t want to suffer, but
accepted it because his identification with the suffer humanity. The suffering
of Christ teaches us how to welcome the suffering with serenity and to be
active presence in the life of the people who are suffering.
The suffering
and death of Christ cannot be understood as wanted by God, but they were result
of his prophetic commitment with the liberation of the people, revealing the
love and mercy of God. Instead to say “Jesus died because our sins”, we must
state, “Jesus died because his fidelity to God’s plan up to the end”. Jesus
didn’t die like a hopeless and his sorrows didn’t mean abandonment. The
evidence about this is the confident surrender of himself into the hands of his
Father: “Oh, Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit (Lk 23,46).” His
supreme gesture of love was accepted by God, whom answered with the glorious
resurrection, giving full meaning to human existence. In his death are included
all deaths and in his resurrection survive all hopes. In this sense S. Paul
states: “since the death and resurrection of Jesus are correlates, being
included in the death of Christ means to participate also in his life” (2 Cor
4, 10)”.
Together with
the passion of the Son, we contemplate also the compassion of the Mother, who
knows how to love and how to suffer for the beloved one. Mary assumes in her
heart all sorrows of his son. Like this it is fulfilled the prophecy of Simeon
in the Temple: “A sword will pierce your own soul”. As First and Faithful
disciple of his Son, Mary assumed her mission up to the last consequences,
remaining stand up before the cross. Together with her, other three women and
the disciple who Jesus loved remain also. Only the love can explain the
strength and perseverance of the women in this particular moment of the life of
the Master. Really, they learnt the lesson of the generous discipleship in the
total gratuity. They renounced to themselves, carried their cross and made
themselves sympathetic in the following of the footsteps of the Master. May the
testimony of these women inspire us total fidelity in the following of Jesus,
who loved us up to the end.
Fr. Ndega
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