WITH THE VICTIMS
According to the Gospel accounts, the Risen One presents himself with the wounds of the Crucified One. It’s not a trivial detail, of secondary interest, but an observation of important theological content. Without exception, the first Christian traditions insist on a fact which generally we aren’t used to value appropriately today: God hasn’t raised up just anyone; God has raised up someone who was crucified.
Said more concretely, God has raised up someone who has announced a Father who loves the poor and forgives sinners; someone who has given himself in solidarity with all victims; someone who, when he himself met with persecution and rejection, has maintained his total trust in God even to the end.
Jesus’ resurrection is, then, the resurrection of a victim. When God raised Jesus up, God doesn’t just free a dead man from the destruction of death. What’s more, God «does justice» to a victim of human beings. And this sheds new light on «God’s being».
In the resurrection God’s omnipotence doesn’t only manifest Self over the power of death. God is revealed to us also in the triumph of God’s justice over the injustices that human beings commit. Finally and in full manner, justice triumphs over injustice, the victim over the executioner.
This is the great news. God is revealed to us in Jesus Christ as the «God of the victims». The resurrection of Christ is God’s «reaction» to what human beings have done with God’s Son. Thus the first preaching of the disciples emphasizes: «You have put him to death by raising him on a cross…but God has raised him from among the dead». Where we put death and destruction, God puts life and freedom.
On the cross, God still kept silent. That silence isn’t a manifestation of God’s powerlessness to save the Crucified One. It’s an expression of God’s identification with the one who suffers. God is there sharing to the end the destiny of the victims. Those who suffer have to know that they aren’t plunged into solitude. God Self is in their suffering.
In the resurrection, on the contrary, God speaks and acts to set forth God’s creative power in favor of the Crucified One. God has the last word. And it’s a word of lifegiving love toward the victims. Those who suffer have to know that their suffering will end in resurrection.
The story continues on. There are many victims who suffer today, maltreated by life or unjustly crucified. The Christian knows that God is in that suffering. The Christian also knows God’s last word. That’s why our commitment is clear: defend the victims, struggle against all power that kills and dehumanizes; hope for the final victory of God’s justice.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
