THE SUPREME GESTURE
Jesus counted on the possibility of a violent end. He wasn’t naïve. He knows to what he exposed himself if he keeps insisting on the project of God’s reign. It’s impossible to seek so radically a worthy life for the «poor» and the «sinners», without provoking the reaction of those who aren’t interested in any change.
Certainly Jesus isn’t suicidal. He’s not seeking crucifixion. He never wanted suffering either for others or for himself. All his life was dedicated to combat it wherever he found it: in sickness, in injustice, in sin or in hopelessness. That’s why he’s not now running after death, but neither does he have second thoughts.
He will keep welcoming sinners and the excluded, though his action irritates in the Temple. If they end up condemning him, he also will die as a delinquent and excluded, but his death will confirm what his whole life has been about: complete trust in a God who doesn’t exclude anyone from God’s forgiveness.
He will keep announcing the love of God for the least, identifying himself with those who are the poorest and most despised of the Empire, however much it causes problems in the surroundings of the Roman governor. If one day they execute him in the punishment of the cross, reserved for slaves, he too will die as a despised slave, but his death will seal for ever his faithfulness to the God who defends victims.
Full of God’s love, he will keep offering «salvation» to those who suffer evil and illness: he will give «welcome» to those who are excluded by society and religion; he will gift God’s «forgiveness» freely to sinners and lost people, who are incapable of returning his friendship. This saving attitude, that inspires his whole life, will also inspire his death.
That’s why for Christians the cross attracts us so much. We kiss the face of the Crucified One, raising our eyes toward him, listening to his last words… because in his crucifixion we see the final service of Jesus to the Father’s project, and the supreme gesture of God handing over God’s Son out of love for all humanity.
For Jesus’ followers, to celebrate the Lord’s passion and death is a moving gratitude, a joyful adoration to the «incredible» love of God and to the call to live as Jesus did, in solidarity with those who are crucified.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
