Grace

HOLY WEEK

Holy Week, begins with Passion Sunday, leading us into Easter celebrations.  Our Gospel shows the passion as fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture, and portrays Jesus, as being in complete control of the situation.

As we hear about genocides and other atrocities around the world, it is frightening to realize that perfectly sane people are capable of doing, not just evil, but very great evil. After all, we look to the sane to save the world from barbarism, madness, and destruction. But, maybe we have more to fear from the sane that from the insane.

Think about the men who put Christ to death. We tend to see them as a uniquely evil bunch  who were acting from the vilest possible motives. But, this is not so. The truth is, dark evil sleeps in us all. This being so, we should not have any difficulty in seeing ourselves as capable of playing the roles of the men who put Christ to death.

The Pharisees: These were austere, religious men, who devoted all their energy to doing good and the study of God’s Law. They were convinced of their own rightness, and history shows that such men are capable of the most appalling evil. For example, the unconverted Paul praised the killers of Stephen; the Crusades; the Inquisition; the torture of suspects by governments.  

Caiphas: He was perhaps thinking mainly about religious orthodoxy and how easily people get led astray by false messiahs. The Church saw heretics burn at the stake, thinking it was doing a service to the Gospel.

Pilate: He was thinking about his high office and the preservation of law and order at a time of great unrest. He knew that Christ was innocent, but he feared that trouble would ensue if he did not give the religious leaders what they wanted. He was also, thinking about his own job. Many people know what to do, but how many do it? At times we all dilly-dally even when we clearly know what we should do.

Judas: Here, we are most likely dealing with a disappointed and disillusioned man. But, even this character, so maligned down the ages, came to recognise and condemn the veil of what he had done. The killing of an innocent man was something he could not live with. Plenty of people today seem to have no such problem. Consider the terrorists, the killer squads, the suicide bombers. We all betray our friends at times, and we often betray our ideals.

Peter: Here we have a man who was simply weak and cowardly. Any one of us would probably have denied Christ in the same circumstances. Peter at least shed tears over his denials. We all know our own denials. We refuse to speak up for the unjustly accused or for the truth when pressure is put on us. We prefer to lie or to remain silent. How many of us shed tears over our denials?

The Soldiers: They were simply carrying out orders.  Eichmann made the same excuse. So they tossed for Christ’s robe! The SS collected the gold fillings, the jewellery, and even the skin and hair of their victims. We, too can be good at blaming others for our sins. “I was only doing what I was told,” says the Union Man, or the Company Woman, or the Party Man. We refuse to accept responsibility for our cowardly acts and evasions.

The Crowd: It was a highly emotional occasion. They simply got carried away. They didn’t really know what was happening. Do we not often take refuge in the crowd? “Everybody was doing it. I didn’t want to be the odd person out,” we protest.

Holy Week then is not a week for throwing stones at Judas, Caiphas, Pilate, and the others directly involved in the death of Christ. Holy Week gives us an opportunity to look at our own commitment to truth and justice, and at our loyalty to Christ and his Gospel. But in doing this, we must not lose sight of the central character in this sordid story, namely, Christ himself. We need to look at the light he sheds on the whole dark scene.

Christ shows us that the only way to overcome evil is by good, just as the only way to overcome darkness is by light. He, the sinless one in whom there was not trace of darkness, died a victim of the powers of darkness. But this time darkness did not have the final say. Through his resurrection, Christ’s light shone even more brilliantly then before, and it can never be extinguished again.

Christ loved us to the point of dying for us. He will help us to confront and overcome the evil in ourselves, and then he will make us instruments of his truth, justice, peace, and love in the world.

How quickly decent, nice people degenerate the moment their circumstances change. Their virtue suddenly vanished, and there’s nothing left of their former selves. 

(Dostoyevsky)

 

A Pharisee is someone who asks of others more than he asks of himself. 

(Albert Camus)

... Pr. Linda