"Crucify Him"

Holy Week is now upon us.  It began this past Sunday with Palm Sunday.  Palm Sunday commemorates when Christ rode into Jerusalem on an ass.  People are saying "Hosanna in the Highest!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."  They are praising Christ and rejoicing in His coming into Jerusalem.  They are spreading their cloaks and palm leaves in front of His path all the while continuing to cry out and praising him.  But a few days later the same people are suddenly shouting something much different. "Crucify him!" Are we like these people? Do we change our tune depending on how the wind blows? 

This Lent, I have focused more on the Passion of Christ than I had during any previous Lenten seasons.  I have found myself meditating upon the Stations of the Cross more and staring at the crucifix. I think that because I prepared more this Lent I became more in tune to the readings this week.  The reading from Philippians really touched me this Sunday.  I have read it multiple times before because this passage is used in the Liturgy of the Hours but something about it today really struck me.

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Christ made himself a slave for us.  He became man for us.  These statements are nothing new for me; I have known that he humbled Himself and became man but something about it this Sunday made me tear up.  He took the form of a slave for us all.  He allowed Himself to be crucified for us all.

Then we came to the Gospel.  The Gospel during Palm Sunday is the first account of the Passion of Christ that we hear (the readings).  As the Gospel was being proclaimed, I began to tear up once again when we began to hear of the Condemnation of Jesus by Pilate and the people.  I became deeply saddened by what was happening to Christ and knowing that He allowed this to happen for our sins and those of the whole world.  As the assembly of people were saying their part, I began thinking that it is truly us who were shouting "Crucify him." and "We want Barabbas." It is us who spat upon the Precious body of Jesus.  It was us who cruelly mocked him and beat him.  We do this every time that we sin against Him.  We are the one's who nailed Him to the cross.  It is our sins that kept Him there to die.

The crucifixion was not a neat and tidy event like Renaissance art likes to portray it.  It was messy and harsh.  The pain would have been insurmountable.  Jesus' body took a beating beyond any of our bodies would be able to handle.  Flesh was torn from His back as the scourged Him and then torn again after they wrapped Him in a cloak and tore the cloak away after the cloth had adhered to his wounds.  This reopened the wounds and made them hurt even more.  His sacred head was pierced with a crown of piercing thorns.  It was not a wimpy crown of thorns either.  Blood dripped from His sacred head and down His face.  He was then forced to carry a 300 pound cross by himself until Simon of Cyrene was forced to help Jesus take up His cross. His body was still being buffeted by the blows of the soldiers.  Once they reached Golgotha, Jesus was nailed to the cross.  Two nails went through his wrists and another nail went through his feet/lower ankle.  His breathing was labored as it hurt to breath.  People continued to mock him.  Some challenged him by saying that if He was indeed who He claimed to be that He could save Himself. He could come down from the cross.  Jesus at anytime could have called 10,000 angels to take His place but He remained on that cross for us.  Then as death approached He gave up His spirit to God and died.  A solider then took his lance and thrust it into the Precious side of Christ.  Blood and water gushed forth.  He emptied Himself completely for us out of love.  Nothing was left in His body.  He had given everything He has for us so that we may be with Him for eternity. 

I find it incomprehensible that my future husband poured himself out like that for the entire world.  He emptied Himself for me before I was even conceived in my mother's womb.  Women always like to think that their future or current husbands would lay down their life for them out of love however, many husbands never are given this opportunity in such a literal way.  To know that my future husband already has and would do it all again...WOW! "God is Love. We eventually have to ask ourselves the question: why was Love nailed to a cross?" Pope John Paul II

I challenge you all to meditate upon the Passion this upcoming week as we approach Good Friday.  When one meditates and begins to comprehend the Passion one can begin to understand the Resurrection because without a Good Friday there would be no Easter. May God bless you all during this Holy Week!