M.K. George SJ
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mk 15, 34). The cry of Jesus, God become man, which shook the earth 2000 years ago from the hill of Golgotha, bursts out today from a billion lips across the globe. Some of the onlookers then ridiculed Jesus, others grieved, and a few were transformed. What are we called to do today hearing the billion cries?
May be, Listen, Judge and Act. And, eventually be transformed.
Listen to the cries.
It is easy to become a victim of the Rich man’s syndrome as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. We do not listen. We just pass by. The cries are so loud and so ubiquitous, and yet many of us do not hear. Let us list some of the loudest and recent cries.
Victims of the Corona Virus victims: Globally, as of, 1 March 2021, there have been 113,820,168 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,527,891 deaths, reported to WHO. Not a single country has been left untouched. The richest and most powerful countries are the worst affected. For instance, the U S has one of the largest number of infections and deaths. Africa faces an existential threat, screamed a headline. Even as I write this, it does not look like corona-virus is going anywhere. Not only is that it is remaining, new variants are popping up giving huge challenges to the not yet certain vaccination efforts.
The cries of corona victims, from lack of food, lack of vaccine, breakdown of the systems, the survivors who are fighting the long-term health effects, increased domestic violence, galloping mental illnesses including increased suicides across the world need to be heard and listened to.
Cries of migrant labourers:
The internal migrant workers in India, despite being highly vulnerable in terms of physical and mental health, have remained the backbone of the Indian economy. However, the lockdown situation created by pandemic has put them in a more precarious condition. On the one hand, they have lost their jobs and earnings, while on the other, they do not have enough resources to survive at the place of migration. The nation witnessed mass exodus, where men, women, children were seen returning to their native places on foot.
Are we listening to their cries?
Victims of Autocratic governments:
None would be foolish enough to claim that Democracy is a foolproof form of governance. Yet, human history shows that there is not another system as good as Democracy to protect human dignity. However, we are amazed to see how democratically elected governments are turning autocratic and consequently denying basic human rights to citizens.
Democracy is taking a beating and authoritarianism is becoming the fashion. Martin Wolf, a British Journalist, says, “Authoritarianism is on the march. It is not only on the march in relatively poor countries. It is on the march in well-off countries, too — including, most significantly, the US, the country that defended and promoted liberal democracy throughout the 20th century.”
2021 Freedom in the World report points to a series of grim realities. Democracy really is under attack around the world. Some powerful countries, including China and Russia, are actively making things worse. Some of the historically free countries that should be helping save democracy — the United States foremost among them — are actually part of the problem. India has fallen to the level of partially free country and now holds only the 53rd position in terms of freedom of democracy. And can we not hear the cries of 56 brothers and sisters who have fallen dead on the streets of Myanmar crying for freedom?
The farmers on the streets in India, Dying refugees, victims of war, Human Rights Defenders in Prisons
The list is endless. The farmers of India have been on the roads for over 100 days now.258 of them have died. The number of refugees in the world is on the increase. According to the U N, ‘an unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world have been forced from home by conflict and persecution at the end of 2018. Among them are nearly 30 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.’ Can anyone forget the face of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who died on the shores of the Mediterranean sea? And look at the number of Human Rights Defenders in prisons across the world, including India. Do we hear these cries? They are indeed our brothers and sisters.
Judge: Developing a theological understanding of the Passion of Christ
It is important for every believer to develop a theological understanding of suffering in order to be able to not only survive but also share our hope with the rest of the world. For instance, what do Jesus’ last words mean for us? ‘Jesus’ last words are not a pleasant phrase; they are full of despair. His cry was misunderstood by those close by and today it can still be difficult to understand without its appropriate context of Psalm 22. Jesus was calling us to consider the full Psalm, just as he knew that his followers would understand when they figured out what he had said. Yes, that was a moment of ultimate pain and loss as only the burden of sin could cause.Yet there was still hope in the promise of God’s deliverance and that there would be resurrection on the other side of death. We are invited to do the same in our lives. To depend on God, trust in his love, and believe that eternal life is offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus his son.’
Let us not forget that even today Barnabases are released while Jesus remains in custody and is brutalised.
The Gethsemane experience of Jesus offers us a deep lesson in suffering and friendship. Jesus took with him Peter, James and John and he began to be distressed and agitated. The two words express extreme emotions. Raymond Brown, in his book ‘The Death of the Messiah , expounds those two powerful words: “Ekthambeisthai, ‘ to be greatly distraught’ indicates a profound disarray, expressed physically before a terrifying event: a shuddering horror. Ademonein , ‘ to be troubled’, has a root connotation of being separated from others , a situation that results in anguish?
Thousands of martyrs have experienced this pain since then. Human Rights workers face them today. Why look elsewhere in the ordinary experience of our bereavements we face the same. Just as Jesus broke down, lamented and eventually accepted the cruel reality, haven’t all of us felt free to cry, let go and accept reality amidst our best friends.
Theologically speaking, ‘Jesus’ cry of dereliction…identifies with the most extreme situation a member of God’s people can face, namely experiencing the dreadful situation of God’s absence when God no longer answers . Jesus has been abandoned by his family, by his hometown, by his disciples, by the crowds. And now he feels is abandoned by God. —-The cry should be understood in the context of his explanation that when he dies God strikes his Son in fulfilment of Scriptures….’
These two dimensions of the intense humanness of the experience and the hope of receiving God’s gracious love are two of the insights that we should soak in.
Act – Responding to the ongoing Passion of Christ
The Passion of Christ continues in his people all across the universe. We as Christians and all men and women of good will are called to listen, judge and respond. How could we be responding?
i. Understand the social situation critically:
If only we look at the conspiracy theories that are ruling the world, even in the so-called developed countries like the U.S. we realize the depth of the crisis. In our own country, the last half a decade of socio-political developments and electoral politics have been guided by a single conspiracy theory: Hindus are under attack from Muslims, Christians and the Secularists, especially Congress party. The shocking naiveté of millions of Indians, including some of the so-called elite and the worst of it all Christians joining a party that promotes hatred against Christianity.
ii. Promote Democracy
An effort to promote democracy at every level, remembering that eternal vigilance is the price we pay for freedom, should mark our lives.
iii. Shun the silence
‘The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people’, said Martin Luther King, Jr. Can we break the silence and join the billion voices of cry, to demand justice and work for peace.
iv. Join hands with forces of love and conquer the hate talk
Exclusion and hatred fill the world. As followers of Jesus, we have the message of love. Can we conquer hatred with love?
v. Promote a new spirituality – be promoters of Hope
‘Life is often a desert, it is difficult to walk, but if we trust in God, it can become beautiful and wide as a highway. Never lose hope; continue to believe, always, in spite of everything’, said Pope Francis.
As we move on
The image of Sister Ann Rosa Nu Tawng kneeling and pleading with the security personnel not to shoot unarmed civilians in Myitkyina, Myanmar on February 28, gives us a symbolic challenge to what each of us are called to. ‘A thousand shouts on the mountain will bring down an avalanche’, says an old saying. The Passion of Christ call us not to desperation but a creative hope that will lead us to a genuine transformation, indeed, resurrection.
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