A Holy Week in Search of Liberation and Peace
“Holy Week” for over a billion Roman Catholics and many other Christians began on Palm Sunday, March 29.
It concludes with the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, focused on the “Last Supper”, Good Friday, recognizing the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, and the Easter Vigil (or Holy Saturday into Easter Sunday), concluding with the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus.
This year the Triduum occurs during “Passover” (April 1 through April 9), a time when Jewish people commemorate the liberation of the ancient Israelites from their enslavement by the Egyptians, depicted in the Hebrew (Old) Testament Book of Exodus.
It’s interesting how Christianity adopted (or appropriated) so many of the Hebrew texts in the Bible. Not surprisingly, Christians come at Scripture from varying perspectives, some taking biblical text literally, others seeing it as mostly story, but with moral meaning or principles.
There is certainly inconsistency in the Bible for Christians. For example, in the Book of Exodus, God hands down the Ten Commandments (Decalogue) to the Israelite people through Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:2-17). Christians supposedly follow these biblical dictums. One is: “Thall shall not kill.” But God, in the Old Testament, kills lots of people, beginning with angrily bringing a flood upon almost all human beings in the Book of Genesis (6:9 – 9:28).
So should we be surprised that Christians have supported and/or turned a blind eye to, the mass slaughtering of people, as in waging numerous wars, carrying out the genocide of ethnic peoples (including the Jewish Holocaust), and the development and possession of nuclear weaponry that can annihilate humanity?
One could argue, however, that there is a radical divide between the Old and Christian (New) Testaments in the Bible—and this is where Jesus of Nazareth makes a difference for many Christians. For the most part, the Gospels have Jesus expressing kindness, forgiveness and nonviolence. Could there be a more humane oration than the Sermon on the Mount? (Matthew 5-7) And isn’t the Gospel of John jam packed with notions of love? It’s almost as if God had grown gentler with age in the New Testament.
Yet, many Christians prioritize the concept of Jesus dying violently for humanity’s sins, paying a necessary “ransom” to a God who causes his son to be tortured and crucified. (Mark 10:45, Timothy 2:5-6, and 1 Peter 1:18-19). In fact, there is a declaration during the Roman Catholic Holy Saturday vigil, called the “Exsultet”, proclaiming the arrival of Easter that incorporates a ransom. The Exsultet includes the liberation of “Israel’s children from slavery in Egypt”, and reads in another part as follows:
“O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”
Here again is a confusing image of God–one who is commonly described as almighty, but seems incapable of unconditional forgiveness.
There’s little evidence of the existence or life of Jesus of Nazareth outside the New Testament. The Biblical Archeology Society describes how a Jewish historian named Josephus, born a few years after the death of Jesus, makes a quick reference to him in a book titled, Jewish Antiquities. Josephus notes that Jesus was called a messiah, and was executed by the Romans. This might be the best indication of Jesus dying on behalf of his own people.
So I look to other, more contemporary historical figures to give me confidence that Jesus was real—and in some way the son of a loving God. There are Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who sought liberation and justice for their people, compelling them to adopt nonviolence in moving hearts and minds—and who died for their sake—following the example of Jesus.
There are also dedicated peace activists I have known personally, such as religious Sister Anne Montgomery, Jesuit Father Steve Kelly, and Catholic Worker/grandmother Susan Crane. These folks have participated in the Plowshares movement, taking to heart the calling by the prophet Isaiah (2:4) in the Old Testament to “beat swords into plowshares … and war no more”. They have gone onto military bases involved with the nuclear weaponry systems, and committed nonviolent, symbolic, civil disobedience such as hammering on missiles. They are among other folks who have gone to prison, sacrificing a major part of their lives, promoting nuclear disarmament.
And there are times when art has inspired me to seek peace and nonviolence.
I was fortunate to attend the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Queens, New York, as a young cub scout from New Jersey. This was a spectacular adventure for me. What struck me most, was the marble sculpture created by Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1498-1499, the Pietà, which had been transported from St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City of Rome, and seen by millions of people attending the fair.
The Pietà portrays Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding her murdered son, laying on her lap. I found the statue to be lifelike, and almost hypnotic. Here also were depictions of two Jews, bridging the Old and New Testaments, and two religions.
I saw the Pietà again 43 years later in St. Peter’s Basilica—its regular location, and spent some time viewing it. The statue was strikingly human: a mother holding her lifeless son, finding it hard to let him go. There was no indication of a pending resurrection, or assumption into heaven, or crowning of a heavenly king. There was just profound love, and love lost.
More recently, the Pietà has taken on a different image for me. I envision mothers holding their lifeless children in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, Russia, Haiti, on streets in deteriorating neighborhoods of American cities, and so many other places around the world.
