Greetings!

Having spent most of my childhood in Malta, I am no stranger to graphic depictions of the Crucifixion. To this day, the image of the tortured, crucified Christ can be found in every cathedral, every village church, every Good Friday procession, as well as in countless shrines, wayside chapels, band clubs, and private dwellings. Just as Mel Gibson's 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, did not shy away from the violence and agony of Jesus' Crucifixion, so, too, Mediterranean Europe and Latin America hold nothing back when it comes to portraying the Passion. Raised in a British household, however, I personally prefer less blood-- a cross without a Corpus, for example, or the delicate artistry of the San Damiano Cross, or, in stark contrast, the vibrant hand-painted wooden crosses from El Salvador that incorporate folk art motifs...

No, I confess I have little stomach for blood and gore, whether in paintings, action movies, or even having my blood drawn in a doctor's office. Needless to say, I would not have made a good nurse, and it is a blessing that, growing up, my children had few medical emergencies that involved mopping up blood. That said, I still believe the world today needs to gaze upon the wounded, bleeding Christ and see in Him wounded, bleeding humanity.

The Suffering Christ draws to Himself all those who have been tortured, abused, dishonored, maimed, mutilated, and despised, the forgotten ones whose stories have been lost under piles of rubble or in blood-soaked killing fields, or in the tortured gasps of those starving to death... He is the face of Gaza; of Iran, Yemen, and Syria; of Ukraine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo; of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan; of Myanmar, the Philippines, and the Americas... He is the Man of Sorrows, bearing the weight of the world's pain, weeping for the world and with the world, as He hangs between Heaven and Earth, an object of ridicule and debasement.

But while the Cross forces us to confront His wounds and our wounds, it also invites us to look beyond the blood and to behold the glory of Christ's exaltation. Through the Cross, death loses its sting, Love triumphs, and a new creation begins to unfold. Dark as the world may seem, we who believe cling to the hope that by His wounds we will be healed and that, ultimately, it is life, not death, that is the end of the story-- an ending that is also an eternal beginning...

Many Blessings!

Elizabeth

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LINK TO SCRIPTURE READINGS

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

"No one has ever gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jn 3:13-17

Based on all the billboards I have seen along highways and all the quotations publicly displayed outside churches, I had a hunch that the most quoted biblical passage in America was Jn 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." To test my assumption, I consulted ChatGPT, which confirmed that "The most quoted and searched biblical passage in the world is John 3:16. While other verses and passages are also popular, John 3:16 is widely recognized as a concise summary of the Christian gospel." 

It is interesting that Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees who visits Jesus in the secrecy of night, is the recipient of this message. Unlike other religious leaders who sought to trap Jesus, Nicodemus seems genuinely curious about the source of Jesus' power; he gets more than he bargained for —riddles of rebirth, of flesh and Spirit, and of the wind that blows where it wills... Jesus gently chastises him for not understanding what it is to be born of the Spirit; then, drawing on a biblical image with which Nicodemus is undoubtedly familiar, he predicts the manner of his death. Like the serpent in the desert, he will be "lifted up," becoming a source of eternal life for all who believe in him.

Jn 3:16, then, is both a statement about the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery.

Why does Nicodemus have such a hard time understanding this discourse on "being born from above"? In many ways, he is not unlike people we may have encountered in our parishes, communities, or even in our households. He is a literalist who confuses "being born from above" with reentering the womb as an adult. His inability to understand symbolic language and his reliance on the rational mind block him from probing deeper. "You are the teacher of Israel, and you do not understand this?" asks Jesus in amazement (Jn 3:10). Similarly, there are Christians today who see "being born from above" as a single decision to follow Christ rather than as a process of dwelling in the Mystery of God. Though making a decision to embrace discipleship can be a life-changing event, it only has meaning if that commitment guides all our decisions, actions, and interactions. To be "born from above" involves a consistent adherence to Truth and a conscious turning away from all that is evil.

Ultimately, Nicodemus makes the decision to embrace the Light. Though he disappears from the narrative in Jn 3, he reappears in Jn 7:50-51 when he risks the mockery of his community by coming to Jesus' defense. Then, in Jn 19:39, he brings "a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds" to prepare Jesus' body for burial. With Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus, he buries fear to bury Him...

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PRAY that sanity will prevail and that all those suffering

on account of hatred, violence, war, and genocide will find the healing, comfort and resources they need. AMEN