Here is a reflection that I gave at my parish in Carmel today. It is on one of the traditional "seven last words of Christ." May it help you rejoice more fully in the Resurrection come Sunday morning.
Luke 23:39-43: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Although the image presented in this passage of Luke’s Gospel might be somewhat unsettling to us—Christ our King crucified between two heinous criminals—it seems that he is right where he is supposed to be: the Redeemer in the middle of two men desperately in need of redemption.
On one side, a man dying in his sin is nonetheless blind to his redeemer hanging next to him on a cross. His hope is in this world and he is so completely blinded by his pride that he cannot acknowledge that it is his own sinfulness that has brought him to this condition. He cannot recognize that the one who was hanging next to him and was suffering with him came not to take away all his suffering, but rather to save him from his sinful condition. Today, this man represents all of those who are quick to say, “Where was God” when they experience suffering in this world. “Where was God when my mother was dying from cancer?” “Where was God when my son was shot and killed?” “Where was God when my sister was being raped?” “If he is such a powerful God, then why didn’t he save them and me from our suffering?” “Are you not the Messiah?” the unrepentant thief says, “save yourself and us” (Lk 23:39). This one could not see that his Redeemer would be more than a divine dose of pain killers. He could not see that he, like his Redeemer, would be made perfect in suffering (Heb. 2:10). And so he misses his chance to live.
On the other side, we see the opposite. A man, also dying in his sin, sees in the man hanging next to him his Redeemer. He can do this because he first recognizes his own emptiness, his own need of redemption. In his sinfulness he is now nailed to the cross with no hope of being removed until after he has breathed his last breath and he can acknowledge—he chooses to acknowledge—that he is left now with nothing. He recognizes his nothingness. As soon as he can recognize his nothingness, he can turn to Jesus and see clearly the fullness of him sent to suffer with him and for him. He has no need to ask, “Where is God?” He knows where he is. He is on the cross next to him, suffering with him. Renouncing all of his pride, he can then turn to Jesus with the eyes of faith and say not “save me,” but rather “remember me.” He resigned himself to his own death in his sinfulness and asked only that he be remembered by the one who—mysteriously to him—would somehow come to reign in spite of this seemingly desperate condition.
Jesus gives no words to the man who remains blind to his sin. To the man who recognizes and acknowledges his own nothingness, however, Jesus gives those words of hope: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43).
Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that the blind man who does not know he is blind cannot hope to see, but there is hope for him when he recognizes his need to see. The only thing worse than sin, he continues, is denying that we are sinners. There is hope, however, for the one who can acknowledge his or her sinfulness: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of God is theirs” (Mt 5:3). Perhaps today we can recognize our own poverty of spirit, our own sinfulness that has crucified us, so that we might recognize Christ our Redeemer, crucified with us and for us, and say: “Remember me, Lord….” Then, in the silence of our nothingness we can hope to hear our Savior say, “Amen, I say to you….”
Given at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Church – Carmel, Indiana
Good Friday, April 22, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment