Easter Sunday: The Way – Violence And Death Are Defeated
The Way – Violence And Death Are Defeated –
“God is the God of Peace…those who support violence profane His name.”
Pope Francis, March 13, 2022
His divinity denied, the power of this world sought to destroy also the memory of Jesus’ humanity. Both have failed and on this day one third of our world’s population, 2,54 billion, people profess their faith and belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, humanity and divinity entwined. The early Church understood what this meant for their lives.
We have an early, almost unembellished account of the martyrdom of Saint Maximilian in modern-day Algeria. Brought before the proconsul Dion, Maximilian refused enlistment in the Roman army saying, “I cannot serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian.” Dion replied: “You must serve or die.” Maximilian: “I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian.” Dion: “There are Christian soldiers serving our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius.” Maximilian: “That is their business. I also am a Christian, and I cannot serve.” Dion: “But what harm do soldiers do?” Maximilian: “You know well enough.” Dion: “If you will not do your service I shall condemn you to death for contempt of the army.” Maximilian: “I shall not die. If I go from this earth, my soul will live with Christ my Lord.”
Maximilian was 21 years old when he profess his faith and belief in the resurrection of Jesus, gladly offered his life to God. His father went home from the execution site joyful, thanking God that he had been able to offer heaven such a gift. St. Maximilian’s liturgical feast is celebrated on March 12.
Jesus has given us a clear mandate on how we are to live our lives in the face of the violence and death of worldly powers. We are to remain in Jesus the Christ in the assembly of the Beloved Community, the church founded by the Christ. That is always where we will find and remain in Jesus in the community of believers. Yes, we may have been hurt by such communities, betrayed and shunned by their leaders as well as their members; yet Jesus tells us this is where he abides and this is where he is.
Sinful yet holy at the same time, we return again and again on our journey to find Jesus within the Beloved community. This is a foundation stone that we are called to accept or we must reject Jesus as a liar and a fake, The Way irrelevant and useless.
It is also within the community of believers that Jesus comes into us through his Body and Blood. This is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of God, given to us to be in us as we remain in him in the Beloved Community. It is the strength and power given to us to become like Christ, overcoming all adversity, and even violence and death. It is the strength and power given to us to perform the impossible and that which is beyond our nature; that which is super-natural.
This is the power that gives light, the power that is Love. This is the power to overcome selfishness, personal ambition, and the destructive forces of our judgemental and competitive natures. Jesus the Christ in his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is the source of this power of Love. This is Love that must empty itself for the other; always forgetful of self for the good of the other, even unto death.
Jesus tells us that there is no other source for this power of Love, this is the lodestone and without it, we have no life within us. And again here, either Jesus is the Christ, is God who has given us The way, the holy route to follow or we must reject Jesus as a liar and a fake to continue clinging to the ways of this world, twisting God’s Word to suit an ethic of violence, destruction, and death.
It is this Light of Love within the Beloved Community of believers empowered by Jesus the Christ, that the great saints of the church have through the centuries, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick, given solace to the lonely, and given hope when all seemed dark. This is also our power today that we are called to breathe into the world on the brink of the abyss.
Beyond mere principles of moral theology, we are called “to keep together the demands of the Gospel and human fragility”. In the appeal of Pope Francis, all of us are called “to enter into a living relationship with the members of God’s people and to look at life from their perspective to understand the real difficulties they encounter and to help heal their wounds.”
Darkness of heart will grandstand, “love the sinner, but hate the sin”, a phrase that injures, demeans, judges, and ostracises our brothers and sisters who are all made in the image of God. At the heart of Jesus’ life and ministry is the way he drew people close to him, listened to them, touched them, broke bread with them, wept with them, and treated them with dignity, as equals. It is only by our Love for each other, each and every one of us with intrinsic and inalienable sacred dignity. In the Love of the Beloved Community there can be no one who is more or less innocent, more or less holy, or more or less deserving redemption.
Our seraphic father, St Francis, understood how such creeping hypocrisy could enter into our hearts and so warned us not to go about the world contending about words… “When they go into the world, they shall not quarrel, nor contend with words, nor judge others… as becomes the servants of God and the followers of most holy poverty”. This is the holy poverty that saves us from imposing our will on the meaning of God’s Word, proclaiming the abominable as holy.
- 19th Sunday Reflection: What Shall We Do? - August 5, 2022
- 18th Sunday Reflection: The Parable Of The Rich Fool - July 29, 2022
- 17th Sunday Reflection: Where Is Truth Found? - July 22, 2022
