During Holy Week each year, I try to set aside some time
to watch a few religious movies
to get me focused on the core message of this powerful week.
This year I watched The Passion of Christ
written and directed by Mel Gibson.
Gosh, I forgot how violent and brutal the movie was.
For those of you don’t remember it or never saw it,
the movie came out in 2004 with great controversy
because of its extremely violent depiction of the crucifixion.
Jim Caviezel played the role of Jesus and
he went through strange personal incidents in the making of the movie
including getting struck by lightning.
In any case, as I watched it again this week,
I was again shocked by the brutal violence.
Was it as bad as the movie depicted?
I thought, how could they do this to any human being?
And yet it’s true, they did.
In fact, the Romans crucified thousands of people every week at that time.
They wanted the cross to be feared by all people of the empire.
They wanted the cross to be terrifying in every aspect.
The roads to Rome were lined with crucified bodies of the criminals.
When we hear the gospel proclaimed today,
it is hard not to be moved to tears about the treatment of Jesus.
There were two things that struck me watching the movie this time.
The actions of the religious leaders at that time
and the inaction of Jesus and God.
The religious leaders were determined to have their way.
They went to extreme lengths to get what they wanted,
convincing Pilate, Herod and the crowds to follow their demand
to have Jesus crucified and removed from their lives permanently.
How could religious leaders get it so wrong?
How could they be so blind to the suffering?
Why were they so cold-hearted in the face of such brutality?
Why couldn’t they stop the bloodshed?
Yet as I saw this movie, I was drawn to the current brutality in Ukraine.
I look at the mangled bodies left on the streets of Bucha,
after the withdrawal of the Russians soldiers
and I see the complete destruction of Mariupol.
I think to myself the brutality is still happening today.
Christ is still being crucified in the Ukrainian bodies today
and the many other places of violence and destruction
throughout the world.
Yes it is hard to watch that movie
and even harder to witness it still happening in our world today.
I think, how can Putin and his generals be so cold-hearted?
How can the religious leaders of Russia be so blind to the suffering?
How can they get it so wrong?
Why can’t we stop this bloodshed?
Then I think about how often I am blind to the suffering of those around me.
How often I insist on my own way,
how I can be coldhearted in my own smaller ways.
I suspect you and I have turned a blind eye more than once.
We may not have nailed somebody to the cross;
we may not have whipped somebody
but we have had our dark moments.
We have had our moments of weakness.
We have turned away from the suffering of others
maybe all too often.
On the other hand, what was Jesus’ and God’s response? Silence.
Repeatedly, Jesus responds to his questioning with silence.
Here is the Son of God and he could do all things
and he is silent; why silence?
God responds to Jesus’ pleas for help with silence.
Why so much silence in middle of such brutality?
It is so hard to fathom; God’s silence amid suffering.
But God did not abandon Jesus on the cross.
He suffered with him until his last breath.
Yes, silence was his initial response, or outward response
but it was not God’s final response.
God’s final response happened on Easter;
it is the resurrection.
But for now on this Good Friday
we are left to ponder that silence in the suffering
and our role in the suffering of others.
We are called to trust his silence
and know that he accompanies us
and we are called to accompany others.
Think for a moment:
What is the moment in your life that you are least proud of?
Some moment when you said something or did something
that not only are you ashamed of
but maybe even the mere thought of it makes you sick now.
Nobody else may know of this moment except you.
You may have never even thought about it until this very moment.
There is a part of us that gets sick
when we think of our moments of weakness;
the time that you said to your spouse that you despise the sight of them.
Or the time that you said to your parent I hate you.
Of the time you rejected someone who came to you in need.
Or whether it was a multitude of other things
we might have said or done in the heat of the moment.
As we come forward to venerate the cross,
may we think about those moments
when we were our weakest selves,
when we said or did something that hurt another person.
Or when we have been blind to the suffering of others
and remain coldhearted to their plight
or when we did not get involved for fear of my own discomfort.
May we come forward to venerate and
let the cross heal us from our sins and your own wounds.
May we also contemplate the many times that God
has remained silent to our screams for help in our suffering.
May we know that God’s silence can be trusted;
God will redeem us through our suffering.
May we trust his silence and
know that he is there in the midst of our suffering.
He does not abandon us.
He suffers with us.
He will resurrect us from our deepest and darkest moments
and we can trust his silence.
Maybe we can be there for someone’s else silence
and be the healing presence of Christ.
