the cross - Tuesday 6th week Lent

As we approach the Holy Week of the Passion of the Lord, the plot in our gospels, so to say, thickens.  The controversies are no longer just murmured at the background or at the sidelines.  Now they are expressed openly inviting further hostility between Jesus and the Pharisees.  Today another controversy cropped up and the Lord is correct when he said that the Jews opposed to him could no longer follow – where I am going you cannot come, you cannot follow.  And where is he going?  Jesus says that he is going to be lifted up, referring to his passion, referring to his suffering and cross and, he added, only there will people realize that he is the I Am, only there on the cross will people realize that he is indeed God.  Kon nagsiling lang sia kuntani, I am going to be lifted up on the cross and die like a criminal, the Jews can very well understand that.  Siguro masiling sila, OK go ahead, we don’t like you anyway, you are a criminal to our religion anyway, go ahead die.  But Jesus said I will suffer and die on the cross and there you will realize that I am God.  For the Jews the cross was a source of embarrassment, a cause for shame.  It was stumbling block and a foolishness.  How can one claim to be coming from God when the goal of his mission is to be lifted up on the cross?  How can one claim that he is the favored Son of God when he ends everything in a shameful death?  How can one claim power by hanging powerless on the cross?  How can God allow his son to suffer and die?  The Jews in the time of Jesus could not follow.  God, suffering and death cannot go together.

In reality this is also something most of us could not follow.  Sang yara kami sa hospital amo ni pirme ang ginapamangkot niya sa akon – maayo man ko, kadamo man sang akon debosyon, nagasimba ako everyday sang maayo pa matyag ko, ngaa paantuson ako?  Sa tagsa niya ka pamangkot sini nagahipos lang ko.  Wala man sia nagapamilit nga sabton ko gid ini nga pamangkot.  Nagahipos man lang kami nga duha.  Nagsulod gani sa hunahuna ko nga basi nagadumdum ni sia nga, ano man ni nga pari wala sabat sa pamangkot ko.  Kamahal sang pagpatuon ko ni sa iya tapos wala man sia sabat sa akon pamangkot, ay pigaw.  Luyag ko sia tani sabton nga 20 years ago nagsiling ako nga indi na gid ako mamangkot sang sina nga sahi sang pamangkot kay wala ina sabat.  Kag 20 years ago nag-resolve ako nga kon mapatay ako amo ina ang una ko nga pamangkot sa atubangan sang Dios.

There are things that we can only accept in faith and we can only follow what Jesus is telling us, and that is, to look up to him when he is lifted up on the cross and realize and believe that he is God.  For the Jews the cross is a scandal.  For us, the cross of Jesus and our crosses which we embrace in imitation of Christ is our salvation.