standing beneath the cross - good friday

Yesterday in order to do our pascha, our crossing over from slavery to freedom, from this world to the Father, from our old selves to the new, Jesus invited us to have our feet washed and also to wash each other’s feet.  

Today another invitation is given to us, this time it is an invitation to stand beneath the cross, to stand beneath the cross of Jesus with John, the beloved disciple, with the women close to Jesus, and most especially to stand beneath the cross with Mary, his mother.

Jesus, if you have not yet noticed already, Jesus never called his mother mama or nanay.  Instead, Jesus calls her “woman”.  There is a reason for this and it is not a belittling of nor a disrespect to Mary his mother.  In fact it is to honor his Mother that Jesus called her woman, for by calling her woman he invested on her the dignity of being the new Eve, the first woman in the book of Genesis.

We know who Eve was.  Before sin entered the world where was the old Eve? She was standing beneath a Tree – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  And because she was there, sin entered the world, we lost grace, we lost paradise.  

Before grace entered the world once more, where was Mary, the new Eve?  She was standing beneath the tree, the tree of the cross, the tree that gave life to the world.  The old Eve was disobedient, and because of her, sin entered the world.  The new Eve, Mary, was obedient, and because of her, grace was restored.  However it was not easy for Mary.  

Mary may have been full of grace for sin had not taken hold of her even just for one minute, yet her life was not as easy as many may have imagined.  She had to go through a shameful pregnancy, and it was only through the mercy and love of Joseph that an alibi was made.  She had to give birth in a stable unable to find decent housing. She had to flee in the middle of the night with Joseph to save their child.  She had to go to a foreign land so that her family could live.  She had to struggle to understand her child as he was growing up, asserting his independence and talking about doing his Father’s business which she and Joseph were struggling to understand.  She had to live the difficult life of a widow.  She had to succumb to the pressure of relatives to take hold of a Son who may no longer be in his right senses.  She met him all bloodied up carrying a cross on his way to Calvary.  She saw him despised, she saw him mocked, crowned with thorns, stripped of his garments, nailed to the cross and agonizing on it for hours.  Everything told about her at the temple by Simeon proved true – and a sword shall pierce your own heart.  But what made this woman strong, what made her remain standing? The church has always insisted – no she did not faint, no, she did not cower or lie prostrate or sit down or squat on the ground because her knees became weak.  No.  She stood. She stood beneath the cross.  Her position was a position of strength. 

Archbishop Timothy Dolan in his reflection on Mary’s sorrow said, the lesson which Mary is giving us is this: “what is happening to us is not as significant as with whom it is happening.”  All these happened to Mary but what is significant is with whom were these things happening , with whom.  She was always close to Jesus.  She was always faithful to Jesus.  And it came to the point where it did not matter anymore what was happening.  There were even things she could not understand anymore.  But what mattered was she, Mary, was close to Jesus - she bore it all with Jesus, she saw it all with Jesus, she carried it all with Jesus.

There will always be pain in our lives - cancers, deaths, addictions, financial disasters, accidents, separations, unmet dreams, rejections.  But for a person who stands beneath the cross it is no longer just what is happening, it’s with whom are these happening; and with whose eyes am I looking at what is happening; and with whose hands and shoulders am I carrying what is happening.  With whom? With Jesus  

My experience of God was not about healing. I still get to solve my problems myself, although sometimes I know I am getting a little help from heaven, but it never gets to the point which I can call a miracle.  My experience of God is always an experience of presence.  I have been discouraged, I was humiliated, I almost gave up, I unjustly treated, but what sustained is the faith that I am not alone.

There was this woman by the name of Iphigenia from Rwanda.  A documentary was made about her by CNN and she was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour.  Iphigenia was from the Tutsi tribe, and during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, her husband and five children were clubbed and hacked to death by a mob of Hutus, including one of her neighbors.

The neighbor who had participated in the massacre was imprisoned for 7 years and he had asked forgiveness from Iphigenia and the whole community. Iphigenia forgave her neighbor. But it did not end there. Iphigenia was a master weaver, and she taught her neighbor’s wife how to weave baskets. The two became friends and finally they became business partners.

When Christiane Amanpour was interviewing her, Iphigenia had invited these same neighbors into her home and was serving them dinner. She was serving dinner to the man who killed her husband and children. When asked how she found it in her heart to forgive, Iphigenia simply said, “I am a Christian, and I pray a lot."Things happen but what makes them significant is with whom are they happening.