The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Fifth Sunday of Lent - A

"Truth forever on the scaffold; wrong forever on the throne. Yet on that scaffold sways the future!  And beyond the dim unknown--standeth God, keeping watch above his own."

These are the words of the poet James Russell Lowell. They seem to capture the central insight of today's gospel. Jesus who was crucified, or who was lifted up--that is, exalted and glorified by the Father, is our future!  Crucifixion, that most dreaded and terror-filled form of execution; one where as a Jew, was considered accursed by God--is Jesus' throne--where he reigns, as crucified love that redeems the world!  Yet in the ancient world this would not have been visibly apparent nor is very apparent for modern people and the normal definitions of success and power. Crucifixion was so horrible a fate-- that one was not allowed to speak of it in polite company.

 The Roman satirist Seneca put it this way :

"crucifixion was a punishment in which the caprice and sadism of the executioners was given full rein... Cn anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain, dying limb by limb, or letting out his life, drop by drop, rather than expiring once and for all--- He would have many excuses for dying before mounting the cross."

That ugly cross, hardly a fitting throne for a king and Lord!  The victims were usually beaten so badly beforehand, mangled and writhing flesh--hardly the normal picture of royalty and power!  These crosses were not made of gold, had no rubies or roses on them. It was simply an instrument of terror and capital punishment--the symbol of human inhumanity. Yet in Jesus, the Father makes it the throne of the Son and the ensign of our redemption ! In Jesus the cross reveals that God does not come to condemn us but to redeem us by a love that will offer itself to us as a crucified love.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God will make a new covenant with Israel. It will be a covenant that goes to the center of our being. It will be God's law that enfleshes itself in our hearts--so much so that we will not have to be taught about God anymore--for we will all know the Lord within. For Jeremiah this shows itself in a society that does Justice for all its members--that is knowledge of the Lord!

For Jesus it happens when we are faithful to God's call in our lives. We come to know this God as Jesus' faithful servant when we love like Jesus loved. We will know God within when our love is cruciformed like Jesus. We are promised that then we will experience eternal life. That is the thrust the gospel of John here! Whenever we lose ourselves in love for others, for the world in a love that risks everything for the beloved--we taste and touch eternity!  We touch and taste our true selves--God's love domiciling in our person for others!

This is what changes hearts--God's unlimited and irresistible love, incarnated in the cross of Christ, and in our lives, our hearts if we let it. Fear can never change hearts, it can only deter or change behavior--and in the end breed resentment and rebellion. But love?

Unconditional--crucified love for us, for the world--that cuts to the heart and changes it! It embraces it, challenges it. For those who would allow this love into their lives they are called to pass it on to others. This may mean going to stop at the hospital when I'm too tired. It may mean, sitting with my child who is struggling with homework. It may mean challenging and changing a culture of death to build a civilization of love. And ultimately, if we be servants of the Lord, it means standing with the crucified of this world!  We hear in Hebrews that Jesus learned to be faithful to the Father through what he suffered, or learned. What Jesus learned in his suffering was not that it was good--it is not! What he learned is that his Father's love was always there as support and promise of victory -- even in death ! For his servants, we too cannot expect anything less.

For what has cost God much, cannot be cheap for us. The cross of Christ rises up before us in this world as his throne. This is so in John's gospel because the fullness of God's love overcomes the inhumanity of human beings. On the cross love asserts itself as the force that hold all together, and the force that will bring our lives and the cosmos to completion. On the cross the Father stands in solidarity with the Son, identifies with the Son and reveals the love that can move and draw all things to itself.

So often in our world the truth of this love is crucified, hanging on a scaffold ! Many today would see this as its defeat . But we know that is an illusion. We know that God's love is the future of our lives, our world and the creation. So like Jesus, we can affirm this presence and future of God's love in our crucified love for each other. That, and only that can assure us that our hearts and our world are being transformed, sharing in the new covenant God the Father enfleshed in the crucified Christ.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000