Every year, the season of Lent draws to
a close with a reading of the Passion narrative, first from one of
the synoptic gospels on Palm Sunday, then from the Gospel of John on
Good Friday. The readings on Palm Sunday and Good Friday are long,
and unlike every other gospel that the Church reads during the year,
the Passion narratives are read in parts, with the celebrant taking
the lines spoken by Jesus, a narrator reading out the bulk of the
text, a third participant reading the lines of certain individuals
(e.g., Pilate or Peter), and the congregation speaking for the
chorus.
There are parts that get uncomfortable
to read from the pews, such as when we are called to say, “We have
no king but Caesar,” or “His blood be upon us and upon our
offspring,” and especially “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Even
as we read those lines, our mind screams, “No! I don't mean it!”
There are some people who refuse to
participate. The will not speak those words. Their intention is
commendable, but I think that there is a reason the Church has us
read those parts during the liturgy.
Mel Gibson understood this when he
filmed The Passion of the Christ. Whatever weaknesses and character
flaws the man might have revealed in years after the great success of
the project, I do not doubt the sincerity of the pious conviction
that motivated him to undertake The Passion's production. Although
an actor of great talent, he allowed himself to play only one role in
The Passion of the
Christ, and even then, nobody would know that it was him without being told. During the crucifixion scene, it was Gibson's hands that nailed our Lord to the cross. It was his way of holding himself accountable for what Christ suffered.
Christ, and even then, nobody would know that it was him without being told. During the crucifixion scene, it was Gibson's hands that nailed our Lord to the cross. It was his way of holding himself accountable for what Christ suffered.
It was this same sensibility that lead
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus to write, in Death on a Friday Afternoon,
“John Donne was right: 'No man is an Island, entire of itself,
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.' It was
not only for our sins, but surely for our sins too. What a complex
web of complicity is woven by our lives. Send not to know by whom
the nails were driven; they were driven by you, by me.”
We are fools if we do not admit that
the original sin of Adam is our sin as well. Jesus died for our sins
as much as for anybody else's. We put him on the cross and hammered
the nails as much as anybody, and that is why it is necessary for us
to say the words. If we do not admit the sin, how can we claim the
forgiveness?
Were you there when we crucified
our Lord?
