Today begins the most solemn week of the year. Friday ends with the death of Jesus.
In Chapter 4 of his Rule, St. Benedict says, “Keep death always before your eyes.” I used to think that was a morbid statement, curious at best, but I have come to ponder that early monks regarded such meditation on death as a way to live more fully each day. What does it mean to live and to die of love? One can only die of love if she/he has lived in love. How did Jesus do it? What lessons in love can we learn from the scenario of this week set before us? How did Jesus in his human nature model love?
Jesus was focused on surrendering to the will of his Father. That was love. He himself said as revealed in Mark’s gospel: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It was to the Father who Jesus cried out during his agony in the garden. Humanly, he knew where he needed to go for the help he needed to embrace the road to life stretched out before him…and so do we— as St. Benedict says in the Prologue of the Rule, “What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.” And that help was given to Jesus. Love was shown him along his passionate journey. There were the women of Jerusalem. There was Veronica who wiped his face with her veil. There was Simon of Cyrene who helped carry his cross. And there was his mother into whose lap he lay when taken down from the cross. St. Benedict also says in Chapter 7:39 of the Rule, “They are so confident in their expectation of a response from God that they continually say quoting Scripture, ‘But in all this we overcome because of him who greatly loved us.’” Love is never totally absent when Jesus— or we—reach out when having to tread our Calvary road. Love is given in ways we would never expect.
Jesus did not fight or swear as he was unjustly accused, scourged at the pillar, stripped of his clothing and forced to carry his cross as a criminal. Jesus did not curse or threaten his hecklers or executioners. Jesus did not judge the crowd or the thieves crucified with him. This was his way of living in love which would end in dying of love.
What did Jesus teach? What did he say? How did he look upon this world?
He taught —and by example—complete selflessness and compassionate love. He taught the parable we heard two weeks ago of the prodigal son that when the son returned, there was no judging—only loving (Luke 15:11-32). Jesus also taught a lesson when a crowd wanted to stone a woman caught in adultery, “Let the one among you who is without sin by the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7).
Jesus hung on the cross next to thieves and robbers and when a thief asked to be remembered, Jesus did not tell him to confess his sins. He only reached out in mercy and love telling him that he would be happy that very day with him in paradise. Jesus taught by example his own words we read in Matthew Chapter 5:44, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” St. Benedict also echoes that in the Rule in Chapter 4 (72) “Pray for your enemies out of love.” This is how Jesus lived in love on the way to dying of love. Jesus meant the things he said.
What were Jesus’ first words upon the cross? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). That is the love of a mother. That’s how a mother talks about her child. The feel of love and compassion is so deep. If a mother can attain to selfless love, then what about God, the creator of love?
Do we want to know how God looks upon this world? Do we want to know how he feels about different kinds of people? Then we need only look at the sun. Scripture says, “The Father makes his sun shine on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)
Is the air more available to a good person? Does anything in God’s creation, other than the human mind, actually pass judgment? Nature just gives and gives to whomever will receive. When I was in Arizona last November, I was enamored by a lovely grapefruit tree in the yard of a relative. The fruit just hung there for anyone to pick. The tree did not differentiate. Neither did Jesus as he viewed from the cross the soldiers, the crowd, his few friends. This is what it means to live in love on the way to dying of love.
We are challenged to contemplate and let go of a judgmental God. We have a loving God, one who carried our sins in his body to the cross and by the piercing of Longinus’s spear, poured out the last he had of blood and water. As the song says, “What wondrous love is this!”
In truth, we have mercy—and love itself—for our God. Love cannot do other than love.
If we live in love, we too, shall die in love. May we follow in his footsteps this Holy Week and always.
~ Sister Nancy Gunderson, OSB
