Emmaus
From Victim to Warrior
Jesus shows us how to battle sin, how to defy and resist evil, to forgive the evildoers, and to take the pain and transform it.
I had the chance of attending Pins of Light this year, a personal online retreat facilitated by Fr. Johnny Go, SJ. Starting back in 2007, this online retreat which he believes to be good for the soul is now on is 14th year.
Being in this pandemic for the second year, it’s timely to be able to have our Holy Week retreat online, and Pins of Light is definitely a good retreat to sign up for and attend.
But apart from that, I am struck more by reflecting on the Good Friday recollection as part of the second talk of this three-day retreat.
Many, if not most of us, have looked at the crucifixion episode from the perspective of Christ as a victim immolated for our sins. In fact, I feel that we have looked at this moment of the crucifixion in a very romanticized way, as if the Renaissance and Baroque paintings that we are all too familiar with give us an exact depiction of the moment in Calvary.
But Fr. Johnny throws in a perspective that I am more than engrossed in. He shows to us the perspective of Jesus as a warrior in the midst of the evils that are perpetrated against him, from the time of his arrest to being presented in the Praetorium. To the line of questioning that he had to endure, followed by the flagellation, the crowning of thorns and the mockery he faced under the hands of the Roman soldiers and the Pharisees. Fr. Johnny shares the perspective of Christ’s dignified defiance, not one that shouts or begets violence with violence. His defiance does not augment the evil perpetrated at him, it is a non-violent, dignified stance against the evils that pervade those moments.
Where does it lead to? We all know how it all played out.
But see, the difference is that Christ dignified defiance eventually led to the very act of forgiveness that he so offered to mankind, not just to those who plotted and perpetrated for his death. It was an act that was definitely hard, given his suffering on the cross; the evil hadn’t stopped, as he had to continually bear with the pain of the nails piercing his hands and feet, and even though it was inflicted upon him with no remorse whatsoever, given the way he was mocked with the crown of thorns, the inscription placed above his head, and how the soldiers and the crowd jeered at him.
What do we gain from pondering on this three-fold episode? For one, Jesus shows us how to battle sin, how to defy and resist evil, to forgive the evildoers, and to take the pain and transform it. Perhaps this is one of the missing links in our faith these days, to see Christ as the warrior that fights and wins, than to simply perceive him as meek, timid, and too good and perfect for us to grasp and emulate.
Also, it allows us an opportunity to learn to train our eyes on Jesus, to see how he fights for us, how he never gives up on us. Christ is never just a passive victim in this three-fold episode of Passion, Death and Resurrection. He is a warrior who will fight, and will relentlessly do so, even if battered and bruised. He will fight out of his love for us, even till his last breath.
Such is the way of Christ the warrior. Such is the way of Christ who relentlessly fights, in a dignified defiance against evil that ensures his victory. True, the eventual result of his death may seem to be a contradiction of how we see victors, standing on both feet, hands raised, chin up, and as if shining in glory. But this contradiction is what eventually transformed a symbol of shame to a symbol of love, or, rather, a weapon of love, and a truly potent one at that.
This now gave me a better appreciation of the line from the Easter Sequence:
“Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous; the prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.”
May we follow this way of Christ, this way of the warrior, following all the way to Calvary, so that we may likewise be transformed in his image, as he yearns and wills for us.
Ave Maria!
