Exaltation of the Holy Cross: From a Symbol of Humiliating Death to the Symbol of Victory over Death

Until Jesus was crucified, died, and rose from the dead, the Cross was a symbol of humiliation, condemnation, and shameful death. It was something to be despised of. The Romans used a cross to execute “aliens”, who committed capital offenses. This method of execution with cross, crucifixion, was never used for a Roman citizen, who committed capital crime.

When Jesus, who was not a Roman citizen, was put on the Cross to die, the unbelievers mocked and reviled him (Matthew 27:39-41; Luke 23:39). To them, the Cross, to which Jesus was crucified, was nothing but one of those crosses, a symbolic reminder of the most humiliating method of execution for a grave crime against Caesar.

On the other hand, to us, the believers, the Cross does not symbolize a shameful defeat to death. Rather, it not only powerfully represents the love of God but its victory over death. The Cross reminds us that God’s powerful steadfast love has redeemed us from the snare of Satan, as God Himself in the Son died on the Cross and resurrected. Therefore, as the Firstfruits of the dead, Christ has opened the way for us to follow him in overcoming death with resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:12-58), and the Cross is a powerful reminder of this promise of triumphant Christ.

On September 14, the Church exalts the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ, in commemorating the discovery of the Cross that Jesus was crucified on. It is believed that the Cross was discovered during St. Helena’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 326 AD and 328 AD.  The Cross that Jesus was crucified has been known as the life-giving Cross as it has brought miraculous healing ever since its discovery.

In the Gospel reading (John 3:13-17) for this feast day of the exaltation of the Holy Cross, Jesus explains the atoning and redemptive, and salvific meaning of the Cross, in connection to the bronze serpent on Moses’ pole, which is addressed in the First Reading (Numbers 21:4-9).  What we can be gathered from these readings is that the Holy Cross of Jesus saves sinners, who have reconciled with God, just as the repentant Israelites were saved by the bronze serpent on Moses’ pole during Exodus, because God loves us so much.

What led to the bronze serpent on Moses’ pole was Israelites’ offense against God for spurning the manna that He sent for them. Rather than being grateful for the God-given food to sustain their lives in the desert, the Israelites complained and rejected it, calling “wretched food” (Numbers 21:5). This sure invited God’s wrath and punishment on them with fiery serpents. In reaction to God’s punishment, the remaining Israelites repented and confessed their sin against God. And, Moses prayed to God on their behalf for mercy. In response, God instructed to make bronze serpent on his pole, and these repentant Israelites were saved from the serpents’ poisonous effects as they looked upon the serpent on the pole.

Jesus referenced this story of the bronze serpent on Moses’ pole during his conversation with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee on the Sanhedrin. While his associates, the Pharisees, were persecuting Jesus, Nicodemus was very curious about who Jesus was and what he was about, but at the same time, he was afraid of being seen his association with Jesus. So, he secretly met with Jesus during night hours to get to know Jesus and his teaching. As the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus continued, Jesus revealed that he was from heaven and would return.  It was in this context that Jesus likened himself to the bronze serpent on Moses’ pole, saying, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:13-15).

Jesus, who called himself the Son of Man, needed to be lifted up in order for sinners, who have reconciled with God, can be saved for eternal life. It is the body of Jesus high on the Cross to be looked up, as the repentant Israelites looked up the bronze serpent on Moses’ pole. Furthermore, it is the body of the Resurrected Jesus lifted up from the dead on Resurrection and raised all the way up to heaven on Ascension to assure our salvation to eternal life.

After nailing the body of Jesus on the Cross, Roman soldiers gradually lifted the Cross up. From the foot of the Cross, Mary and John looked up to him. Upon his death, Jesus was buried in the tomb but Resurrected on the third day to show that death, which was brought by Satan, no longer has last words on our life. Therefore, when Jesus was lifted up from the dead as the firstfruits, death was set to be swallowed up in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14, 1 Corinthians 15:54). This is the consummation of the victory of the Holy Cross of Christ. This is also when death, which was brought to the humanity upon the fall of Adam and Eve in Eden (Genesis 3) is completely destroyed, leaving us with eternal life.

God makes a new thing and let it spring forth (Isaiah 43:19). He has turned an old cross, which symbolized humiliating death, into a new Cross: the Holy Cross, which symbolizes God’s victory over death, though Christ’s crucifixion and Resurrection.  This Cross has overcome death because of Christ being crucified (Romans 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57), leading to complete destruction of death and its author, Satan (Revelation 20:10, 14-15).

蝉の最後の一鳴きから始まった看取りの臨床哲学思索

駅からの家路を急ぐ中、一匹の死に行く蝉が私に看取りについての臨床哲学思索の機会を与えてくれました。要は、こっちの見方を死にゆく患者さんにとっても自然な見方だという思い込みで不自然な介入をしないということです。

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昨夜、駅からの帰り道を歩いていると、突然蝉のうめき声のようなものが聞こえ、”嗚呼、一匹の蝉がその命の最後の時を示すかのごとく一鳴きして息を引き取ったのか、哀れなことよ”、と勝手に推測しながら、蝉がうるさい昼間の暑さとは裏腹の涼しさを一層感じました。

寿命尽きて死んでいったのか、それとも天敵に襲撃され死んでいったのか、定かではありませんが、あの呻き声のような蝉の鳴き声は、一つの命が幕を閉じる時のシグナルに違いありません。

最後に呻き声のような音でその短い地上での命に昨夜幕を閉じたあの蝉も、昨日の昼間はまだ他の蝉たちに負けないぐらいうるさく鳴いていたのでしょう。しかし、日が落ち、その数時間のうちにそれまで夏だったのが既に秋となり、すっかり涼しくなった夜になればその蝉の命も終わってしまったのでしょう。

こうして最後の一鳴きでもって息を引き取ったと思われる蝉を憐れみながら家路を急いでいると、ふと思い出すことがありました。それは、歩いていたら、コンクリートの歩道で仰向けで一見死んでいたかのように見えた蝉が近付くとその足を動かし始めたので、仰向けになって苦しんでるのだろうから少しでも楽にさせてあげようと四つんばいになれるようにしようと触ろうとするとその蝉は力いっぱい抵抗した、というような趣旨のことを高校時代の先輩が以前彼女のフェイスブックの掲示板に書いていたということでした。

もしかすると、天敵に食べられたのでないならば、あの呻き声のような一鳴きでもって死んでいったと思われる蝉は力尽きて木から落ちてしまい、その瞬間あのような音を出して死んでいったのだろうと、蝉を憐れむ心に駆られました。そして、先輩のフェイスブックの書き込みにあったような蝉のように、この呻き声のような音で一鳴きした蝉も力尽きて木から落ちると仰向けになり、少しもがくようにして更に力尽きて死んでいったのだろうと、この蝉への私の哀れみの心はさらに深まっていくのでありました。そして、この死に行くその蝉をせめて四つんばいにしてあげようとするとまだ少し残っている最後の命の一滴をふり絞って抵抗してくるだろうとも思いました。

こうして、死に行く蝉のことを憐れみながら歩いていると、ふと、ホスピス、ターミナルケアにおいて旅立つ患者さんをどのように看取るかという、人間を含め、生きとし生けるものであればすべて避けて通ることができない死という現実をどう受け入れるべきかということを家路を急ぎながら考え込んでしまいました。そうです、私はあの呻き声のような最後の一鳴きの蝉のおかげで歩きながら思索するという、あたかも京都大学の近くにある”哲学の道”を歩きながら考える哲学者のようになっていたのです。しかも、秋を感じさせる涼しさなので哲学には最高です。

夜、家路を急いでいると突然耳にした呻き声ににた蝉の一鳴き、仰向けになって弱っていた蝉があまりにも可哀想に見えたのでせめて四つんばいにして楽にさせてあげようとしたら必死でその蝉から抵抗されたという高校の先輩の体験談を思い出す、そして、最後の看取りの臨床倫理について改めて考え始めるという順序での連想連動です。

実は、ここでの思索のメインは呻き声のような泣き声を最後に死んでいったと思われる蝉というよりも、このことで思い出した、死にかかっていた仰向けの蝉を、本来の姿勢であるように四つんばいに戻すことで楽にしてあげようという哀れみの心がその蝉にとってはあたかも迷惑であるかのように抵抗されたという高校時代の先輩の体験談です。

実は、先輩が哀れみの心で死に掛けていた仰向けの蝉にしようとしたことは、ホスピス、ターミナルケアにおいて死を間近にした患者さんに突然延命措置を施そうとするようなことかもしれません。勿論、なぜその蝉は先輩が介入しようとすると最後の力をふり絞って抵抗したかといえば、本能的に先輩を敵だと見なしたとえ命尽きてでも戦い抜こうとしていたと考えるのが生物学的に妥当でしょう。しかし、私は哲学をしているのであり、この哲学的思索において、先輩が死に行く仰向けの蝉に施そうとしたことは、その蝉がその蝉なりに自然体で迎え入れようとしていた死への過程において邪魔をしたというように解釈できます。しかし、先輩の動機は別に蝉にいやな思いをさせようとかいうのではなく、寧ろ、その反対で、仰向けではさぞ苦しかろうというその蝉への哀れみの心、優しさだったのです。皮肉なことに、その蝉はこうした先輩の哀れみ、親切、をいらん迷惑だと捉えて抵抗したのです。

このことは、ホスピス、ターミナルケアにおいて誰もが注意しないといけない、死に行く患者さんの看取りにおける落とし穴についての教訓につながります。

医療ケアにおいて、とりわけ、ホスピス、ターミナルケア、において患者さんができるだけ患者さんらしく生きていることができるように最善を尽くします。このことは最後に残された非常に限られた時間をどう過ごすことができるかという、死を間近にした患者さんにとっては非常に大切なことです。こうした最後の時間の過ごし方は患者さんによって実に様々です。しかし、例え、臨床の専門家であっても、こっちからの見方においてそれはあまりにも哀れみ深いからといって、その患者さんの意志を理解することなしに、こっちが理想とするあり方に変えていこうとするとかえってその患者さんにとって苦痛となることがある、という教訓です。

幸い、蝉と違い、患者さんは自分らしい最後の時間の過ごし方についてケアチームとコミュニケートできますので、まだ意識がはっきりしているうちにこのことについて的確に把握しておかねばなりません。そして、最後の看取りのケアはこうした患者さん自身の意向にそって行わなければ、その患者さんらしい尊厳のある最後を迎えることはできません。

まあ、毎日、ホスピス、ターミナルケアに従事しておられる医師、看護師、心理士などにとって、別に何も哲学するほどのことはない”あたりまえ”のことのように思えるかもしれません。しかし、この”あたりまえ”がもしかすると熟練しているプロがあたかも”猿が木から落ちる”ような愚を犯すことの落とし穴かもしれません。かく言う、私自身、心理、スピリチュアリティーという側面から、ボランティアとして、そして、プロの悲嘆カウンセラーとして、更に、臨床宗教家（パストラルカウンセラー）として長年最後の看取りに携わっています。だからこそ、この蝉の体験から連動連想された最後の看取りの臨床哲学は意義深いものなのです。

そして、この一連の連想思索がもたらした結論は、森田療法の根本理論である”あるがままに受け入れる”ということです。私の悲嘆カウンセラーとしての専門的意見を述べさせてもらうならば、死に対しての不安に苛まれている患者さんは、死という不可避な現実をまだあるがままに受け入れられないが為に不安でもって抵抗しているのです。死という自然な事象をまだあるがままに把握できていないが故、免疫が体内に侵入した異物への抵抗を示すような反応をしているのです。つまり、死に対する不安というのは心理的な”アレルギー”だといえます。ある意味では、死は自然なものなのにそうだとあるがままに認識できないが故、それを不自然な異物のようなものとして排斥しようという無意識における心理的力学が作用しているのです。これは、先輩が仰向けになって死にかかっていた蝉を哀れむが故、不自然に介入することで抵抗されたという現象にも似ています。つまり、死を迎える看取りにおいて大切はのは何を本当にあるがままに受け入れるべきであり、何が不自然なものなのかを患者さんの意識がまだ明確なうちに一緒にしっかりと相互認識しておくことがケアの善し悪しを左右するといっても過言でナありません。こっちからの先入観だけでの介入は患者さんにとってかえって不自然となり、先輩が体験した蝉の抵抗のような反応を患者さんがするかもしれません。

あるがままに受け入れるという森田療法の臨床パラダイムでの最後の看取りにおいて死は不自然でなないので抵抗しながら不安という心理的負荷という代価でもって排斥的に介入するものではなく、寧ろ、患者さんの意志を尊重し、スムーズに死を患者さんらしくあるがままに受け入れられるように、体、心、そして、スピリチュアルな側面すべてを統合させてケアしていくものなのです。こうしたプロセスにおいて患者さんは、蝉のような抵抗を示すことはありません。いや、あってはならないのです。

Loving God More than Anyone Else: A Lesson from Mary the Theotokos

This year, 2019, on Cycle C, the 23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time falls on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8. It is exactly 9 months after the day of the Immaculate Conception, December 8 of the previous year.

Though the 23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time and the Feast of Mary’s Nativity may not seem related to each other, there is something to connect these two. In fact, Mary’s life reflects important points of the Gospel reading for the 23^rd Sunday (Cycle C), Luke 14:25-33. These points are:

1. God is the prime object of our love in our discipleship (v.26). cf. Matthew 10:27
2. We need to be able to endure trials in keeping our faith in Christ as disciples of Christ (v.27).
3. Our discipleship must be strategic with the priority of our love on God and in denouncing all obstacles in our efforts to love God more than anyone else so that we can even sacrifice our own lives for God (vv. 26-33).

Now think of Mary’s life in light of the above points of Luke 14:25-33.

As she accepted and submitted herself to the will of God for her to serve Him as the Theotokos, it was made clear that Mary’s priority of her love is God: she loved God more than Joseph, her husband. Had she loved Joseph more than God, she could have rejected God’s will out of her fear that being pregnant with a child other than Joseph’s would damage her relationship with him.  Mary overcame this fear by simply surrendering her total self to the will of God (Luke 1:38), thus God became the priority of her love over Joseph. In the meantime, God also reach out to Joseph to accept Mary’s virgin conception of His Son and love her as his wife (Matthew 1:18-24) as it is his way to love God more than anyone else. Thus, the marriage of Mary and Joseph was saved as both of them loved God more than each other. In fact, Jesus, the Son of God, was born in this context of love: both Mary and Joseph put their priority of love on God. Consequently, Mary and Joseph loved their Son, Jesus, more than themselves and each other in raising him.

Upon her acceptance of God’s will for her, submitting her total self to God’s will for her, namely, making God as her love’s priority, selfless Mary rushed to see Elizabeth, who became pregnant in her advanced age by God’s will, supporting this elder cousin of hers (Luke 1:39-45). In her selfless state upon making God as the priority of her love through submitting herself to the will of God, Mary’s soul was magnified with joy of blessedness (Luke 1:46-56).

Because she let God become the priority object of her love – above Joseph, her husband, being totally obedient to God’s will for her, Mary has to carry her cross, as reflected in the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, fulfilling Simeon’s prophesy on Mary’s suffering because of her priority love object: God the Son (Luke 2:33-35).

Mary’s strategy was to make a total surrender of herself to the will of God for her so that she became able to love God more than anyone else – even more than her husband, Joseph. Though she had to carry her cross and suffered greatly, as a result of prioritizing God as her primary love, upon offering her up totally to God, God reworded her with the Queenship of Heaven and All Saints in heaven.

See how Mary’s selfless life of prioritizing her love with God makes sense in Luke 14:25-33.

 

In our veneration of Mary as the Theotokos and our Mother on this birthday of hers, on the 23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, let us reflect how we can love God more than anyone else upon strategically becoming selfless as Mary did. Let our souls be magnified, like Mary's, by making God as the priority of our love, upon growing in selflessness, and becoming able to carry our cross. 

“Cost” of Discipleship: Do We Have to “Hate” Our Beloved Families to Follow Christ? Absolutely Not!

Jesus has said, “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

Many people find this expression very difficult to accept. They wonder why Jesus had to say such a thing. Some of them even argue why Jesus had to make a demand that contradicts the mizvah to honor parents (Exodus 20:12).

Do we really have to “hate” our parents and siblings in order to become disciples of Christ?

If you take Luke 14:26 out of the context, you might mistakenly think so. However,  if you read Luke 14:26 along with Matthew 10:37, in which Jesus has said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”,  you realize that “hate” in Luke 14:26 may not necessarily mean “hate” but “not to love more than anyone else”. In fact, the Greek word in the original text used for “hate” in Luke 14:26 is μισεῖ(misei), which is derived from μισέω(miseo). This Greek verb not only means “to hate” but “to love or esteem less”.

Now you can clearly see that we do not have to “hate” our beloved families in order to become disciples of Christ and to follow his way. Rather, what is required for our discipleship is to love Christ more than anyone else – even more than our parents and siblings – even more than our spouses.  After all, Luke 14:26 is about hierarchy of our love objects: Christ first and foremost,  as echoed in Matthew 10:37 and μισέω(miseo) means.

Because Christ, the Son in Trinity, is God, Luke 14:26, along with Matthew 10:37, reflects Deuteronomy 6:5, which says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”.  It is about loving Christ, who is God, steadfastly and unconditionally, because God loves us so first (Ephesians 1:3-14).

In fact, if there is a cost of the discipleship, it must be all obstacles that keeps us from loving Christ above all – obstacles that prevent us from becoming one with Christ.  After all, Christ wants us to be one with him as he is so with the Father (John 14:20).  This is our priority to follow him on his way as his disciples.

Yes, we can still love our parents, siblings, spouses, and friends. In fact, we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18), too, and Jesus has said that this is the greatest commandment as it is put together with Deuteronomy 6:5 (Luke 10:27; Matthew 22:36–40; Mark 12:28–31). However, the priority of our agape is always Christ, who is God, the Son, as in Deuteronomy 6:5. Our love for anyone else, including our families and ourselves, follows our love of Christ. And, this is what the discipleship of Christ is all about.

Remember, our faith in Christ – our discipleship – is all about love: our love of Christ first, then our love of neighbors , as well as ourselves.

Do we love Christ so that we can love our parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, and ourselves better?  Anything that compromises our way of love must be eliminated, and this is the cost of our discipleship.  Not to hate anyone but to love God first so that we can love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34-35).

May our love of Christ makes us better lover to each other.

Humility for the Church’s Preferential Option for the Poor

The Gospel reading for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C - Luke 14:1, 7-14 - must be a tough pill to the Church today. But, it must be really taken so that the Church won't end up becoming a cesspool of hypocrites of false humility.

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Ouch! The Gospel reading for the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time on Cycle C, Luke 14:1, 7-17, hurts!

The Gospel narrative is about humility and preferential option for the poor.

As the Church, how humble are we?

As Fr. Mario Quejeres of St. Walter Church in Roselle, IL, puts it, humility is about serving others as it is about putting others first. It echoes these words of Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ, “Hombres para los demas”.

Jesus links, in the Gospel narrative, humility to a service for the poor.

We are good at serving each other. But, how good are we in serving the poor, really?

Sure, we run and serve various charity programs for the poor. And we are proud of ourselves for doing something good for the poor, don’t we?

But, Jesus demands more than these charity kinds of social service programs, as you can see from the Gospel narrative.

Jesus’s expectation is to invite the poor for a kind of dinner party that we usually do for the wealthy donors. Not just to typical social service programs, such as soup kitchen or food pantry, but to, say, dinner for wealthy donors held at a bishop’s mansion.

Does your pastor joyfully host a dinner party – not for fundraising or whatsoever, but simply for having the poor, the disabled, and the vulnerable, for the Gospel’s sake, in your parish hall? Does your bishop hold such a dinner party for the least among us in his mansion?

Perhaps not as frequently as they host such events for wealthy donors, even they do.

Given the way we serve the poor and the vulnerable, this reality is like a slapping wake-up call to this Gospel truth: preferential option for the poor and the vulnerable, found in Luke 14: 12-14.

When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

When Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ wrote about the preferential option for the poor and the vulnerable in “On Poverty, Work, and Common Life” in 1968, as Jesuits Superior General, he was reminding that our Church is for and of Christ among the anawim. Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46 certainly tell that he is found among them. Therefore, Church’s preferential option for the poor and the vulnerable is, in essence, our practice of Christ-centered life.

Running charity programs like soup kitchen does not suffice Jesus’ expectation to put our pastoral priority on the poor and the vulnerable, explicated in Luke 14:12-14, unless we become too cozy in making the Church a cesspool of hypocrites.

A pastor may say, “But, we cannot upset our wealthy donors as it may sound like putting them on the backburner, if we had to give priority to the poor. We need to treat these wealthy generous parishioners well so that we keep the funds to run various charity programs for the poor”. If this is the case, this pastor is totally blind to Jesus’ teaching of the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable in Luke 14:12-17, echoed in Fr. Arrupe’s 1968 letter and the 1983 Code of Canon Law, 222-2.

If wealthy donors truly embrace the spirit of Jesus’ teaching on the preferential option for the poor in Luke 14:12-14, then, they will be rather so glad to see the poor and the vulnerable brothers and sisters in Christ are given their reserved seats at a banquet held in a bishop’s mansion.  And, according to Jesus, this is how the Kingdom of God will look at the eschaton.

Perhaps, ever since the Vatican II, the Church has become less Christ-centered, as more emphasis is put on us. For example, compare how Mass had been celebrated before the Vatican II and how it has been since then. Back then, both the presider and we face Christ in the Tabernacle. But, today, since the Vatican II, the presider faces us, turning his back to Christ in the Tabernacle. Symbolically, this may be a reason why so many bishops and pastors are blind to the true virtue of humility manifested in genuine service in reflecting the spirit of the preferential option for the poor and the vulnerable, found in Luke 14:12-14, Fr. Arrupe’s 1968 letter, and Canon 222-2.

Ad fountes – as the Vatican II has also called us to return to the foundation of the Church, faithful to the teaching of Christ in the Gospels, let us take Jesus’ words on the preferential option for the poor and the vulnerable to our hearts.  This way, we would not panic when Christ returns to judge, given Matthew 25:31-46.