THE SILENCE OF THE CROSS The people were remaining there watching. The leaders were mocking and saying “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One” The soldiers mocked him too, But Jesus is silent. Up to then he has to ‘bear’ the bitterness of the incredulity which is so hardened that it has lost the capacity to be moved by the suffering, the despair and the strange humiliation. To all appearances, such silence could almost suggest Jesus giving up in face of lifee, his profound disillusion because of his abandonment by his Father. But will the silence of the cross signify this: abandonment and disillusion? If it is neither of these two , what is this silence? The attitude of Jesus evokes the figure of the servant of Yahweh, eloquently described in Isaiah: “Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opend his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers, he never opened his mouth” (Is 53,6b-7). The expression “he never opened his moouth” referred to twice, underlines the attitude of silence in face of the violence and the suffering to which the servant had had to submit. In fact, this is not a sign of some defense tactic against the ill-treatment, even verbal that he will receive. Such an attitude seems unique, principally if we remember Jeremiah, or the other authors of the “Psalms of Lamentation” who in one way or another defend themselves from their enemies, by imploring God to punish them (Jr 11,20; Ps. 7,10; 69,25). But the servant no: he does not lament, nor implore protection or punishment. Perhaps because of this, he can be compared so well to a dumb sheep, led to the slaugther, - an image which reaches its full realisation in him. In spite of being applied equally to Israel (cf. Ps 44,12.23) and to Jeremiah (cf. Jr 11,19), neither of them nor any great sufferer of the OT such as Job, were able to show the ‘patience’ of the servant of Yahweh- a ‘patience' which is not identified with passive resignation, but shows traits which profoundly marked his identity. In fact from the beginning the servant is defined as the one who “does not cry out nor raise his voice, his voice is not heard in the streets (Is. 42,2) However, in the face of suffering, such silence does not only signify a coherence of personality. The servant is a “chosen one” upon whom the Spirit of Yahweh rests, someone who was called to the service of justice and to be a covenant and light to the nations (cf. Is 42,1.6). The mission which was entrusted to him guarantees us that he was not abandoned, a misguided person, or a passive person. On the contrary he is someone who offers his life in sacrifice – a sacrifice which brings about and makes triumphant the unfathomable design of God. (cf. Is 53,10b). Yes the servant is silent in fact, but it is an active silence, not merely the absence of words but the means to give all the space possible to the realisation of God’s will. It is the same as saying: he kept silence not to quieten the pain but so as to let the unique mystery of God speak. From the beginning the christian community saw the description of the servant of Yahweh as a prophecy about Jesus Christ. In this sense, by his life, suffering and death on a cross, Jesus Christ, gives a name and a historical realization to the person of the servant of Yahweh. But if the figure of the servant, capable of suffering in silence, was so well known in Israel why does his realisation in the person of Jesus so confuse and disorientate the people of his time. The passers-by shake their heads (cf.Mt 27,39), the scribes, the high priests and the elders mercilessly made fun of the situation (cf. Mt 27,41), the robbers divided among themselves between those who wished and those who resisted understanding such suffering (cf. Lc 23,39-43), the people stayed there watching (cf. Lc 23,35) and all his friends including the women who had accompanied him from Galilee remained at a distance observing all these things (Lk 23,49). The passers-by were certainly people who had heard of Jesus or may even have listened to some of his teachings. However now meeting him again on the cross they are amazed at how it all ended. In their heart they think that if God was with this Jesus, God would not have permitted such a death. For them God is strong, great and powerful, and whoever trusted in God, though tested in dark moments, never ends in death. The high priests, the scribes and the elders, i.e. all those who held religious, cultural and in part administrative power, think they have won and under this illusion, they enjoy the situation. Jesus impressd them, but now they see that he is not worth anything, once he was not even able to save himself. The robbers demand help from his true identity, asking him to show who he is and to save them, saving himself too. The people remain amazed, incapable of seeing that in the visible fragility and humiliation there is a mystery which proclaims the strength and the glory of God. His friends, says the text, ‘stand at a distance’ certainly overwhelmed by astonishment and fear. The strong and powerful God, capable of dividing the waters of the Nile or of feeding the people in the desert, reveals himeslf as weak and vulnerable. Now all of this could only give rise to confusion. The cross and the death of Jesus is not glorious nor extraordinary: it is a dramatic death, without halos of serenity and peace, called to be the silence from whom, in the light of Lamentation 3,26, even like this, the salvation of God was awaited (Lm. 3,26, it is good to wait in silence for Yahweh to save) As for us, how do we react to the silence of this cross of Jesus? We are certainly filled with the idea of a God we accept tests himself and us, but also all of us desire that God saves himelf and us before things go badly, We instinctively refuse to go to the finish and to experience the total confidence which Jesus experienced. When we look at the cross we feel touched in the core of our human existence, once we see mirrored there our deepest experience which we find difficulty in objectifying and communicating to others, abandonment, loneliness, isolation, pain… We know from our own experience how difficult it is in these moments to be silent, ie., in the way of the Servant of Yahweh, to let it be uniquely the mystery of God speaking. And so we defend ourselves and we frequently waver between the insult and the distance of the one who cannot keep silent or accept the injustice which wounds him/her and the anguish which prevails The certainty is that in fleeing suffering, we finish by avoiding ourselves, others and the gift of salvation which God offers us. It is difficult to accept Jesus as a weak God, who suffers and hopes in silence for salvation, because it is not easy to accept in silence our own weakness and our own suffering and to trust that all is not in our control. It is certain that the suffering of the cross surprised Jesus, but did not prevent him from accepting the mystery which was being realised in him. Jesus remained silent and did not flee neither from himself nor from God, accepting that his hour was an hour of salvation. When we look at the cross, the silence of Jesus we cannot stop in the person resigned or the suffering one, but yes in someone who through his silence shows us confidence in that to which we are called to be and to truly live. Becaus as for Jesus, all our greatness only emerges on the morning of Easter. It is a greatness which does not come as a fruit of one who walks with suffering, in suffering or from mistake to mistake, but yes as a light from whom we are learning to go to the finish and to hope in faith, in a love and in a salvation which is certain but which is also a mystery: The Lord is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him. It is good to wait in silence for God to save. (Lm 3, 25-26). r from God, accepting that his hour was an hour of salvation. When we look at the cross, the silence of Jesus we cannot stop in the person resigned or the suffering one, but yes in someone who through his silence shows us confidence in that to which we are called to be and to truly live. Becaus as for Jesus, all our greatness only emerges on the morning of Easter. It is a greatness which does not come as a fruit of one who walks with suffering, in suffering or from mistake to mistake, but yes as a light from whom we are learning to go to the finish and to hope in faith, in a love and in a salvation which is certain but which is also a mystery: The Lord is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him. It is good to wait in silence for God to save. the finish and to hope in faith, in a love and in a salvation which is certain but which is also a mystery: The Lord is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him. It is good to wait in silence for God to save. (Lm 3, 25-26). (Presented on behalf of the author to the Lumen Christi Prayer Meeting by Sr. Marianne Murray, rscm in March 2001) |