Day 32

And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:33-34 (From the Eighth Gospel of Holy Thursday Evening)

We often hear about the idea of following in the footsteps of Christ in our spiritual lives, of imitating Him. We are called to be “Christ-like” in the things we do, especially how we treat one another. Jesus lived a righteous and sinless life on this earth. While scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we are stilled called to imitate Him to the best of our abilities.

As we walk through the scripture readings of the Passion of Jesus, it can be a bit hard to understand how we are to imitate Him. Think for a few moments of all the things that happened to Him, from the moment of the betrayal of Judas to when He is nailed to the cross. Now…think about how Jesus responded, or sometimes didn’t respond, to all of those things.

He showed kindness and mercy to Judas. There was no anger or malice when he pointed out that Judas would betray Him. When He was betrayed in the garden, He only pointed out the truth, that He had been with them in the synagogue and had not arrested Him there. He was accused before the High Priest He remained silent, he didn’t make excuses or defend Himself. When He was slapped, again He remained silent. When He was taken before the whole cohort of soldiers, He was mocked, beaten, spit up and yet, He said nothing. When He was ordered to carry the very thing that would be used to execute Him, He bore it to the best of His ability. Finally, and here we come to the passage of today’s reflection, as He is crucified and hanging on the cross, he asks God the Father to forgive them, and not just the soldiers that have nailed Him to the cross, but to all through His Passion, and even to all of mankind.

I shudder to think how I would have responded in the face of all that Jesus went through. Certainly I would have been angry, maybe even hateful over what was happening to me. I imagine I would cry out for relief, beg for mercy. Most assuredly, the last thing I would do would be to ask God to forgive those people who had wronged me. But if we are going to imitate Christ, we can’t pick and choose the things we are going to imitate.

I don’t think that any of us will ever have to go through what Jesus went through in His Passion. We will never have to bear that burden, carry that cross. But each of us, every day, face our own trials and tribulations. Jesus shows us how to face them: with strength and with love. When someone wrongs us, we can’t get mad or get even, we must forgive. We people slander us, we can’t slander them back, it is best to remain silent. This is how we imitate Jesus in our daily lives.

I think that most of the time when we sin, against God or against others, we don’t realize what we are doing. Sin has become so normal for us that our actions seem fine. Or we have become so focused on the world and our place in it, that we forget what it means to imitate Christ. Jesus words on the cross offer forgiveness not just to those at that time, but to each and every one of us when we forget how we are supposed to live. And we have to offer that same forgiveness to others who forget as well.

Forgiveness is the foundation of our spiritual life. Build that foundation well.