LIVE & LET LIVE

     Jesus had it made…What’s the big deal? So, he was on the cross ‘til 3pm; that’s what they say anyway. He was on the cross from, oh, after sunrise sometime maybe… It had to be daylight because crucifixions were performed as drama and there were no stadium lights back then. That gives him about, oh, 10 hours, max. Yes, they say he took on the suffering of the world in those ten hours. Yes, and then of course, I don’t want to diminish the torment and pain of the forty lashes or the crown of thorns… throw that in and it is possible he suffered a whole lot more than others by packing the wood down the Via Dolorosa after that night in Caesar’s palace. 

     Please, don't get me wrong, I'm not sayin' it wasn't a bad night for the carpenter, for sure. But by three pm it was over… it was over for good and for that alone it is enough to call it Good Friday. So, what about the poor souls who suffer quietly and with no equivalent drama for the whole of our existence this turn around? No one is writing a book about how our suffering saves the world. Did Jesus do anything about our suffering? Did his day on the cross count for anything but a good story about how evil Jews and powerful Romans did him in? Tell me, you good Christians, what has your Christ done to give us a break since then? Not that I think he should have done more and I am sorry you suffered that day dear Jesus… I truly am. The grief he suffered in that "Eli-Eli! Lama Sa-bach-thani!" moment breaks my heart, but haven’t billions… billions of others suffered a moment just like that since then a hundred times more in our lives? Why then all this fuss about you on the cross? Isn’t it nothing more than a taunt… a taunt telling us to suffer some more and to do it gladly for a taste of some glory after it is all done? I think not.

     I believe there is a message for us in Christ’s suffering but it isn’t that lesson about salvation the sweet nuns taught us in Catechism classes. It could just be as simple as: DON’T DO THIS TO EACH OTHER! It could be as simple as this: LIGHTEN UP… LIVE AND LET LIVE! It could be that we ought to take each others lives a little more seriously than our religious beliefs… for Christ’s sake, be kind to each other. Amen.

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