Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus.
The conversion of Clovis, King of the Franks,
and his baptism in 496 was a decisive moment in the evangelization of
Europe. There is a legend about the
conversion of Clovis. On first being told of the Crucifixion, he exclaimed:
“would that I had been there to destroy all of Christ’s persecutors.” A little
later he changed his mind and said: “would that I had been there at the foot of
Cross to defend my Lord”. But at the time of his baptism, looking at a
Crucifix, he said: “ah, that I had been there to die with my Savior”. It is
only legend but it is the pattern of the
conversion of hearts and minds in Holy
Week, the pattern of every conversion.
“Would that I had been there to destroy all of
Christ’s persecutors.” All that Jesus asked of his disciples that first Holy Week and all he asks of us this Holy Week is to watch and pray. But they responded by going to sleep. Fr Barron has taught us this Lent the perils of taking a nap: it is what got David in trouble with with Bathsheba: he took a nap and stopped listening to God and, well, one thing lead to another. The passion narratives
of all four gospels make it perfectly clear that the persecutors of Jesus included his followers. The open
betrayal of Judas for the sake of material gain takes place with Jesus’
full knowledge. Nor is it a betrayal confined to a single disciple, but it
included the denials of Peter, the very Rock, upon which the Church is to be built.
All the others simply disappear. That the betrayal takes place with a kiss will
often be repeated. Those who would destroy the
persecutors of Christ must destroy themselves. Then and now. It is something that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions: however often Christians may have fallen asleep and ignored the truth: there is no possible justification for a Christian jihad against our enemies for we are ourselves the enemy.
“Would that I had been there at the foot of
Cross to defend my Lord”. Jesus does not want us
to protect him because he goes to his death freely: for this he has come into
the world. He does need us to protect
him “Do you not know that I can pray to my Father, and he shall give me more
than twelve legions of angels? He who ate with sinners must also die with them and
for them. When Peter cuts off the ear of
the servant of the high priest, Jesus says to him: “Put away your sword. Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?” In a culture hostile to
Christianity, we are anxious to defend Jesus. But when the high priest accuses Jesus, “he answered nothing”. Pilate
asks Jesus, “how many things they witness against thee”. But Jesus answered
nothing. We cannot save Jesus but only
be saved by him. All too often our apologetics, our defense of Jesus, is really a defense of ourselves. We do not want to look ridiculous to the world. But this week we cannot avoid the folly and scandal of the Cross, if we seek to know the Wisdom of the Cross.
“Ah, that I had been there to die with my
Savior”. We might think that Jesus was a man whose options were quickly running
out. But we are the ones
whose options have run out. On the one side, there is betrayal and denial; on
the other, to die with him. What can that mean? Neither more, nor less, than
what St. Paul tells us in the Epistle: “Have this mind among yourselves, which was
in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” Emptied of our endless habits of punishing others, emptied of all our elaborate strategies of self-defense, emptied finally so that Jesus alone may fill us.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus.
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