The smiling Christ

One relatively unknown way of imagining Jesus on the cross comes from a crucifix, probably from the 13th century, found in the chapel of theCastle of St. Francis Xavier, in Pamplona, northeast Spain. His suffering is clear: Jesus is stripped, arms outstretched, head crowned with thorns; he is nailed to the wood. His face is unusual, however: not wracked with pain, but peaceful and serene. The sculpture is called "The Smiling Christ." Shocking! Is this blasphemy or deep insight? Why such serenity in the midst of suffering, a smile at the moment of death?

The seven last words: from suffering to glory. The most shocking words of Jesus on the cross are those in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" The Father seems absent to the Son. Pain, suffering and spiritual desolation dominate.

Then the mood shifts. Forgiveness and mercy emerge as Jesus prays forhis executioners. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do"(Lk 23:34). To the good thief Jesus proclaims, "I assure you: this day you will be with me in Paradise." (Lk 23:43). Finally, after proclaiming "I am thirsty," and sipping the wine, Jesus says, "Now it is finished" (Jn 19:30). He bows his head and delivers over his spirit (Jn 19:30). In John's account the cross is the exaltation of Jesus. In Luke's Gospel, as well, the moment of death is a positive act of love: "Jesus uttered a loud cry and said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'" (Lk 23:46). Surely all these texts give some basis for the figure of the "smiling Christ," which depicts Jesus in death entrusting himself into his Father's loving hands.

The liturgy of Holy Week calls us to humility and to attentiveness to the humble. Humility calls us to turn our lives over to God and to recognize that all we are and all we do derive ultimately from Him. Humility is an attempt to try and see ourselves as God sees us. It is akey which opens the gate of the Kingdom for us.

In Luke 14:1, 7-14 Jesus is at a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees. However the intention of the host is not to share his table, but to prepare a trap for Jesus; the intention is to observe His attitude close-up (Lk.14:1); those who are opposed to His Message, want to find eventual evidence, false steps in order to attack Him. Jesus in fact scandalizes the Pharisees by healing the sick on the Sabbath Day and then He leaves them speechless and unable to reply (cfr. vv.2-6).

Jesus was not an easy person to deal with for the important persons of His time, and He is the same for those who consider themselves important today.

On seeing that the invited are preoccupied and look for the first places at table (it must have been an important meal), Jesus tells them a parable dense with meaning, which transmits a central theme of His preaching: "Everyone who exalts him/herself will be humbled and s/hewho humbles her/himself will be exalted." The last will become the first. The social outcasts and the have-nots are the first in the Kingdom. It is what is described and defined as the Messianic Inversion.

As followers of Christ, as church, we are asked to keep this MessianicInversion present. To be a Christian or dignitary of the church is not a worldly honour nor is it something earned. The fact that in oursociety it is so easy to fall into this danger should make us particularly attentive to the underlying problematic. The critique made by Jesus of the Pharisees (cfr. Lk. 11:43) is still central today in our world, in our country and in our church.

Those who are preparing a trap to catch Jesus out cannot complain: they are getting what they deserve and Jesus continues to move the ground from under their feet. He advises them not to invite to eat with their own "friends", "relatives" and "rich neighbours" (cfr. v.12), but to invite the "poor", the "crippled", the "lame", and the "blind"(v.13).Let us note incidentally that the list speaks of those who are marginalized and rejected in society, those who are considered sinners- given their "sickness"- by those who believe themselves to be just.

In the "City of the Living God" (Heb. 12:22) it is love freely given that defines the law of living. The next parable in Lk. (vv.15-24) takes up once again the list in question, noting that the grace of the Kingdom is bestowed on the "unloved". We are dealing here with God "who reveals His secrets to the humble" (Sir. 3:18). This same vision is also found in Mt. 11:25, because this is His desire, as the Gospel underlines. Those who search for the first places at the table today, those who consider themselves important people, those who have done everything for love of power, privilege and honour, will not be invited to the Banquet of the Kingdom. They "will not find support" (Sir.3:30). They have already received their reward. The inversion here involves the interchange of humble and exalted standing.

Luke calls this a parable, but it is foremost a piece of critical advice to people whose behaviour shows clearly their need of humility. Self-importance shows itself all too often in the easy and often unselfconscious assumption of one's rights. However, to take up the banquet imagery, the one who issues the invitations finally has the right to rank the guests who are enjoying the generosity of the host's hospitality.

Jesus' advice is also a parable because there is a correlation between how we might behave in promoting ourselves before others and in promoting ourselves before God. The prudent advice that might save us from humiliating shame in a social situation applies also to our claim upon the Kingdom of God. Our hope is in coming to God in the humility that recognizes our own poverty before him. God lifts up the head of the one who approaches with downcast eyes (cf. 18:13).

Standard patterns of reciprocity and concern for those of our own standing are overturned here. The directions for hosts correspond tothe directions to guests in vv 7-11, and in turn these directions to hosts are to be found to have their counterpart in the behaviour of the divine host, hidden in the parable of vv 15-24.

The natural guest list is made up of people whose company one enjoys, along with relatives, and those like the self-sufficient, religious professionals, the spiritually skilled: Pharisees, scribes andpriests, from whom one stands to gain in some way. We are told here to rewrite that guest list for fear that it might give us precisely what it has been drawn up to provide: a reciprocal benefit from our generosity. This cannot lead to God's blessing on the day of accountability.

Such a guest list needs to be replaced by a list consisting of the people who would never be our natural guests and who have no capacity to return the favour.Then our hospitality will express true generosity of soul and will be like God's own generosity, extended to the most unlikely of "untouchable" people - the orphans, widows, homeless, prisoners, "katulong", squatters, sick, lonely, "bakla", thieves, drug addicts, criminals, victims of AIDS, "puta", illiterate, elderly, alienated, destitute, oppressed, hungry,handicapped, street children and the "masa".(4:16-19; 7:36-44;19:1-10). The "washing of feet" and love of "neighbour" become the norm of our Final Judgment (Mt. 25:31-46).

In the radical upside-down world of the Gospel there is a wisdom of reversal: behind what appears to be ugliness there is beauty; behind what appears to be foolishness there is wisdom; behind the faces of the scarred and the broken there is great dignity. Jesus keeps God's preference and concern for the powerless people (Ps. 68), the social outcasts, thehave-nots and the "sinners" at the forefront of His teaching. He has the kind of love that sees beyond appearances, the kind of love that pierces disguises, the kind of love that calls people out of imprisonment. His love dignifies people (Mt. 5:46f). He asks that our love does too.

In the Eucharist we celebrate a community in union with Jesus. Jesus makes the gift of Himself to all peoples: the ones we don't like, the ones we think aren't quite worthy, the ones we don't speak to, because we don't see them when we pass them by on the street on the way to church, and the ones who have beliefs other than our own. The Eucharist is Jesus offering all, all of us to the Father in complete giving. Let us help one another then to love freely, to live justly, and to walk in holiness before the Lord.

The sign of forgiveness is outstretched arms. The forgiving father threw his arms around the neck of the prodigal son and kissed him. (Lk15:20). Jesus received the embrace and kiss of Judas, and forgave him.(Mk 14:45) Finally, Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross and would have embraced us all if we had not nailed His arms to the cross. "I assure you: this day you will be with me in Paradise."(Lk 23:43)

In this series of Holy Week reflections, a paradoxical image, that of the smiling Christ, peaceful and serene at the moment of death welcomes each one of us to the Cross. May this face illumine our way to the full joy and peace of the Resurrection.