Back To School College With Rodney

A Way of the Cross for our day

FIRST STATION: JESUS \u200b\u200b'E' SENTENCED TO DEATH.

a) biblical context.

'Jesus' is dragged before the High Priest first, and then before Pilate. An angry mob calls for their death sentence. The same people who shout, 'Crucify him!' sono quelle che in precedenza sono state da Lui beneficate e miracolate. Si costruiscono false accuse. Si individuano falsi testimoni... Ed alla fine Gesu’ viene condannato a morte senza possibilita’ di appello”, e viene esposto al pubblico ludibrio: “Ecce homo”. Tutti possono sputare su di Lui.

b)     Commento e attualizzazione.

Anche oggi Gesu’ viene accusato ingiustamente e condannato a morte. Possiamo pensare a tanti “poveri Cristi” che anche al giorno d’oggi soffrono persecuzioni in varie parti del mondo.

Ma la nostra meditazione deve essere personale e deve aiutarci a fare un piccolo passo avanti in questa nostra quaresima 2011. Non pensiamo ai regimi totalitari che perseguitano o alle situazioni ingiuste in cui le minoranze vengono soppresse per motivi religiosi. Pensiamo invece a noi stessi, a tutte le volte in cui siamo noi a condannare a morte Gesu’ anche oggi; a metterlo in croce con i nostri comportamenti scorretti.

In questa prima stazione della ‘via crucis per i nostri giorni’ voglio pensare a tutte le volte in cui ci siamo eretti a giudici senza appello ed abbiamo condannato il nostro prossimo in modo scorretto e malizioso.

Lo abbiamo fatto con la nostra lingua, ed in questo abbiamo agito come Pilato e come Caifa. Abbiamo sparlato e calunniato, rovinando la reputazione di altri.

Sparlare dei confratelli e degli amici e’ un peccato gravissimo. Credo di poter affermare che la maldicenza sia una degna figlia del “Padre di tutte le menzogne”. Le chiacciere ed il parlar male sono a mio giudizio paragonabili ad una coltellata alle spalle. Il gossip (termine inglese per chiacchiera malevola) infatti e’ un’azione codarda; e’ l’atto di chi vuol ferire senza uccidere, e soprattutto vuol nascondersi nell’ombra. Proprio per questo e’ un atto di profonda ingiustizia, perche’ colpisce coloro che sono ignari delle chiacchiere nei loro confronti; li distrugge senza dar loro la possibilita’ di difendersi (proprio come e’ successo a Gesu’ davanti al suo tribunale). E’ un processo in contumacia in cui la condanna e’ senza misericordia, pur basandosi su prove a dir poco inattendibili. Con le calunnie si puo’ distruggere una persona, spezzare il suo cuore e rovinarle la sua vita per sempre: si puo’ mettere sulla sua fronte un marchio che non si potra’ piu’ cancellare. Anche se poi si cerchera’ di emendare e di ricostruire una reputazione distrutta dal gossip, questa non ritornera’ mai piu’ come prima. La maldicenza lascia macchie indelebili, anche nei rapporti fraterni: chi ne e’ stato vittima, fara 'hard to forgive the perpetrators of his own destruction, and even if it succeeds' slowly, can not 'but' never forget ... and frost invader 'those communities' right to gossip that they were not assigned for know what benefits. With this irresponsible practice, certainly we want to claim to be better than the people we are talking about evil, and just when we feel 'of their saints and Ii do cry, maybe we go to pray punctually ... and we feel fine (The chief priests did not want the bodies of crucified remain exposed on the Sabbath, not to defile). But can 'God be pleased with the prayer that comes from an evil heart who likes to hurt others, based solely on hearsay?

Despite all the proclamations of holiness, 'and who' committed to build only slander divisions within the community '. The problem
'backbiting that often arises by rumors that are untrue, that are distorted and inflated. Often we ourselves are not sure if the stories we heard about a "poor Christ" are true or not.

Just a little 'of introspection to stop this weed so bad that he did and does. It would simply ask: "What I've heard are true or not? And if I'm not sure that is true, 'cause I repeat, and the story? What 'the good I want to sow saying these words heavy?

preach so much love for one another, and we do not realize that the gossip violates the law of love of neighbor, and 'a condemnation. We become severe judges who notice the speck in your brother, but not the beam that makes them blind. Preach mercy, but we use our Ligurian treacherous as a weapon, "like a bat, a sword, an arrow pointed" toward others (Pro 25:18). Not even we realize, but speaking ill of others, we violate the fifth commandment, 'cause you can' really kill with slander, you can 'destroy a person psychologically, then you can create wounds that are difficult to heal. Guns kill the body, but the gossip gives a slow inner death that does not seem less painful.

then we go to confession for trivial, but how many times will you remember to accuse us before the minister of God to have destroyed the good name of the shadow of a person ignorant, based only on hearsay, and perhaps driven by feelings envy and unfair competition against him?

fact, when slandered, we speak evil or mischief, in practice we are under the dominion of our pride. The gossip is nurtured in the fertile soil of our own pride in our desire to feel superior to others, and therefore entitled to judge their intentions and to give them lessons. So we are like Pilate and how people who condemn Israel's' Jesus two thousand years ago.

c) Commitment.

We are all cocky, and we are all envious. Eradicate the weeds of gossip from our hearts will not be 'easy. Can 'be a challenge that lasts a lifetime.

To fight the gossip in our personal lives, we must cultivate humility ', we think that, before God, we are far worse people to Talk About.

We also need prayer. Only God can 'help to overcome this instinct and primordial evil ourselves up as judges of terrible toward our fellow men, we must ask him the ability' to love, and to abandon any desire to destroy our neighbor. It 'so intense prayer that can' help us achieve a life free from scandal.

This could be a big commitment for the beginning of our Lent: to ask to Jesus' heart to give us his simple, humble and innocent, a heart that knows how to always see the good in others and to forgive evil, always refraining from processing the other in absentia, and criticisms malignant and without certain proof.

d) Prayer.

"Dear Jesus, 'perdomami for all the times I said something wrong, and so careless of others and I have condemned them in my heart, just to feel better than them. Help me to think before speaking, and especially before you convict someone without appeal. Help me to love all Sometimes I open my mouth and use the language. Help me, dear Jesus' not to form an idea about people from what other people tell me. The hear-say may not be correct, and could be built only from feelings and things reported, distorted and exaggerated. Amen "

Fr Beppe Gaido

PS: In the picture the first Station of the Cross drawn by Regazzi Korogocho on batik. This is the 'Ecce Homo, inculturated in an environment of slums.