This Sunday’s Gospel is a spot-on introduction to the drama of Holy Week. As Christ comes to the moment of the fulfillment of his mission, he douses all false hopes that the Messiah will be a powerful king who will rout all his foes and restore the glory of Israel—the deus ex machina mentality of the people waiting for a superhero Messiah.
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
His glory will come in death, a self-sacrificing love that gives life to others. Christ’s death on the Cross empowers us. In his becoming man, Christ empties himself of his divinity, and in dying on the Cross he empties himself of his human life, all in loving obedience to his Father.
Imagine the disappointment, the confusion, and even anger of his followers when he makes his proclamation. In one word, “Harang!”
The same crowd that cheered him on his entry into Jerusalem, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!” would jeer him a few days later. “Crucify him! We have no king, but Caesar!” My reaction: “Balimbing!”
Our point for reflection: Stop being balimbing and stop looking for the superhero who will come to save us from our woes—poverty, corruption, drugs, traffic, lack of basic social services, etc.
There is no superhero out there because the real hero is within us. The hero comes forth when we choose to do what is right and respond to Christ’s invitation: “Whoever wishes to be my disciple must take up his Cross daily and follow me.”
Graces
In May 2015, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the election of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, as the 28th Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Darío Mollá, SJ, wrote a beautiful piece describing the graces that marked Father Arrupe’s life, leadership, prayer and apostolic work: the “sensus Christi,” the “sensus Societatis” and the “sensus Hominis.”
For Father Arrupe, the deepest and most intimate prayer of his heart and soul was the “sensus Christi”: “Give me, above all, the ‘sensus Christi’ that Paul possessed, that I can feel with your feelings, the feelings of your Heart with which you loved the Father and humanity.”
This prayer led to the choices and the actions that shaped his life and mission. It became the foundation of his “sensus Societatis,” the total union with the mission of the community he belonged to and led, the Society of Jesus.
All this finds expression in the “sensus Hominis” that Father Arrupe called a “sensitivity for the human and solidarity with concrete man.” It is sensitivity to any human suffering, need and lack, as well as joy, hopes and dreams.
To many who saw Father Arrupe as a role model and more, this three sensus are three loves: a love of Christ, a love of one’s community and its mission, and a love of humanity.
This was the hero that Father Arrupe was and continues to be to those whose lives he touched. His life and person empowered many by inspiring them to know, love and follow Christ because he knew this was the only way to genuine human development and salvation.
Christ is the real hero, and our heroism lies in and flows from our own “sensus Christi,” our love for Christ.
Holy Week is a time to renew this “sensus Christi” that will animate or reanimate our sense of mission in and with our community, and our sense of our shared humanity with all, especially the poor and the marginalized.
Let us stop looking for superheroes. The hero lies within; in the deepest recesses of our heart and soul, we will find Christ. —CONTRIBUTED
