Mark 8:31-38
31 Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Not many of us may have noticed the February 19th obituary of Sr. Dianna Ortiz, a Roman Catholic sister in the Ursuline Order who died from cancer at age 62 in Washington, D.C. Not many of us know her compelling story. In 1987, she left the United States of America for Guatemala to join other sisters who were teaching Mayan children. In the 1980’s Guatemala endured the horrors of a military government which tortured and killed countless citizens, a government which received the support of the Regan administration and the CIA. Many religious persons were caught up in that horror.
On November 2m 1989, she was abducted by the state police, confined in the police academy and for 30 hours endured torture and gang rape. When doctors treated her for her physical and emotional trauma, they certified that not only was she was burned with cigarettes over 100 times but that she was pregnant from the rapes. She aborted the pregnancy.
Out of that intense trauma, Sr. Dianna confronted the American administration for their complicity in her torture and rape, was awarded $5 million dollars in damages and went on to become an advocate for victims of torture and rape as a tactic of war. Sr. Dianna stands with countless Christians who imitate the example of Jesus in confronting unjust systems of oppression and injustice.
All too often, when we hear Jesus talking about the cross and his own death, our thinking moves toward images of Jesus as a lamb sacrificed on the cross. Sacrificed to appease the anger of a God who is upset with our sin. Sacrificed to make amends for the injustice of sin against a God whose holiness is unbalanced by our sin. Sacrificed to quell the fury of an indignant parent God who seeks retribution for sin in the death of his son.
Such sacrificial thinking, presented throughout the centuries of Christian thought and hymns, distorts the original context of Jesus’ death. Jesus was not the innocent victim of the anger of God.
Jesus paid the cost of confronting the system of oppression carried out against the poor and marginalized of his day, a system organized by the religious and secular leaders who felt threatened by Jesus embrace of the poor and sick. Jesus knew full well that God was standing on the side of the poor of his day, the poor who bore the burden of the oppressive taxes demanded by both the religious and secular powers. Jesus knew full well that God was standing on the side of the poor of his day, the poor who endured the emotional trauma of Roman overlords who victimized women and children, who were healed of that trauma by Jesus healing touch. God knows that when Jesus stands with the poor, Jesus will pay for that stand with his life. Jesus is offering the way of non-violence as the alternative to the Roman system of violence. More deeply, Jesus is telling us that we are created to live a non-violent life style, that God created us for to live in loving community.
At the heart of today’s Gospel lies this very difficult and challenging word from Jesus: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Mk 8 :34-35
We live in a culture dominated by violence. Our video games glorify violence. With the exception of the Hallmark channel, much of our entertainment involves violence and abuse. Patterns of emotional confrontation and degradation become the way we relate to each other.
When Jesus invites us to follow him, he also invites us to forsake the patterns of violence and destruction we have picked up from our society. All of us have identified with the patterns of our culture, patterns of abuse and violence, and it takes time to shift those patterns. Such shifts seem like dying. Such shifts also bring life. Resurrection overturns death and Jesus assures us those who lose their life (their life based on a false identity of the oppressor) will save it.
Sr. Dianna moved through her trauma, she confronted her abusers in an international court, she challenged her country to disclose information on the CIA’s involvement with her torture, she then went on to tell her story, to advocate for those who are similarly tortured and raped. She discovered, through the pain and suffering inflicted by the system of violence, an alternate way, a way to undermine that system, a way to peace and reconciliation. She discovered, deeper than her pain, her true self as a advocate for the poor and tortured.
Each of us are challenged to discover the roots of that violence in our souls. Lent challenges us to discover the places in our hearts where we have taken on the false self offer by our society and compromised our true self, the self created for love and compassion. Jesus invites us this Lent to that painful crucifixion of that false self, that self which hurts others, that self which degrades others, that self which inflicts emotional violence on others.
On the other side of that crucifixion comes our resurrection, the birth of our true self, the self created to love others, support others, lift up others. In the depth of our heart, God ever gives birth to our true self, loves us and sustains us. Every birth involves pain and God, the midwife of our hearts, is at work in you moving you from the pain of labor into the joy of your best self.