Yesterday, I was privileged to visit the relics of the Passion that are in the city of Rome, which, thanks to St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, is most of them. At the Basilica of St. Praxedes, the pillar which Christ was scourged at is kept in a chapel. The Holy Stairs, which Christ would have ascended and descended during His judgment by Pilate in the Praetorium are right by St. John Lateran. Then, right down the street in the Basilica of Sancta Croce in Gerusaleme (Holy Cross in Jerusalem) are contained at the very least fragments of the rest of the relics of the Passion.
Within their Relics Chapel they have, in the very center, one of the largest relics of the True Cross in the world. Then around the instrument of our salvation, are one of the nails used to pierce Christ to the Cross, two of the thorns that formed His crown, and the inscription hung above Him which proclaimed Him, "King of the Jews." In addition to these, there are fragments of the pillar, pieces of sand from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (where Christ was crucified), and the cords used for His scouring. Finally, with the relics of the Passion, there is the finger of St. Thomas the Apostle, appropriately included since it was privileged to touch the wounds of our Lord's hands, and enter into His Sacred Side.
In a side chapel the basilica also contains a copy of the Shroud of Turin, which I'll admit doesn't mean much since it's not an actual relic, but it's good for meditation. However, while not properly relics of the Passion the church also contains a crucifix with Jesus bloody and scourged hanging from the tree, and the famous icon of the "Veronica," which is the face of Christ, interestingly not scourged and bloody, but simply the human face in a glorious icon.
The thought occurred to me, "Why include an icon of Christ not in the context of the Passion, but simply in His humanity?" I believe there are many answers, but the answer that stands out is that it is through the Passion that Christ's glory is reveled; it is through the Passion that Christ's Kingship is shown.
The relics of the Passion are not simply relics of Christ's death. They are the items used for His coronation ceremony. The beginning and end of Christ's earthly life mirror each other in that His kingly glory is hidden beneath the veil of poverty and humility. As He was born in a stable and given a feeding trough of animals for a crib, so when the moment for Him to assume His reign came, He did so under the form of poverty. His scepter was a reed, His crown was woven of thorns, the throne from which He began His reign - a cross! And all of these items were used by earthly men, not to proclaim Him as King, but to mock Him and to His earthly injury.
The reed He was given as a scepter was given to show His lack of power and authority; thus the soldiers beat Him with it.
Instead of royal garments, He was stripped of His own to display His poverty.
His crown was made not for His comfort, but for His shame and pain. When placed on Him, the soldiers' genuflections were not those of obeisance.
The royal procession was done alongside two thieves, numbering our Lord not among the royal but among the despised of the earth. Instead of proclamations of praise and trumpet blast, there were shouts of hatred and derision aimed at Him.
And then, finally, when He mounts His throne to reign, He dies.
But as the Apostle tells us, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, 'Cursed by every one who hangs on a tree' (Galatians 3:13)." He has turned these insults into the means of our salvation, and consequently His glorious reign! For Christ is worthy of the glory of kingship for two reasons. First, because He is the "Only-Begotten Son of God . . . God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God (Nicene-Constantinopalitan Creed)." Therefore, by reason His Divine Nature, He already reigned from eternity, and this did not cease when He assumed His humanity.
However, He is also worthy of the the throne from which He reigns over the entire universe due to His human conquests, for while visibly on this earth, through His preaching and life, and primarily through the Pascal Mystery of His Passion and Death, He triumphed over sin and death, paying the debt of our sins and ushering in His Kingdom.
The question, however, presents itself - what is the nature of Christ's Kingdom? He Himself tells us in His trial before Pilate that His Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). This world crucified Him; it rejected His authority. In this world, Christ has been deposed of His kingship, until the end of time, when all will be subjected to Him, and then He will subject Himself and all His dominion to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:25-28). Nevertheless a king cannot reign without a kingdom, so what is Christ's kingdom?
Origen gives us the answer in today's Office of Readings. He says, "The kingdom of God is within us." Christ's Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom; it begins in the hearts of His disciples and grows within us. When we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," we pray that Christ will come to us and make His dwelling with us, as He promises in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:20-21), and then through the indwelling of grace in our souls we will be able to bring about His Kingdom in the hearts of others.
This is one of the reasons the Lord's Prayer takes place immediately before we receive the Eucharist in the Mass, for the Sacrament is the supreme way in which Christ comes to dwell in us. The graces we receive from the Eucharist, and from all the Sacraments and Liturgical Prayers of the Church, transform us into temples of the Spirit, and consequently into the Kingdom of God.
However, just as Christ came to earth to inaugurate His Kingdom, so we must do after it has been built up in us. We must go forth to all people and be images of Christ. We must give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill, visit those in prison (Matthew 25:35-36), in other words, we must care for the poorest among us.
Let us not be deceived in thinking that the poorest among us, though, are the socially deprived. It is true they need to be cared for and our social charity to them will not go unrewarded by our Lord, but their poverty often also comes from the lack of experiencing the love of Jesus Christ. And this poverty can extend beyond the physically destitute to any who are deprived of their spiritual and emotional needs. I have quoted before, and will quote again the closing words from the play Les Miserables, "To love another person is to see the face of God." When we care for any person, we show them the face of Jesus Christ. We show teach them to unite their sufferings to those of Jesus Christ, and in this way we build up the Kingdom of God, for we teach them to reign.
For Christ's crown of thorns was a glorious crown because the wounds it gave Him were the wounds of love. Thus, love was His crown.
Stripped of His garments, He shows us the complete emptying of Himself, His reign of service!
In the royal procession of the Cross, He bears the iniquities of His people, and thus compassionately cares for all His subjects.
His scepter of a reed shows the glorious dignity He has raised us earthly creatures to, by allowing us to partake of the bread of angels and look on Him face to face at the end of our lives!
And the Cross is His most glorious and triumphant throne because through it He draws all peoples to Himself, the King of the Universe (John 12:32)!
The Cross is the very foundation of the Kingdom of Christ. In and through the Cross, Christ conquers and reigns. In and through the Cross, our suffering is given meaning and we are exalted. In and through the Cross, we are guaranteed to one day reign with Jesus Christ our King, the King of Heaven and earth, the King of the Universe!
No comments:
Post a Comment