Here He is!
Our Divine Lover, Priest!
Vested as Priest, placed on the paten of the Cross as Victim-Oblation
Alone.
Exhausted.
Condemned by false testimony, abandoned by those religious leaders who should have protected Him, handed over to the state to execute Him .
His chosen friends, first Pope, first Bishop-priests, betrayed Him, denied Him, fled from Him.
Only She whose own heart had been pierced by the sword of misunderstanding, gossip, rejection, remained – His Mother, and with her, besides her own women friends, one newly ordained bishop-priest. The one portrayed in popular religious imagination to this day as the youngest, weakest of the bunch!
Not then to the first Pope, nor to those other allegedly strong men, was the Mother confided, but to the one whose strength was not in muscle or age, not in hardness of ego boasting promises to be faithful, but one who truly loved!
Love is stronger!
Of course just as when we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass nothing else but the bread – wheat ground and baked by fire – appears to be upon the paten; nothing more than wine – from grapes crushed and squeezed until the last drop, and a wee drop of water co-mingled – water of life, of baptism, of slaked thirst, of tears – appears to be within the chalice, so too here: no-thing, no-one is upon the paten of the Cross, within the chalice of suffering but He Himself – yet in truth: ..CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL! [cf. Col. 3: 11]
Look at Him!
Contemplate Him!
We become the one we contemplate!
Look past the spittle of hatred and lies, past the scourging of sin of un-forgiveness of our enemies, beyond the apparent powerlessness to the true Beauty of His Face.
Look into those eyes which ever since He first opened them as He lay in the manger have gazed across the millennia upon you at this very moment – eyes which lavish upon one and all, upon you, absolute love, and compassion, pouring forth from His Heart and saying: For you! For you because I love you I am beaten down, rejected, abandoned, lied about, convicted, stripped, sentenced, killed – for You because I love you!
Love IS stronger!
It is a terrible thing to suffer rejection, abandonment, punishment – all without due process, all because liars go unchallenged and many bishops lack the courage { as did their original predecessors } to defend Christ crucified in His priests.
Yes, it is a terrible thing to be persecuted by the Church – but we must as suffering priests never forget we, like all the baptized, are invited to be one with Christ, even in the depths of His suffering, yes, but through Baptism we are also immersed into the wonder of His resurrection!
Love is stronger and like Christ Himself – if we ourselves are to have trusting hope in the strength of love and truth – we must ‘love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us.’
Look at Him!
Contemplate Him!
Love Him!
Trust Him!
Follow Him!
Yes, follow Him even unto the very aloneness of the altar of abandonment, the cross of rejection, the paten of unending waiting, waiting, waiting for Him to grab us by the hand, as He did sinking Peter, and to save us!
Jesus Himself is our hope!