2013AFC032621 – Good Grief! (See also Aloha Friday Message Mercy Series)
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Mark 15:32-34 – 32 Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Luke 23:39-43 – 39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
1 John 1:9 – 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. It’s almost here. Sunday, March 28th is Palm Sunday and Easter a week later! Today I want to talk about some Extra-Ordinary Mercy, so let’s get right into it.
We say we want to repent, to do the right things, to be all we can be in the Grace of God. Then we come across this little snag in Jeremiah 13:23 – 23 But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian [Cushite] change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? [1] Let’s face it ʻŌmea, we are accustomed to doing evil. Some of us expect to have that pardoned on or before the day of reward. Others we know may be hanging on to the past possible moment to get in a “miraculous conversion” like the guy who ended up going to Paradise with Jesus when they both died from the agonizing pain, blood loss, and suffocation in the crucifixion they endured. That man – often referred to in apocryphal (“unofficial”) pious literature as St. Dismas or Dysmas – is also called the Penitent Thief. His name means “sunset” or “death.” The other guy’s name – according to the same unconfirmed sources – was Gestas. The derivation is from Greek “Gesta” meaning complaining or moaning. Dismas received Mercy as he was dying because he told Gestas to stop insulting and mocking Jesus, then – according to the Gospel of Luke – he turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered when Jesus “came into” his Kingdom. Jesus assures him he will be in Paradise with Jesus that very day.
What and where is Paradise? The New Testament occurrences of the word are written in the spirit of Jewish apocalyptic literature – a genre of literature in the Bible that focuses on the end time. In our Key Verse from Luke, Paradise is the place where Jesus and the Dismas are going. Again, looking at the Greek for the last phrase in this verse (today you will be with me in Paradise) – the word semeron {say’-mer-on} means this very day. Another word of interest here is esē comes from the Greek word eimi {i-mee’} for to be or to exist. All of the words in the phrase are crystal clear about what they denote so that we could read it as “this very day exactly you will actually be with exactly me in exactly Paradise.” Pretty clear what he meant, yes? Considering the pain he and his two fellow victims were in, it was not a time for dithering about word choices. Yet, it is so very much “in character” for Jesus to make a direct confirmation of salvation despite the agony and distress he was feeling at that very moment.
Jesus’ word to this repentant thief was a word of forgiveness, as was Jesus First Word [2] from the Cross, “Father forgive them …” He first forgave his executioners. Next he forgave one who acknowledged the justice of his own punishment, repented of his sins, and asked to be remembered in Jesus’ Kingdom. Today we still read about this man who, at Death’s door, appealed to the Creator of Heaven and Earth for Mercy. Shall we not do likewise and ask for forgiveness in our appeal to The One who overcame Sin and Death? “Forgiveness” is something which is sometimes hard to understand. We might liken it to what people say about art: I don’t know much about art, but I know it when I see it. We have some misguided ideas about forgiveness, though, even if we “know it when we see it.”
Forgiveness is not what we see in today’s “cancel culture” – sanitizing the past. That helps no one because it destroys the good with the bad. Forgiveness destroys only the bad and leaves wholly Holy the good because forgiveness is an act of Grace brought forth by Love. That is the effect of Mercy. If we try to “decontaminate the past,” we end up with vengeance. That is not correction, and certainly not Mercy. Justice can be retroactive, even restorative, but if that kind of action is taken, then Justice must be administered with Mercy; otherwise Justice cannot be rehabilitative, and that is what Grace and Forgiveness accomplish when used together. We are restored to fellowship – communion – with God. (Remember that the Greek word koinonia {koy-nohn-ee’-ah} means fellowship, communion, mutual participation together as community – see CCC §948) By now, we all know that Forgiveness begins with repentance (Greek: metanoia change of mind, repentance, a change of mind, change in the inner man, “doing a 180º back to God”). That’s something we need to get done before Easter arrives.
In a post (↔ Click Link) a few years back, we had a short checklist of seven things to do to do in preparation for Easter: Repent, be baptized, believe, confess, come to Jesus, carry your cross, and follow Jesus. It’s quite a list, especially considering the first step in light of today’s Key Verse from Jeremiah. If you want to repent and to do good instead of evil, it seems Jeremiah is saying, “Give it up. You’re never going to make it.” Even so, love compels us to try to repent, to reform, to apologize. When we hurt someone we love, they feel terrible, and – if we’re honest about it – we feel terrible, too, because of what we did. I can repent, say I’m very sorry, that I’ll never do that again; but, I am not always able to keep that promise. How about you? Do you find it’s hard to bring your heart and mind to sincere contrition and effective repentance? How does repentance work anyway? A better question might be “How is repentance supposed to work?”
I have trouble with “sincere contrition and effective repentance” *all* *the* *time!* Don’t you? As I meditated on this problem all week I felt stronger and stronger about the idea that my attitude of gratitude needs a better ALtitude. LQQK at all the amazing gifts God has given me! Am I grateful? Sure! Am I grateful for all of it? Sure! Do I know how much “all of it” is? Hmmm …. no. I don’t know that, just like I don’t know how much I sin because I let habits do my thinking and praying for me rather than going one-on-one with God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (a.k.a. Confession). I can see that in some ways humility is directly attached to gratitude as well. If we turn away from sin we end up turning toward God. That is something for which we can be truly and deeply thankful. When we acknowledge everything that we have and realize it all comes from God, we are grateful and humbled: That gives us the aphorism “The bigger the gratitude, the deeper the humility.” Humility is what makes contrition and repentance sincere and effective. As we have seen, St. Dismas’ appeal to Jesus was way better than Gestas taunting. I sometimes wonder if Gestas took some bitter pleasure when he heard Jesus call out to God with the opening words of Psalm 22 – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If you’ll take a moment to peek at 1511AFC031315 – Recitation, you’ll see an analysis of that quote in our Key Verse from Mark’s account of the Crucifixion. Compare this with Matthew 27:46 – 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The meanings are the same. The one in Mark 15:34 is in Aramaic and the one in Matthew 27 is of Hebrew origin. I’m going to transplant a section from that 2015 message:
Why did Jesus say that? This is a simple and important question to answer because we now know so much about the Jews of that time and place. Jesus fully understood what was needed; he informed his disciples several times that he was going to be turned over to his enemies, suffer greatly, die, and be raised again. They simply could not understand what all that meant. He also had supreme confidence in God’s purpose, power, and providence – his divine intervention in the fate of all earthlings. Consider that Jews in Jesus’ time were, for the most part, well-trained in the Law and the Prophets. The Psalms were something like the Hymnal of the Hebrews. People, especially men, were expected to know them and to be able to recite them “on demand.” Thus, a teacher of Hebrew Scripture would expect his students to be able to take a cue from the beginning of a Psalm and then recite the entire thing, all the while rehearsing in their mind what they had been taught about its meaning. For example, today if someone were to say or sing “Oh say can you see …” most of us would be able to go on with that famous lyric. If someone said “In the land where I was born / Lived a man who sailed the sea …” we might not be able to recall the entire text, but we would at least know what it was about and generally what happened. If I were to say, “For God so loved the world that …” probably most of the world could finish that sentence. In Jerusalem at that time if someone spoke the words “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani,” the Jewish listeners would know the next 29 verses. They would know the various parts of that Psalm, and that it contained confident praise of God and an assurance of victory by God’s strong hand. Jesus knew this also, and from the cross led many minds to that Psalm which had been memorized by pious students of the Scriptures and was always readily available for recitation. It was often used by Jews to remind them that, even in the face of death, God was with them and would provide the victory for them. Even at the point of unimaginable agony and imminent death, Jesus was moved to PRAISE God!
Belovéd, if we believe that we want to be like Jesus, then we must take up our cross and follow him to Calvary and beyond! Then we will have direct experience with the Joy St. Dismas found that day because, as our final Key Verse says, 1 John 1:9 – 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is koinonia to the MAX! We cannot “change” the spots and stains of sin on our hearts, but Jesus can wipe them clean. We indeed grieve for the immense suffering Jesus endured. The Precious Blood of Jesus “is poured out for many” (See Mark 14:24) on Good Friday, but we also know that such grief is “Good Grief” because it a Holy Grief in the same way that Good Friday is a Holy Day of Remembrance – “Do this in memory of Me.” Our Good Grief contributes to our sincere contrition and effective repentance so that one day we, too, will be with Jesus in Paradise after witnessing That Old Rugged Cross with him. (↔ Music Link) That is extra-ordinary Mercy! AMEN.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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[1] (New English Translation [NET] NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.)
[2] See “Seven Last Words of Christ by Chick Todd” at https://www.catholic365.com/Search/
