A Beacon Of Light… Human Dignity And Jesus’ Example Of Selfless Love
By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON JR.
(Editor’s Note: Fr. Richard D. Breton Jr. is a priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Conn. He received his BA in religious studies and his MA in dogmatic theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.)
- + + Continuing our Lenten journey, we have reached the base of Calvary. It is here we will reflect on the Tenth and Eleventh Stations. These two stations are uniquely connected because they both deal with human dignity.
The battle rages on before us regarding the dignity of the human person. From the evils of abortion to the confusion on end-of-life issues and euthanasia, and everything in between, we have a duty to bring the Light of Christ into the darkness of our times.
How are the Tenth and Eleventh Stations examples of the rapid decline of human dignity? What can we learn from Jesus’ example of selfless love?
From the very beginning, God has continually shown us His overflowing love. He did this in the moments of creation, where creation became a visible sign of His love. But God didn’t stop there! God continued the expression of His love by revealing to us divine Revelation.
Through Revelation God begins to tell man the secrets of the relationship He has made with them. He reveals Paradise in the Garden of Eden as the reward of a faithful person. He reveals His fatherly love through the covenants in the Old Testament. He speaks to us through the prophets pleading with us to change our ways. He guides the writers of Holy Scripture as they pronounce and teach the love of God.
Finally, God visibly makes His love known to the whole world through the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the moment God reveals the fullness of His love as He recognizes within us the dignity He is working to restore.
The Lord Casts His Glory Aside
The Tenth Station of the Cross is a reminder of the dignity we have received in Christ. Remember, each of us is claimed for Christ, and in Baptism, received the gift of our Christian dignity through the symbol of the white garment. The Tenth Station is a visible sign of how that dignity can so easily be stripped from us. How? This happens when our temptations lead us to sin.
Every time we sin, we destroy part of our dignity as a person. Sin deteriorates us, and if left unchecked, it can destroy us!
Another way we are stripped of our Christian dignity is when we fail to keep the teachings of the Church. The Church is our means to Heaven and has the power and authority to help us get there. When we choose to deny Holy Mother Church, we deny our dignity in Christ, and so, ultimately, we deny our very self!
The spectacle of Jesus’ being stripped of His garments is visibly represented in our society today.
How many innocent unborn children are snatched from the womb and eradicated like killing a pesky mosquito? The dignity of the person has been reduced to that of killing a bug. Furthermore, not only are the innocent unborn victims of this denial of dignity, but now our elderly and aged have been included in the category of those to be eradicated.
We have truly lost a sense of the dignity of the person. We no longer see others as fellow gifts from God but a burden or a chore. As Jesus is stripped of His clothes, we see His divinity peeling away for us. We see how the Lord puts aside His glory, that we might be saved.
Imagine for a moment: God Himself casts His glory aside for us so that He may fully enter our humanity. St. Paul in his Letter to the Philippians reminds us of this:
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
Like Jesus, the Tenth Station invites us to cast off our old self so that we might become a new person.
The Pains Of Humanity
In the Eleventh Station Jesus is nailed to the cross and we are reminded of the importance of sacrifice. Not of any sacrifice, but of the self-sacrifice represented in Jesus. Jesus mounts the pulpit of the cross one last time and teaches us how important this kind of sacrifice is. Upon the cross we see before our eyes the greatest sacrifice of all time; God puts aside His divinity, so that we might be saved.
Jesus willingly lays down on the cross and accepts the pains of humanity. With each swing of the hammer, bang, Jesus feels the sins of humanity thrust throughout His very person. Each cry of pain is one more prayer to save humanity. First the hands that healed and blessed are nailed to the cross, then, the feet that walked the Earth from villages and towns, preaching the Kingdom of God, are nailed to the cross. Like the sacrifices of old, Jesus becomes the sacrifice to save the human soul!
What about us? How do we imitate this idea of self-sacrifice in our own lives? We have the opportunity every day! Each day is an occasion to progress in our ability of offering ourselves as an acceptable sacrifice. We do this with our words and actions.
Particularly, we do this in two ways. First, we can excel by remembering to live out the Corporal Works of Mercy. The Corporal Works of Mercy are oriented toward the body and soul. What do I mean? These works of mercy are actions that help us in our goal of attaining salvation. They are actions where we sacrifice ourselves to help another. What are they? Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. All of these are linked to helping the body of another, while helping our own souls.
There is a second way in which we offer ourselves as an acceptable sacrifice. This happens every time we participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Every Mass is the celebration of the Sacrifice of Jesus. But every Mass also includes the participation of the sacrifice of the faithful.
What happens at Mass? During the Mass we open ourselves to the Lord. We open our ears to hear His word in the Liturgy of the Word. Here we are reminded of what the Lord spoke long ago concerning the path to life. We are also reminded that the words of God are relevant and alive today as well.
From the Liturgy of the Word we transition into the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This we could call the Liturgy of Sacrifice. It is here we remember the offering of Jesus at Calvary and it is here we can offer ourselves to the Lord.
We begin by offering gifts of creation, bread and wine, to become the sacred Body and Blood of Christ. We also are encouraged to offer ourselves at this moment as an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord.
Having received the bread, wine, and ourselves, the gifts of offering are placed on the altar and a prayer of offering is said: “Pray brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father.”
What is our response? We say: “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of His name, for our good, and the good of all His holy Church.” Here we become part of the sacrifice offered. Like Jesus, who offered Himself on the Altar of the Cross, we offer ourselves on the Altar of the Mass. For us this is the ultimate way to offer ourselves as a selfless sacrifice of praise!
A Grace-Filled Time
Our whole journey, thus far, has invited us to search the deep caverns within. In doing so maybe we have found areas in our lives that need fixing. Maybe a pattern in our lives has been revealed to us on our interactions with others. Whatever our experience has been thus far, thank God for allowing us this grace-filled time.
Next week we will conclude our reflection of the Stations of the Cross as we reveal the beauty found in the last three stations: Jesus dies on the cross, Jesus is taken down from the cross, and Jesus is laid in the tomb.
These three final stations prepare us to welcome the glory of the Resurrection.
I will close today’s reflection with the traditional prayer prayed during the stations: “We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you . . . because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
