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PAGE 7-March 31,1977
Saviour--Holy Week Reflection
JESUS IN PAIN -- Jesus Christ (portrayed by biblical epic to be presented on NBC Sunday, April 3
Robert Powell) suffers the pain of his crown of thorns and 10. (NC Photo from NBC)
in this scene from “Jesus of Nazareth,” the six-hour
“Jesus Of Nazareth”
BY FR. ROBERT L. KINAST
Why did Jesus have to die, and what
does his resurrection mean? These
questions underlie our liturgical
celebration of Holy Week, and I would
like to offer a brief theological response
to them. My hope is that our
celebration of the death and
resurrection of Jesus might be deepened
by these reflections. You may wish to
read them as a prayer, in a quiet
moment, with your loved ones.
1. WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?
The New Testament proclaims that
Jesus died “for our sins,” (I Cor. 15:3)
but it does not immediately make clear
why Jesus had to DIE for our sins. In
order to gain some insight into the
depths of this saving mystery, it is
necessary to locate Jesus’ death in the
context of his life and mission.
The united witness of the synoptic
gospels is that Jesus came to inaugurate
the Reign of God on earth (Mt. 3:2; Mk
1:15; Lk 10:9). The Reign of God is
one of those essential concepts in our
biblical tradition which is hard for us to
grasp simply, clearly and without effort.
The reason for this is that the concept
of the Reign of God is so closely bound
up with the whole mystery of God’s
presence in our lives that it is far
beyond our limited ideas and
experiences. It means so much that we
cannot reduce it to a few quick
sentences.
Nonetheless, WE MAY BEGIN TO
UNDERSTAND THE REIGN OF GOD
AS THE SUMMONS ADDRESSED TO
EACH OF US TO THINK AS GOD
THINKS AND TO ACT AS GOD ACTS.
(Mt. 6:10, the Lord’s Prayer). To the
extent we do this, we shall find the
happiness for which we are destined.
And to discover how God thinks and
acts, we turn to Jesus.
Jesus reveals to us in parables and
conflict situations how God thinks. The
parables are Jesus’ most distinctive form
of presenting His message. They are
concrete, based on typical life
experiences, and they tend to shock us
in their conclusions. GOD THINKS A
PRODIGAL SON WHO RETURNS
SHOULD BE FEASTED (Lk 15:11-32),
WORKERS HIRED AT THE END OF
THE DAY SHOULD BE GIVEN FULL
PAY (Mt. 20:1-16), A FIG TREE
SHOULD BE GIVEN ONE MORE
CHANCE TO BEAR FRUIT (Lk.
13:6-9), people should help people
MARRIOTTSVILLE, Md. (NC) -
Participants in a symposium on
catechesis here recommended that
youths and adults be taught “the type
of assent to be given to various sorts of
Church documents” and how to take
the documents into account in forming
their consciences.
The March 13-16 symposium on the
catechesis of children and youth was
sponsored by the U.S. Catholic
Conference (USCC) education
department through a grant from Our
Sunday Visitor, the Catholic publishing
firm in Huntington, Ind.
Symposium participants
recommended that the international
Synod of Bishops to meet in Rome next
fall direct catechists to teach students
how to distinguish between Church
documents and the kinds of assent they
require.
The recommendation was made, they
said, because there “has been much
confusion in the Church about the
meaning and weight of various Church
documents,” because “some people
have left the Church, thinking that they
were excluded by some noninfallible
teachings,” and because “some people
have false feelings of guilt, either
excessive or defective, about differing
from noninfallible teachings.”
The recommendation was one of 20
“action statements” issued at the end of
the symposium, which was attended by
about 60 scholars and Church officials,
including Cardinal John Carberry of St.
Louis, vice president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops
(NCCB); Bishop Raymond Lucker of
New Ulm, Minn.; Bishop William
McManus of Fort Wayne-South Bend,
Ind., USCC education committee
chairman; Archbishop Daniel Sheehan
of Omaha, Neb.; and Archbishop
William Borders of Baltimore.
Cardinal Carberry and Bishop Lucker
are two of the four delegates elected by
the NCCB to represent the U.S. bishops
at the synod.
whether they are Samaritans or not (Lk.
10:25-37).
We hear a similar message in the
conflict situations Jesus faced.
Regarding the liberal or conservative
grounds for divorce, God thinks
marriage should last until death (Mk.
10:2-12); regarding the punishment of
an adulteress, only the sinless should
carry out the sentence, and the sinless
one sets her free (Jn. 8:1-11); regarding
the scandal of sabbath violations, people
are more important than regulations
(Mk. 2:23-28). That’s how God thinks.
And how does God act? To improve
the quality of life, especially for those
whose quality is the lowest. In Jesus’
life this is shown most clearly by the
cures that he worked for the blind, the
deaf, the lame, the bereaved, the upset,
the lost. But just as importantly it was
demonstrated in the deliberate choice of
Jesus to associate with the undesirable
persons in his society. Those who were
judged to be sick physically or morally
or both were the ones Jesus lived
among. Powerless themselves, they were
most in need of God’s power; where else
would God act first? (Mt. 5:3, Lk
6:20-22)
These teachings and the behaviors of
Jesus, manifested day by day, were
culminated as a whole in one final
event. If Jesus had been functioning
most like a prophet revealing God’s
ways to his people, he would not
function most like a priest offering his
people’s ways of God. SINCE HE
COULD NOT OFFER ALL THE
PEOPLE, HE OFFERED HIMSELF AS
ONE OF THEM, AS THEIR
REPRESENTATIVE. Since he could
not offer all the conditions that
prevented them from thinking and
acting as God does, he offered the one
condition that symbolized them all, sin
resulting in death.
There is no more ultimate or
powerful force pressuring human
persons, forcing us into alternative ways
of thinking and acting than sin. Almost
instinctively it makes us pull back,
hesitate, wait, preserve, defend and fear.
The final threat which sin uses to steer
us out of God’s ways is the prospect of
death and the unknown which lies
beyond.
Jesus confronted sinful death, and let
it work its worst against him. This was
his final proclamation. Not even death,
he was saying, shall frustrate or displace
the Reign of God. In the offering of his
life, he bore witness to the source and
The “action statements” were
formulated by small groups into which
participants divided themselves and
were not voted on by the entire group,
but Father Robert Stamschror, USCC
representative for religious education,
said most of the participants agreed
with the recommendations.
Among the other recommendations
made were:
- “Publishers should be encouraged
and assisted to provide catechetical
materials which place catechesis of
children and youth in the context of
adult faith community.”
- The synod of bishops should
publicize principles of parish
management, including these
characteristics of adult faith
community: diverse contributions to
the community by its members of
various ages and social classes; a
pervasive sense of religious celebration;
comparative stability; acceptance by all
members of responsibility to foster each
other’s faith; recognition of
responsibility to evangelize new
members.
- “In planning new parishes, every
effort should be made to maintain
smaller units, where a greater sense of
community may flourish.”
- Catechists must make continued
efforts to grow in the interior life of the
spirit.
-- Because “present cultural
influences of sexism, racism, and
authoritarianism have influenced
youth’s image of the Church,” the
synod of bishops should “address itself
to the elimination of sexist, racist and
authoritarian structures in the Church.”
- The synod should foster the
formation of programs to prepare the
clergy and other leaders to minister to
families and other adult Christians with
reference to acting as parents, family
communications and family catechesis.
summit of all life and relied on God to
show once again, definitively, what the
Reign of God means. If Jesus had not
faced the ultimate challenge to God’s
Reign in this world (death and the sin
which begets it), his message would be
only one of hope, of promise; it would
stop short of fulfillment. That is why he
had to die - to let God utter the final
word, and do the final deed.
2. WHAT DOES THE
RESURRECTION MEAN?
THE PRIMARY MEANING OF THE
RESURRECTION IS THAT GOD HAS
VERIFIED JESUS’ LIFE AND
MISSION (Eph. 1:20). Jesus had said,
by word and deed, that nothing was
more powerful than the Reign of God,
not even death. He staked his own life
on that conviction. God vindicated his
belief by raising him from the condition
of death to that of life-with-God.
This was manifested first to the
disciples of Jesus in a series of events
described as the appearances of the risen
Lord. Although the emphasis is often
given to what the disciples “saw” (in
Luke and John especially), the biblical
accounts always stress what the disciples
“heard.” They heard their mission.
All that Jesus had said and done was
to be proclaimed everywhere. Those
who had been the first to witness God’s
verification-through-resurrection were
also the first to bear this witness into a
waiting world. For such a mission they
were gifted with the Holy Spirit.
Through this Spirit, they would be able
to think and act like God, not merely
from their memory of Jesus or because
of their own personal abilities, but
because the very Spirit of God would be
dwelling in them, enlivening,
enlightening, empowering them.
Each of these events is an indivisible,
part of one whole saving mystery. We
celebrate it in segments so the richness
and meaning of each aspect can settle in
on our lives more completely. The death
and resurrection of Jesus is not just an
event from past history, nor is it
an event that secures our salvation in
another time and place. It is the
establishment, in history, among women
and men, of the Reign of God. We are
partakers of that mystery and that
establishment and that mission. The
death and resurrection of Jesus is the
abiding power of the Spirit that floods
our meagre minds with insight and
decisiveness, that stirs our weak wills
with power and freedom, that draws
our little lives from self to others, and
teaches us to think and act like God.
Alleluia.
- The synod should “promote the
development of a style of pastoral
ministry which encourages the
empowerment of parents and other
adults to take responsibility for their
own growth in faith and their mission in
the Church.”
- Consideration should be given “to
the formulation of flexible liturgical
guidelines for youth and young adults.”
The synod should use the
description of the catechumenate, or
period of formal instruction and
progressive formation in the Christian
life, contained in the Rite of Christian
Initiation of Adults issued by the
Vatican Congregation for Divine
Worship in 1972 “as a normative model
for understanding the catechesis of
children, youth and adults.”
-- The Church should undertake on
national and international levels a
critical examination of communications
media from the point of view of
Christian moral standards.
- The synod should “reaffirm and
explain the value of pluralism in the
Church” with regard to different
theologies, different models of the
Church and relation to different
economic and political systems “and
direct catechists to teach this value to
youth and adults.”
- The USCC Education Department
should “immediately commit greater
resources and personnel to young adults
ministry, in order to provide to dioceses
a significant level of models, services
and directions in this work.”
The action statements were
formulated after two days of
discussions, which included the
presentation of summaries of papers
that had been sent to participants
before the symposium, reactions to the
papers and small group discussions.
Among the topics covered were the
relationship to catechesis of parish
Following is the text of a review of
the U.S. Catholic Conference Office for
Film and Broadcasting on “Jesus of
Nazareth,” a six-hour television film
directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The film
will be broadcast on NBC April 3 and
10 from 8:00-11:00 p.m. each night.
There is perhaps nothing more
ministry, the family, youth, the
educational process and content, trends
in society and the psychological
development of children and youth.
The papers and other material from
the symposium are to be published later
this year.
The keynote speaker, Father
Raymond H. Potvin, professor of
sociology at the Catholic University of
America and a member of the
university’s Boys Town Center staff,
told participants that religious
education should “refocus” on the
immediate concerns of youth to bring
them back into the Church.
“Youth are interested in building
their future and are subject to much
strain,” Father Potvin said. “While
religion may not be helpful in finding
them a job and locating their ‘niche’ in
life, it can help them cope with the
stress.”
Addressing one of the major
problems before the symposium - how
to reach Catholics who are no longer
receiving any kind of religious
education, Father Potvin said: “It’s very
clear, you can’t indoctrinate these kids
anymore.” For most people, he said,
religion “is a resource in times of need
and is far from central in their lives.”
Discussing the theological content of
religious education for children aged six
to 12, Jesuit Father Francis J. Buckley,
professor of systematic and pastoral
theology at the University of San
Francisco and author of a religion series
for those age groups, said: “The
theological content must relate clearly
to the children’s most important
experiences, good or bad, and must
respond to their fundamental human
needs, clarifying how religious truths
and values pervade the whole of life. As
Christians, we believe that God is
present everywhere, always revealing
himself to us, and that his revelation as
interpreted in Christian tradition sheds
light on life.
difficult for a filmmaker to do than a
dramatization of the life of Christ. Each
Christian has grown up with a personal
conception of how the Redeemer looked
and spoke as well as how the events in
the sparsely detailed Gospel accounts
took place. Taking up this challenge is a
new six-hour production, “Jesus of
Nazareth,” to be broadcast on NBC-TV
in two-parts beginning Sunday, April 3,
and concluding Easter Sunday, April 10,
from 8:00-11:00 p.m. each night.
The first half begins with the
betrothal of Joseph and Mary and
carries through to the early years of
Christ’s public ministry in which He
taught through parables and action,
worked miracles, and gathered His
disciples. The second half next Sunday
completes the story with such passages
as the Sermon on the Mount, the Our
Father, the raising of Lazarus from the
dead, the events of Holy Week, and the
Resurrection.
As a biblical epic - that form of
entertainment intended to be seen by
viewers of all faiths and none - this film
succeeds very well. It has a large cast of
international stars: Anne Bancroft,
Ernest Borgnine, Claudia Cardinale,
James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach,
Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quinn,
Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger, and
Peter Ustinov to name only the best
known. Even on the small screen, its
production values are opulent, as they
should be for a project that took four
years and over $12 million to make. All
of the attention to period detail and
historical background enhances the
credibility of the action by achieving a
realistic setting for it.
Christians, however, will find a
spiritual dimension that is uncommon in
most such works. The substance of the
film, without any fudging of the issue, is
that Christ is the Son of God who
performed miracles, died for our sins,
and rose from the dead. There is no
ambiguity here about the divinity of
Jesus who could feed His people with
loaves and Fishes as well as with His own
body and blood. One hopes that of the
audience of believers who will
appreciate this production most will
disregard the irresponsible controversy
that has been created by a misinformed
religious group whose protests have
caused the original sponsor to withdraw
from the broadcast.
Franco Zeffirelli, best known for his
“Romeo and Juliet” several years ago,
has tried to find ways to make the life
of Christ more real to the contemporary
viewer by emphasizing the actualities of
the period: the political consequences
of Judea as a conquered province of
Rome, the Zealot conspiracies, the
practices and customs of Jewish life
before the Diaspora. Using John’s
account as the framework, he has
interpolated parts of the other three
Gospel writers as well as connective
Reviewed
links and background scenes that
provide a context for a particular
Gospel passage. Some of these, in a
script fashioned by Anthony Burgess
among others, are not too convincing
and some are downright irritating, such
as placing the words, “This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased,” in the mouth of John the
Baptist. The apparent reason for such
changes is that Zeffirelli decided not to
show the direct intervention of God in
events that could be shown more
understandably in human terms.
There are other jarring aspects to this
international production, one of which
is the polyglot of English dialects that
are distracting. The principal reservation
for some will be whether the relatively
unknown British actor, Robert Powell,
is adequate to the role of Jesus. There is
an appropriate intensity to his
performance and yet he is not quite able
to suggest the supernatural power one
would associate with the mystery of the
incarnation. It is precisely this which is
the unique problem of all such
dramatizations: no one interpretation
can possibly satisfy the individual
expectations of all viewers. The main
thing, though, is that “Jesus of
Nazareth” is a traditional and
theologically sound, sincere and often
emotionally powerful retelling of the
Christ story. It would be unfortunate if
the large audience for whom it was
intended should miss it because of an
ill-conceived “smear” campaign against
it.
RHODESIAN CHROME
HALTED - In a White House
ceremony, President Jimmy Carter
signs legislation banning imports
of Rhodesian chrome. Behind the
President are Sen. Hubert H.
Humphrey (D-Minn.) and Sen.
Dick Clark (D-Iowa).
MARIOTTSVILLE SYMPOSIUM
; f:U Iff
Synod Asked To Direct Catechists On Assent