April 16, 2025

Fr. John Riccardo

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11).

We frequently speak and write in ACTS XXIX on the importance of having an ever more biblical and accurate understanding of who Jesus is and what He came to do. One of the many reasons we stress this is that there is not infrequently an image of Jesus that many, especially many men, have of Him that is a caricature. In this distorted image Jesus is reduced to a man who was gentle, kind, compassionate, merciful and loving. These are all true, blessed be God! But He was and is more than that. He is, Paul reminds us in this passage, Lord. He is the true King of the Universe, the One before whom even now angels bow in adoration. It is because of this reality that we are constantly exhorting various leaders in the Church to remember that Jesus is not nervous right now; He’s not anxious; He has no rival; and the world, our dioceses, our parishes, our families, are all securely in His hands. However, it’s essential to balance these truths with another truth that we will confront face to face this Friday, the only day of the year when it is forbidden to celebrate Mass: Jesus triumphed by the horrific death that is crucifixion.

In her masterful book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, Fleming Rutledge writes perhaps better than any author I’m aware of on the sheer horror of death in this fashion. What follows are a series of excerpts from her book, and while this may be a longer post than usual, it might be worth taking with us to the celebrations that are about to begin, to help us better understand what’s happening to Him for us.

“What would it have been like, in Palestine and in the wider Roman Empire, to see a crucifixion or to hear it being discussed? How difficult it is for us to grasp this! There is nothing in America today to which we could compare it. We do not even see our family members die natural deaths at home; much less do we view tormented bodies on display around town. We know that in Tudor times the population went out to watch people being tortured to death—scarcely conceivable as public policy today—and we know that hangings and lynchings were at one time social occasions in America, but most of us have no connection to such things, and besides, none of these examples will quite serve as analogues to crucifixion.

“If Jesus’ demise is construed merely as a death—even as a painful, tortured death—the crucial point will be lost. Crucifixion was specifically designed to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. Degradation was the whole point. … ‘Executed publicly, situated at a major crossroads or on a well-trafficked artery, devoid of clothing, left to be eaten by birds and beasts, victims of crucifixion were subject to optimal, unmitigated, vicious ridicule.’

“Crucifixion … was supposed to be seen by as many people as possible. Debasement resulting from public display was a chief feature of the method, along with the prolonging of agony. It was a form of advertisement, or public announcement—this person is the scum of the earth, not fit to live, more an insect than a human being. The crucified wretch was pinned up like a specimen. Crosses were not placed out in the open for convenience or sanitation, but for maximum public exposure.

“Crucifixion as a means of execution in the Roman Empire had as its express purpose the elimination of victims from consideration as members of the human race. It cannot be said too strongly: that was its function. It was meant to indicate to all who might be toying with subversive ideas that crucified persons were not of the same species as either the executioners or the spectators and were therefore not only expendable but also deserving of ritualized extermination.

“Therefore, the mocking and jeering that accompanied crucifixion were not only allowed, they were part of the spectacle and were programmed into it. In a sense, crucifixion was a form of entertainment. Everyone understood that the specific role of the passersby was to exacerbate the dehumanization and degradation of the person who had been thus designated to be a spectacle. Crucifixion was cleverly designed—we might say diabolically designed—to be an almost theatrical enactment of the sadistic and inhumane impulses that lie within human beings.

“Victims of crucifixion lived on their crosses for periods varying from three or four hours to three or four days. It has often been remarked that Jesus’ ordeal was relatively brief. Perhaps he was weakened by the scourging, or had lost more blood than usual, or suffered cardiac rupture. We cannot know. In any case, it has been surmised that ‘the major pathophysiological effect of crucifixion, beyond the excruciating (Latin excruciatus, out of the cross) pain, was a marked interference with normal respiration, particularly exhalation.’ Passive exhalation, which we all do thousands of times a day without thinking about it, becomes impossible for a person hanging on a cross. The weight of a body hanging by its wrists would depress the muscles required for breathing out. Therefore, each exhaled breath could only be achieved by a tremendous effort. The only way to gain a breath at all would be by pushing oneself up from the legs and feet, or pulling oneself up by the arms, either of which would cause intense agony. Add to this primary factor the following secondary ones: bodily functions uncontrolled, insects feasting on wounds and orifices, unspeakable thirst, muscle cramps, bolts of pain from the severed median nerves in the wrists, scourged back scraping against the wooden stipes. It is more than any of us are capable of fully imagining. The verbal abuse and other actions such as spitting and throwing refuse by the spectators, Roman soldiers, and passersby added the final touch.”

But now people of God hear this!

Do not be deceived! What appears to be a defeat is, in fact, an extraordinary triumph. Many times throughout His ministry people tried to lay hands on and arrest Jesus, but the Scriptures tell us, “His hour had not yet come.” Now, on this Friday that we call “Good”, the hour has come. The hour for what?

The hour to definitively reveal the Father’s love for you and me. The hour to atone for our sins. The hour to gather together all the scattered children of God.

And the hour for war.

On the cross, out of His great love for us, Jesus is going to battle. He is engaging in combat with the enemies of the human race: Death, Sin and the Prince of Darkness who lurks behind those powers. By means of this most barbaric, humiliating and degrading of deaths, Jesus is rescuing us.

“Death slew Him by means of the body which He had assumed, but that same body proved to be the weapon with which He conquered death. Concealed beneath the cloak of His manhood, His godhead engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain. It was able to kill natural human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man.

“Death could not devour our Lord unless He possessed a body, neither could hell swallow Him up unless He bore our flesh; and so He came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld. This chariot was the body which He received from the Virgin; in it He invaded death’s fortress, broke open its strong-room and scattered all its treasure!”

And He did all of this for us.

(Image: Mario Donizetti - Crucifixion)

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