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For centuries we have listened and read about the Passion Narrative where Pilar frees Barabbas instead of Jesus having come under pressure from the frenzied crowd who demanded that Jesus be crucified. In order to wash his hands off this matter and prevent a riot erupting, Barabbas a notorious criminal is freed.
We all have this image in our mind on how Barabbas was a sinful man, a thief and murderer who should have been crucified instead of Jesus. It was he who deserved to die and not the meek Lamb of God who had gone around teaching, preaching, healing and raising the dead.
However, an image struck both my eyes and heart on a picture of Jesus and Barabbas with a caption below that Barabbas represents us. It is we who are Barabbas and Jesus is offering his life as ransom for us all. The notorious one is none other than our own selves, each in his own way portraying Barabbas and allowing Jesus to take the heavy cross of our sins on his shoulders.
Have we ever stopped and seen our face in the face of Barabbas?
Jesus saw the face of each one of us in Barabbas and the love to save us all gave him the strength and willpower to go through the tortuous suffering on the cross.
But have we looked closely at the face of the Messiah?
One woman sure did!
Veronica, the brave and courageous woman who stood up to the Roman soldiers not afraid to reach out to Jesus and wipe his face bathed in sweat and blood with her veil.
Jesus was so moved by her compassion that her gesture soothed his aching heart and he rewarded her efforts by imprinting the image of his sacred countenance on her veil.
How often in life a significant action or show of love by just one person can give us strength and fill us with happiness as we go along our way in life. It can change our outlook and inwardly too spread its warmth within us.
When Mother Mary received the body of Jesus in her arms, she gazed at his broken body and remembered his sweet face in the manger.
Isaiah describes the suffering servant in 53:2-5; "For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we would look at Him, nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him. He was despised and abandoned by men. A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; and like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we had no regard for Him. However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore and our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, struck down by God, and humiliated. But He was pierced for our offenses. He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."
We have all heard of the Shroud of Turin believed to have been the burial cloth on which the body of Jesus was wrapped and bears the image of his body. This shroud is preserved in Italy in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud.
This image is associated to the Holy face of Jesus.
Do we long to seek the face of Jesus in our hearts, in the Eucharist, in the faces of our brethren, in those who persecute us and in those who love us too?
Are we ready to wipe the suffering from the faces of others by our good deeds so that having done so, we too can clearly see the shining face of Jesus in their countenance?
When Jesus was transfigured in his glory, Moses and Elijah stood with him.
When Jesus hung on the cross, two thieves were on either side of him, yet inspite of his profuse bleeding it was his presence and words, his great act of love on he cross which was a balm to the good thief who was promised Paradise by Jesus.
Today each one carries the countenance of Jesus in our hearts when we receive him in Holy Communion. His face is imprinted on our souls. We bear his signature mark and claim on us.
He paid the price to redeem each and every Barabbas on this planet in the millions of population that inhabit the earth.
We read in the Latin words: Empti enim estis preito magno which means; 'You and I have been bought at a great price.' The price of the Lord's own body and blood. May his image always be impressed upon her hearts.
We all have this image in our mind on how Barabbas was a sinful man, a thief and murderer who should have been crucified instead of Jesus. It was he who deserved to die and not the meek Lamb of God who had gone around teaching, preaching, healing and raising the dead.
However, an image struck both my eyes and heart on a picture of Jesus and Barabbas with a caption below that Barabbas represents us. It is we who are Barabbas and Jesus is offering his life as ransom for us all. The notorious one is none other than our own selves, each in his own way portraying Barabbas and allowing Jesus to take the heavy cross of our sins on his shoulders.
Have we ever stopped and seen our face in the face of Barabbas?
Jesus saw the face of each one of us in Barabbas and the love to save us all gave him the strength and willpower to go through the tortuous suffering on the cross.
But have we looked closely at the face of the Messiah?
One woman sure did!
Veronica, the brave and courageous woman who stood up to the Roman soldiers not afraid to reach out to Jesus and wipe his face bathed in sweat and blood with her veil.
Jesus was so moved by her compassion that her gesture soothed his aching heart and he rewarded her efforts by imprinting the image of his sacred countenance on her veil.
How often in life a significant action or show of love by just one person can give us strength and fill us with happiness as we go along our way in life. It can change our outlook and inwardly too spread its warmth within us.
When Mother Mary received the body of Jesus in her arms, she gazed at his broken body and remembered his sweet face in the manger.
Isaiah describes the suffering servant in 53:2-5; "For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we would look at Him, nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him. He was despised and abandoned by men. A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; and like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we had no regard for Him. However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore and our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, struck down by God, and humiliated. But He was pierced for our offenses. He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."
We have all heard of the Shroud of Turin believed to have been the burial cloth on which the body of Jesus was wrapped and bears the image of his body. This shroud is preserved in Italy in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud.
This image is associated to the Holy face of Jesus.
Do we long to seek the face of Jesus in our hearts, in the Eucharist, in the faces of our brethren, in those who persecute us and in those who love us too?
Are we ready to wipe the suffering from the faces of others by our good deeds so that having done so, we too can clearly see the shining face of Jesus in their countenance?
When Jesus was transfigured in his glory, Moses and Elijah stood with him.
When Jesus hung on the cross, two thieves were on either side of him, yet inspite of his profuse bleeding it was his presence and words, his great act of love on he cross which was a balm to the good thief who was promised Paradise by Jesus.
Today each one carries the countenance of Jesus in our hearts when we receive him in Holy Communion. His face is imprinted on our souls. We bear his signature mark and claim on us.
He paid the price to redeem each and every Barabbas on this planet in the millions of population that inhabit the earth.
We read in the Latin words: Empti enim estis preito magno which means; 'You and I have been bought at a great price.' The price of the Lord's own body and blood. May his image always be impressed upon her hearts.
Maria Franco
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