THE HEALING CRUCIFIXION

An absent minded professor was late for his lecture. He jumped into a taxi and shouted: “Hurry! At top speed!” As the taxi sped along, the professor realized he hadn’t told the driver where to go, so he shouted, “Do you know where I want to go?” “No sir, but I’m driving as fast as I can!”

So many people live this way – travelling at great speed but unsure where they’re heading. There is though one obstacle that invariably brings the rapid journey to a grinding halt: a cross.

I recently received a letter from a Franciscan priest now working in New Zealand. Father Michael FitzPatrick. The cross that has dominated Michael’s life for the last two years is prostrate cancer. As I read his letter, I become aware of Michael’s intense frustration. His once active and enthusiastic life of teaching, study and research was being slowly drained by the effects of the cancer. Three months ago, he agreed to a small operation, which removed the main source of the hormones that drive the cancer. He now feels less tired and the anaemia has gone. But Michael realizes that this is only a temporary respite.

What answers are there which will make sense of cancer, or any other cross that casts its shadow across our path? As a scripture scholar, I’m sure Michael is aware that no text in the Bible is going to answer the question: “Why?” I can’t think of a single verse from the Bible which I could point out to Michael and say, “Read this verse and that will explain why you have cancer”.

At the conclusion of his letter, Michael writes, “Cancer has changed my whole way of looking at everything. I recognized is some words which I read the other day my own incoherent belief. And the words which I read where as follows: “The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen, and the hands that hold us in existence are pierced with unimaginable nails.”  Michael’s final words: “Cancer nails me to the hands of God. I weep and he sheds tears with me. Please continue to pray for me and for all the sick that we will continue to accept this healing crucifixion.”

The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has seen
 

- Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, former Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
 

May the Passion of Jesus be always in our hearts