ECCE HOMO, ECCE REX ^_[1]

ECCE HOMO

1.  In the old walled city of Jerusalem, on the Via Dolorosa  (Lat. way of sorrows)  in the Muslim Quarter, stands Ecce Homo, the Catholic convent of the Sisters of Sion. Ecce Homo is the Latin for behold the man  [cf. Jn 19:5],  the infamous words of Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea, who thrust the scourged and exhausted Jesus before the unmerciful crowd gathered outside the praetorium  (Lat. military headquarters). The Via Dolorosa commemorates the route prescribed by the centurions for Jesus as he shouldered the patibulum  (Lat. yoke) of the cross to Golgotha. Spanning the Via Dolorosa is an ancient, limestone, triple-arch constructed in 70 A.D. during the First Jewish War by Roman legionaries under the command of Vespasian. It was intended to support a ramp being laid against the Fortress Antonia where Jewish revolutionaries had taken refuge. In the Roman reconstruction of Jerusalem following the Second Jewish War (135 A.D.), the Emperor Hadrian ordered a renovation of the triple arch to commemorate the sovereignty and perpetuity of Roman hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean. Today, the Basilica Convent of the Sisters of Sion, known as Ecce Homo, incorporates northern-most of the two smaller, rounded arches flanking the large central bay spanning the Via Dolorosa. This smaller arch, part of a architectural and historical treasure, is the property of the convent and is incorporated in the sanctuary of the basilica as a proscenium or wreath over the pedestal altar supporting the tabernacle. Ironically, today, the arch impresses upon its admirers the mortality of the Roman Empire even as it functions as a baldachin  (Ital. canopy)  over the reserved Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle—the venerable sign of Christ’s true and immortal presence. Essential to the structural integrity of the Ecce Homo arch is the keystone, the roughly triangular shaped stone at the top of a stone arch. It forms the wedge between the two columns of piled-up stones which form the columns of the arch. These pillars of stone, of course, curve inward at their height to complete the arch but, without the keystone at the peak to lock in the massive weight of the carved blocks, the upper structure would collapse. In the epistles of St. Paul, we learn that the structures of this world—works of the law  [cf. Rom 3:20], the wisdom of the age  [cf. 1Cor 2:6], and the governing authorities  [cf. Rom 13:1]—are insufficient of themselves to uphold or sustain the Church. Indeed, these impediments are  "doomed to pass away".  [1Cor 2:6]  God has given us a greater portion, the sacrament of Holy Eucharist as a participation in the life of Jesus Christ. For our Divine Lesson today, we consider that God has given to his Church the "blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords"  [1Tim 6:15]  as our justification so that, being subject to imperfection, sin, and fear, we may stand firm on the foundation stone who is Christ the King.   

FACE TO FACE WITH ROME

2.  As Christ offers to us his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity—the pledge of his eternal love—we are impelled to love one another as he loves us. This is his new commandment!  [cf. Jn 13:34-35]  Unselfish love for one another is the true mark of discipleship. Thus "rooted and grounded in love"  [Eph 3:17], we do not fear to proclaim Jesus as Christ, the immortal King. No more are we strangers in a hostile realm; no longer are we wanderers without a home. Henceforth, by means of the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, we are "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God".  [Eph 2:19]  We who are judged worthy by Christ are citizens of the Kingdom over which he rules, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone".  [Eph 2:20]  Hence, the Kingdom of God is fettered no longer by the blood of tribes—historically a sign of cultural elitism and religious atrophy—rather it flourishes with the vibrant citizenship of faith! One cannot behold the glory of the King without beholding the sacrifice of the man. Jesus fulfills the will of God by "emptying himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men".  [Phi 2:7]  Only a scant three years avails him to accomplish his mission. His rabbinic school convenes on the hillsides of Galilee, in the crowded enclosures of Capernaum, anywhere his followers can gather. His students number the working poor, the sick and lame, the oppressed and disheartened. Although the Son of God expresses his aversion of the Way of Sorrows, he nevertheless works assiduously in his Father’s Kingdom. As a menial looks up from his labor to behold the displeasure limned on his overseers face, Jesus’ service to the Kingdom of God thrusts him face to face with the ill-tempered Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea. In the hours before his arrest and trial, Jesus says first to his apostles:  "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch", and then to God: "Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt."  [Mk 14: 34-36]  Condemned as a sectarian and revolutionary, Jesus is handed over to the Roman Governor of Judea by the leaders and chief priests of his people. On that fateful Friday in the governor's palace, Pilate and Jesus confront one another. Regardless of what is said, theirs is not a dialogue. The absolute poverty of shared experiences hardens the phlegmatic Pilates heart. For the Roman governor, dialogue is not a possibility with the Nazarene; it is a tedious farce. Neither hopes to reform the other in this futile encounter. By accident of birth and status and empire, this Jesus of Nazareth, has no standing before Pilate, whose own political face in Judea has waned to a thin, cold meniscus under the mordant gaze of the intractable Jewish leadership. Although the Roman governor and the Jewish rabbi grapple momentarily with kingship, each sees a vessel filled with a totally different drink. Pilate knows only a cup of power and privilege, a vessel soon to fall from his hand. Christ is himself a chalice from which the new covenant in his blood will be poured out for the salvation of the world. 

CLANGOROUS ECHO

3.  Pilate asks Jesus to state his intentions with regards to Rome:  "Are you king of the Jews?"  [Jn 18:33]  His question is little more than a clangorous echo of a genuine search for truth, a mere imitation of a crucial moment in the ministry of Jesus: 

NOW WHEN Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  [Mt 16:13-19]

Jesus answers Pilot’s question with his own question. Are you asking for yourself or are you pressured to say this? The Roman bristles, I am not one of your kind! Now what is your crime? Unquestionably, Pilate has no interest in a gospel of good news, a kingdom of justice, healings, repentance or forgiveness. He presumes that the wretched man standing before him will offer the usual anti-Roman malediction. But he is mistaken. Jesus answers, not as a seditionist but as the "Christ, the Son of the living God"  [Mt 16:16]  in whom is the fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven:  "My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world."  [Jn 18:36]  Pilate hears Jesus saying, I am a king but not a king. Exasperated, he retorts, "So you are a king?" [Jn 18:37]  Pilate can think only in categories of power, worldly dominion, "contending against flesh and blood"  [Eph 6:12], the realm of politics and conquest. When Jesus speaks of his kingship, he means the authority given by the Father to the Son to forgive sins, to execute judgment, to teach divine truth, to speak the Father’s words, and to accomplish the Father’s works. Pilate heeded political cliches, do you see, and ignored the larger question of why—for what purpose, on whose account, to what end, on what foundation, for what reason—Christ was standing before him. He sees in the Jesus affair a credible threat to the stability of the volatile Judean province and his own career, a scabrous intrusion into the circus of his restless assumptions. Yet Jesus addresses these precise issues as he answers not  Pilot but a catechetical question--"who do men say that the Son of Man is?"  [Mt 16:13]--he once put before his disciples:  "For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice."  [Jn 18:37]  The Judean governor, a shrewd political leader, valued his ability to judge vexing cases in terms of Roman law, but his experience failed him when he decided the fate of Jesus of Nazareth. Although oddly impressed by the demeanor of this peasant rabbi and his unusual rebuttal, Pilate could not move beyond the fixed parameters of his office and Roman occupation of Judea. In abdicating the truth, he forfeited justice, the divine wisdom that many others—the poor, grieving, meek, hungry, merciful, pure, peacemakers, and persecuted  [cf. Mt 5:3-11]—will grasp with all their might. The trial and crucifixion of Jesus was precisely an attempt by the principalities, powers, the "world rulers of this present darkness", and the "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"  [cf. Eph 6:12]  to dislodge the foundation stone and destroy the new and living temple that emerged in their midst. By striking at Jesus of Nazareth, they hoped to sweep away the sustaining principle of the new covenant, a reality of truth which Jesus’ disciples, though they had served him a scant three years, had only intuited on the evening of his eucharistic translation  (Lat. translatio, to carry across)  of the Passover feast.^[2]

ELEGANT CONVEYANCE

4.   The Ecce Homo Arch on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem endures as a striking example of civic architecture, testifying to the concrete reality of 1,700 years of time and history which have passed since its commemoration. Less remembered for its historical significance than as a surviving marvel of Herculean engineering, the arch remains solid and unwavering to this day. At its apex rests the keystone which for 1,700 years has fixed in place the inward curves of the great limestone blocks. In modern times, however, this ancient monument to temporal power has been consecrated for a spiritual intention. The pilgrim's eyes, gratified by the enduring beauty of what has been created, are drawn inevitably to the tabernacle it accentuates in the sanctuary of the convent basilica. Thus, the arch glorifies the absolute sovereignty of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the sacrament of God's love:  "Love rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  [1Cor 13:1-13]  This being true, can any Christian remain indifferent to Divine Love that raised the temple of Christ the King on the third day of its dissolution? For Jesus prophesied to Pilate of the resurrection of the dead when he said, "My kingship is not of this world."  [Jn 18:36] The truth that frees the impoverished has as its centerpiece the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.^[3]  Thus, the absolute power of this world-encompassing intervention has shattered the power of evil and freed man from the crushing grip of sin. Jesus came to gather God's people on the mountain heights of justice, to feast on the good grazing land of Divine Truth.  [cf. Eze 34:13-14,16]   Hence, Church is charged with a duty, n divine obligation to submit herself to God and to what God alone has named as true and good. "Every one who is of the truth", declares Christ the King, hears my voice.  [cf. Jn 18:37]  The exercise of free will, the essential charism of human personhood, is God's gift to man.^[4]  Yet, no one is judged by his possession of a talent, but rather on what he accomplishes with his talent.^[5]  Free will is the elegant conveyance by which man travels either to his self-enslavement or to his true freedom.^[6]  The thoughtful man who would follow God enjoys true freedom after he has chosen for the good, a good which has its origin in God. The freedom to be truly human is the graced life we experience when wisdom and goodness has, as its object, union with Christ the King. To choose the good is to choose the truth of the cross in renunciation of human vanity and self-exaltation. To defend this cross is to defend one's life. To shoulder it is to bear the ordinance of the Kingdom into spiritual battle.^[7]  In the world's estimation, the cross of truth is irrelevant, if not irrational. But the King of kings and Lord of lords will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master!"  [Mt 25:21]  Choose the good! Choose the Truth! For your eternal soul depends on this, that the Divine King who quarried Adams clay will make of you a living stone! Heed, then, the prophets admonition:  "Pray now, consider what will come to pass from this day onward. Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare?" Christ the King, the high priest of the new covenant, has gathered to himself the ends of the earth as a pleasing offering to God, the Father Almighty. Not the gloomy portions of animal carcasses, which drained the heavenly promise of its spiritual vitality and hope, but rather the sacrificial love of an obedient Son who offered himself in ransom to resurrect a lifeless people.  [Hag 2:15-16]  The gospel Kingdom, having triumphed over "all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time"  [cf. Lk 4:5], soars upward and outward as a "holy temple in the Lord".  [Eph 2:21-22]   Ecce Rex! Behold the King! He comes in glory!