My Morning Ritual

Understanding how we are all responsible for Jesus’ death

03/24/2024

Jn 11:45-56 Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him.

I always do two things before I leave the rectory every morning. You, too, may have a morning ritual before you leave your house. I stop in the small chapel and I ask Jesus to bless the coming day, whatever may happen. And then I kiss a crucifix hanging in the hallway as I leave. But every time I kiss my finger and touched Jesus’ nailed feet, I think: “Lord, I love you. But I know it is my sins that nailed your feet to that terrible tree.”

In other words, by that kiss I am taking personal ownership for killing Jesus. I kiss Jesus like Judas Iscariot; but I am also responsible for killing Jesus like Judas Iscariot. I am not blaming someone else for Jesus’ death, because I know our Lord would have suffered and died for me if I were the only person who had ever lived.

In January of this year (2024), the U.S. bishops issued a pastoral note on antisemitism. Antisemitism is the ideology that the Jews alone killed Christ. The bishops wrote this about Good Friday, saying: “The Passion narratives are proclaimed in full so that all see vividly the love of Christ for each person. In light of this, the crimes during the Passion of Christ cannot be attributed, in either preaching or catechesis, indiscriminately to all Jews of that time, nor to Jews today…As the Church has always held, Christ freely suffered his passion and death for the sin of all, that all might be saved.”

I know it is hard not to hear that statement in the midst of the noise and nonsense of the current political climate. Are you siding with Israel, or are you siding with the Palestinians? The bishops are not interested in playing politics, but in saving souls, beginning with their own. The bishops’ pastoral note, in other words, tries to do the same thing as my morning ritual when I kiss the feet of Jesus: accept personal responsibility for being the cause of Christ’s saving death.

I mention all this today because we see a definite momentum shift, a turn, in the gospel in John 11. The Jewish leadership makes a conscious and collective decision to kill Jesus. We read: “Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” That is, Caiaphas and the whole Sanhedrim were doing that day what I do every morning. Reaching out to kiss the feet of Jesus, but also reaching out to kill Christ. We read a little further: “So from that day on they planned to kill him.” In other words, we are all responsible for Jesus’ death.

My friends, as we begin Holy Week tomorrow with Palm Sunday, may I ask you to keep two thoughts in your mind. First, be aware of any antisemitism you hear, and steer clear of it. For that matter, be aware of any anti-Palestinianism you hear and avoid that, too. Honestly, I have not personally encountered antisemitism (perhaps it is more prevalent in large metropolitan areas).

Although there was a rather blatant account of antisemitism in Shakespeare’s play, “Merchant of Venice.” There a Jew named Shylock is depicted as greedy, a lover of money, and demanding his “pound of flesh” from innocent Antonio. You know, I love Shakespeare. But it is nearly impossible to read that play as not promoting antisemitism, even if it was unintentional.

The second thought to keep in mind this week is that the only person really responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion is me, and you. Our Lord’s death on the cross was the price he paid for my sins, and your sins, and the sins of the Jews, and the sins of the Palestinians, and the sins of the Russians, and the sins of the Ukranians, and the sins of the Republicans, and the sins of the Democrats, etc.

Put simply, no one is innocent of shedding the precious Blood of our Savior, not even Pilate who tried to wash his hands of responsibility for Jesus’ death. That is what I think when I kiss the feet of Jesus and walk out of the rectory every morning.

Praised be Jesus Christ!