By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
Another Passion Week amidst the Pandemic – the Cleansing Monday
March 29, 2021: Isaiah 42: 1-7; John 12: 1-11
We have entered the second Holy Week, the situation of pandemic that tormented us last year, still lingering around with its taunting tentacles! And in this one year we have lived through moments of varied nature and unprecedented outcomes. We are still languishing under the pain and pressure of the pandemic and this Holy Week…let us take a walk with our Saviour and reflect on what he would have done, if he lived this around us.
The Monday of the Holy Week, is called the Cleansing Monday – refering to that incident when Jesus entered Jerusalem and visited the temple… he was so annoyed with what was happening that he whipped it out against the situation and its perpetrators!
Beginning with the Gospel, ‘six days before the passover’ he is found in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem… in the house of Lazarus and his sisters. From here he would enter Jerusalem, as we celebrated yesterday…gloriously wlcomed by the masses. It points to the beginning of a definitive clash between Jesus and the authorities, leading to the tragic crucifixion that we would soon reflect on. One of the point of contention between Jesus and the Authorities was the temple!
When Jesus entered the temple and whipped out the evils from there, it was at the same time a symbolic action and spiritual statement – symbolic action because he wanted the true temple – the people of God – to be cleansed of its iniquities. It was a spiritual statement because his zeal for his Father’s house was burning bright within! When he saw the ungodliness of the people of God, the inhumanities of the so-called religious systems and the injustices of the inhuman society at large, he whipped out, and never slipped out quietly.
As people of God, the Church today, we are called to whip out against all injustices and inhumanities which amount really to ungodliness in the world; we cannot choose to slip out quietly as if we saw nothing, as if it means nothing to us or as if it does not concern us in anyway – much worse, if we ourselves mete out such an injustice or inhumanity on others, in whichever situation we find ourselves in. May the fiery and prophectic Jesus be in our hearts and minds whenever we fail to stand up against evil and lies.
In the pandemic situation today, there are varied ways of coping: Be a negationist and reject everything that being said about – how blind it could be, after seeing all the real and concrete sufferings of many. Another approach could be, to be a negativist or pessimist finding fault in everything and reading a conspiracy version into everything that is happening aroung – how sad it could be! Another way is to be a careless freak – to go about as if there is nothing abnormal happening. A final, Christ-worthy, approach would be to adapt a prophetic stance – critiquing anything that is against plain logic and integral goodness. There are so many decisions and policies made, with underground dealings and suspicious agenda. What happens when we know them – are we able to stand up and speak up? What about the poor and the marginalises who are pushed to the anonimity in the process of handling and countering this pandemic? It is not oly the pandemic in itself that troubles us, but the politics that surround it, the exploitation that is involved and the inhumanities that prevail.
Would Jesus, at these moments, have slipped quietly into his silence and security or would he have whipped out against the anomalies?
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.