One of the tenets of Liberation Theology is that Christ suffers along with the oppressed. The verse from the Spiritual “Nobody knows the trouble I seen, nobody knows like Jesus” resonates not only in the African American Church, but in other communities hungering for justice, believing that God has not abandoned them.
These reflections on Jesus’ mother, Veronica and Simon of Cyrene continue the series of Stations by Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron about their faith in the light of Palestinians’ suffering under occupation:
Join in the “Way of the Cross in Occupied Palestine,” a Lenten campaign to raise awareness of the suffering of the Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation. These short reflections connect contemporary parallels to the themes found in the Stations of the Cross, a tool used for reflection on the suffering and death of Christ.
As this reality of violence runs parallel to the suffering of Christ, the campaign encourages participating churches to engage in direct actions that highlight the violence and injustice of life under military occupation in Palestine.
Jesus meets his mother on the way to his execution
Let us recall Jesus meeting His mother as He carries His cross. She was unable to stand by quietly and see her innocent son accused, condemned and on His way to execution. Not only did she reach out to her son beneath His cross, she must have spoken out to the soldiers and tried to tell them of His innocence. Let us continue with the meditation and think of Jesus in contemporary Palestine.
Here in Hebron we see mothers of six Palestinian youths accused of breaking and entering a settlement enclave in the Old City. Their mothers know their innocence and we witness these women trying to stop the police from taking their sons to the Israeli police station, where anything can happen to them. They rush to the Israeli soldiers to tell them their sons were at home all day. They reach out and actually hold back the military armored personnel carrier in which their sons have been placed. In the face of hostile settlers with guns pointed at them, their courage inspired those who could do so to join with them and ask for mercy.
08-01-27 A Mother’s Anguish: Palestinian mothers and Dianne Roe getting in the way of Israeli paddy wagon taking away Palestinian teenagers after being detained for three hours. For more photos, visit CPT
Simon of Cyrene is made to carry the cross
Simon was an innocent bystander in the crowd. We know from the accounts in the gospels of Luke and Mark that Simon did not step forward to take the cross. Different Bible translations tell us that the soldiers of the occupying Roman army `grabbed’, `seized’, `laid hold upon’ him, then `compelled’, `forced’ him to carry the cross.
In wars and conflicts, the bystander in the crowd is still made to carry the cross of suffering. Yet, how often are the peacemakers ridiculed and mocked when they speak out against the arbitrary loss of life?
In the first two months of 2008, Israeli security forces killed 146 Palestinians in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and Gaza Strip. Like Simon, at least 42 were bystanders, who “did not participate in fighting when killed”.
Between 28 February and 3 March, at least half of the 108 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, were civilians. On 6 March, a Palestinian gunman entered a Yeshiva (a Jewish religious school) and killed 8 students, at least four under 18 years of age.
Just as the Roman soldiers `seized’ and `grabbed’ Simon, those with military power target the bystander. On 27 February the Israeli military targeted the civilian Interior Ministry in Gaza, damaging nearby buildings and killing a six-month-old baby. The same day, Palestinian military groups in Gaza targeted the Israeli town of Sderot, killing a 47 year old civilian.
We know that Jesus was not `compelled’ or `forced’ to take up the cross. We too are called to willingly take up the cross by speaking out against war, by saying that the death of any one person is too much, that violence leads to violence, it will never lead to peace.
Note: B’tselem is an Israeli human rights organization
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
Let us try to imagine Veronica as she steps out from the jeering, mocking crowd. Was she afraid as she walked past the hostile, armed soldiers? It was not appropriate for her, as a woman, to touch a man, but Veronica refused to be constrained by social norms. She saw the suffering, bleeding Christ, and she was moved by compassion and mercy to step forward.
In the 15th century many Jewish and Muslim families fled Christian persecution in Spain, and came to build a new life together in Hebron. For hundreds of years, until 1929, these families lived together in harmonious co-existence.In 1929 Muslim rioters attacked and killed 67 Jews in Hebron (and wounding many others). Although most people chose to either participate in the riots or simply stand by and watch, some Muslim families sheltered and saved hundreds of their Jewish neighbors.
Just across from the CPT apartment, in a building now evacuated and requisitioned by the Israeli military, the Muslim Shaheen family saved their Jewish neighbors, the Mizrahi family.
Rioters were at the door, sure that there were Jews in the house. The Hajji (elder woman of the family) went to the roof of her home, tore off her veil, and tore her clothes (a shameful act in Islam), swearing to those below that all who were in the house were her family. The rioters, horrified to be the cause of dishonor to such an old, respected woman, left the area. The Mizrahis were saved.
In the face of such violence and hatred, Veronica and the Hajji refused to stand silently by.
Do we?
Reprinted with Permission by Christian Peacemaker Teams
Cross-posted at Street Prophets and Daily Kos.
