11th Station

11th Station (Saint Stephen, Cleve., O.)
Jesus wird ans Kreuz geschlagen
XI Jesus is nailed to the Cross
11. Jesús es clavado a la cruz

Mark xv ― 22 And they bring him into the place called Golgotha, which being interpreted is, The place of Calvary. 23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh; but he took it not. 24 And crucifying him, they divided his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of his cause was written over: THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith: And with the wicked he was reputed. 29 And they that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days buildest it up again; 30 Save thyself, coming down from the cross. 31 In like manner also the chief priests mocking, said with the scribes one to another: He saved others; himself he cannot save. 32 Let Christ the king of Israel come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.

22 Et perdúcunt illum in Gólgotha locum : quod est interpretátum Calváriæ locus. 23 Et dabant ei bíbere myrrhátum vinum : et non accépit. 24 Et crucifigéntes eum, divisérunt vestiménta ejus, mitténtes sortem super eis, quis quid tólleret. 25 Erat autem hora tértia : et crucifixérunt eum. 26 Et erat títulus causæ ejus inscríptus : Rex Judæórum. 27 Et cum eo crucifígunt duos latrónes : unum a dextris, et álium a sinístris ejus. 28 Et impléta est Scriptúra, quæ dicit : Et cum iníquis reputátus est. 29 Et prætereúntes blasphemábant eum, movéntes cápita sua, et dicéntes : Vah ! qui déstruis templum Dei, et in tribus diébus reædíficas, 30 salvum fac temetípsum descéndens de cruce. 31 Simíliter et summi sacerdótes illudéntes, ad altérutrum cum scribis dicébant : Álios salvos fecit ; seípsum non potest salvum fácere. 32 Christus rex Israël descéndat nunc de cruce, ut videámus, et credámus. Et qui cum eo crucifíxi erant, convitiabántur ei.

Roma crucificaba pero no a sus romanos, Roma crucificaba a los pueblos que dependían de su imperio; y como Palestina dependía de Roma -Pilatos era el representante de Roma en aquel pueblo oprimido- Cristo tiene que ser humillado como un ser que no merece ni siquiera ciudadanía ― Monsenor Romero. 19 Marzo 1978.

Rome used to crucify people, but not Roman citizens. Rome used to crucify the people that depended on their empire. And since Palestine depended on Rome (Pilate was the representative of Rome to this oppressed people), Christ had to be humiliated like someone who didn’t merit citizenship.

What Parish Would Jesus Close?

A few years ago, there appeared throughout the country, shirts, bracelets and other items with the initials: WWJD? To some it was trivial, marketing kitsch; but it truly is an important ethical question of volition. We, who, say that we, are christians ought be followers of Jesus in more than in name alone. We ought to emulate Him as much as our ability, being an occasional admirer is not enough.

Sunday evening last, at Saint Sava’s, in attendance, from all the Eastern Orthodox Catholic churches of the area there was celebrated The Triumph of Orthodoxy. Now, most of these churches were independent of each other, and yet, they share a common communion, and are part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church. They are not in communion with the church of the west, Rome. The grand shame of the Great Schism continues. These orthodox many are organised by nation. There they were slavs, and greeks, and arabs, and smaller nations in unity.

To the new world there, also, came those who were in communion with Rome: the many eastern rites, and the slavs, teutons, celts, latins, litvins, and more; also the iberians came and joined with the indian nations. In the cities, and even the rural parts, many, if not most, parishes were predominately of one nation. With new patterns of internal migrations, and the fashions of the current age, this has changed in the US.

The Catholic church in the US is diverse, the hierarchy (bishophry) not so much. Much of the laity have been subject to: pray, pay and obey. Some members and parishes of the byzantine and uniate rites were driven away to eastern orthodoxy. Some of the poles formed a schismatic national church which, because of its separation, has veered from orthodoxy. And as we have seen here, many polish parishes are cited for suppression, and many of these poles are not willing to quietly surrender. Many catholics, who have no argument with the old, true and everlasting faith, nor with Rome and the pope, past and present, but have been misused by the american bishops.

Here and elsewhere, the three reasons cited (demographics, clergy shortage and expense) for the necessity of reducing parishes are invalid. In public discourse, virtually everyone has agreed, that, they are valid premises. The Church has a body of canon law, which is similar to a constitution, it is a legal code. We have seen, in this country, constitutions and other social contracts ignored, even abrogated, too often. The public debate is thoroughly on the principles of the american business model, which the public errantly accepts. The three reasons, often cited, are reasons the american business model gives for reduction of franchises. The american business model gives great honor to capitalism. Capitalism is a form of mammon worship, and it should not be substituted for canon law, nor the Sermon on the Mount.

A parish is a juridic person, as in american law a corporation is a fictive, yet legal, person. A parish is formally erected by a bishop, in the diocese he oversees, not rules. Once created it is meant to be perpetual. To suppress it towards extinction is not easily done canonically! And in alliance with this, these parishes, and their property were created by these diverse people, and given to the future in trust. Canon law does not put a quota for one priest for so many parishioners, a parish can have, and often has had, no resident priest. We are being told, that, the old parishes must pass away for the new. Some of us disagree.

Capitalism wants to maximise profit. When we take this to the logical extreme of continuing action, we come to the point where, after getting the most, and expending the least (maximised efficency), we have gotten everything for giving nothing. Jesus gave us all and took nothing. American business management theory does not belong in Jesus’ church. In this Sunday’s Gospel, John tells us of the time Jesus drives marketers and financiers from His Father’s House.

10th Station

10th Station (Saint Rocco, Cleve., O.)
X Jesus is stripped of his garments
10. Jesús es despojado de sus vestiduras

John xix ― 18 Where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the midst. 19 And Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it upon the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 This title therefore many of the Jews did read: because the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin. 21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am the King of the Jews. 22 Pilate answered: What I have written, I have written. 23 The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified him, took his garments, (and they made four parts, to every soldier a part,) and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. 24 They said then one to another: Let us not cut it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the scripture might be fulfilled, saying: They have parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they have cast lot. And the soldiers indeed did these things.

18 ubi crucifixérunt eum, et cum eo álios duos hinc et hinc, médium autem Jesum. 19 Scripsit autem et títulum Pilátus, et pósuit super crucem. Erat autem scriptum : Jesus Nazarénus, Rex Judæórum. 20 Hunc ergo títulum multi Judæórum legérunt : quia prope civitátem erat locus, ubi crucifíxus est Jesus, et erat scriptum hebráice, græce, et latíne. 21 Dicébant ergo Piláto pontífices Judæórum : Noli scríbere : Rex Judæórum : sed quia ipse dixit : Rex sum Judæórum. 22 Respóndit Pilátus : Quod scripsi, scripsi. 23 Mílites ergo cum crucifixíssent eum, accepérunt vestiménta ejus (et fecérunt quátuor partes, unicuíque míliti partem) et túnicam. Erat autem túnica inconsútilis, désuper contéxta per totum. 24 Dixérunt ergo ad ínvicem : Non scindámus eam, sed sortiámur de illa cujus sit. Ut Scriptúra implerétur, dicens : Partíti sunt vestiménta mea sibi : et in vestem meam misérunt sortem. Et mílites quidem hæc fecérunt.

Este es el compromiso de ser cristiano: seguir a Cristo en su encarnación y si Cristo es Dios majestuoso que se hace hombre humilde hasta la muerte de los esclavos en una cruz y vive con los pobres, así debe ser nuestra fe cristiana. El cristiano que no quiere vivir este compromiso de solidaridad con el pobre, no es digno de llamarse cristiano. Cristo nos invita a no tenerle miedo a la persecución porque, créanlo hermanos, el que se compromete con los pobres tiene que correr el mismo destino de los pobres: ser desaparecido, ser torturados, ser capturados, aparecer cadáveres ― Monsenor Romero. 17 Febrero 1980.

This is the commitment of being a Christian: to follow Christ in his Incarnation. And if Christ is a majestic God who becomes a humble man and lives with the poor until the death of slaves on a cross, our Christian faith should be lived in the same fashion. This Christian who doesn’t want to live with this commitment of solidarity with the poor doesn’t deserve to call himself a Christian. Christ invites us not to fear persecution because, believe it brothers, the one who binds himself with the poor has to go through the same destiny as the poor: to be disappeared, to be tortured, to be captured to appear as dead.

9th Station

9th Station (Shrine Church of Saint Stanislaus, Cleve., O.)
Jezus upada pod krzyżem raz trzeci
IX Jesus falls for the third time
9. Jesús cae por tercera vez

Luke xvii ― 1 And he said to his disciples: It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. 2 It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones.

1 Et ait ad discípulos suos : Impossíbile est ut non véniant scándala : væ autem illi per quem véniunt. 2 Utílius est illi si lapis moláris imponátur circa collum ejus, et projiciátur in mare quam ut scandalízet unum de pusíllis istis.

¡No está vencido nadie aunque lo pongan bajo la bota de la opresión y de la represión, el que cree en Cristo, sabe que es un vencedor y que la victoria definitiva será de la verdad y de la justicia. ― 23 Marzo 1980 (un día antes de su muerte)

¡Qué bien se identifica Cristo con el sufrimiento de nuestro pueblo! Así parecen clamar muchas cosas, muchos tugurios, muchos en las cárceles y en el sufrimiento, muchos hambrientos de justicia y de paz. "¿Dios mío, Dios mío, por qué me has abandonado?" No nos ha abandonado. Es la hora en que el Hijo de Dios va pasando con toda su carga de pecado por la obediencia que Dios le pide para poder perdonar esos pecados de la humanidad de donde derivan todas las injusticias, todos los egoísmos ― Monsenor Romero. 8 Abril 1979.

No one is vanquished even though he is put under the boot of oppression and repression. He who believes in Christ knows that he is victor and that the ultimate victory will be from truth and from justice. (a day before his death)

How well Christ identified himself with the suffering of his people! Many shacks, many slums, many imprisoned by suffering, many hungry for justice and peace appear to clamor, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ He hasn’t abandoned us. This is the hour in which the Son of God is carrying all of the load of sins to obey God, asking him to pardon these sins of humanity from whom is derived all injustices, all selfishness.

Sacrifice of Isaac

Filippo Brunelleschi. Sacrifice of Isaac[detail]. 1401. Florence.

Now, in the Second Sunday of Lent, in the Tridentine rite, and all three years of the vernacular, the Gospel is the Transfiguration, the same as on 6 August. This is year B, the Gospel of Mark is used; in year B, the Sacrifice of Isaac is also read [in a shortened form]. Two foretellings of Jesus’ rôle are presented.

Brunelleschi’s gilded panel, was a test piece, for the commission, of the bronze doors, of the Baptistery of Florence’s cathedral. He lost to Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose work would use less bronze. Brunelleschi has Abraham’s left hand on Isaac’s neck, Abraham’s right hand holds a knife. The angel grabs Abraham’s right arm and ends Abraham’s test. It is Isaac, who prefigures Jesus, the perfect Sacrifice. The drama is within a triangle of heads and the grasping of three hands.

After these things, God tempted Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am. He said to him: Take thy only* begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision†: and there thou shalt offer him for a holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee. So Abraham rising up in the night, saddled his ass‡: and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son: and when he had cut wood for the holocaust he went his way to the place which God had commanded him. And on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place afar off. And he said to his young men: Stay you here with the ass: I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped, will return to you. And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword. And as they two went on together, Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust? And Abraham said: God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on together. And they came to the place which God had shewn him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it: and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood. And he put forth his hand and took the sword, to sacrifice his son. And behold an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am. And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake. Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son. And he called the name of that place, The Lord seeth. Whereupon even to this day it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying: By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake: I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore: thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. ― Genesis xxii.1-18. DRC

Now, of all the Bible stories, this one children do not like. This makes all children nervous. Some stories make, particular, children nervous, e.g. when people call out for the death of Jeremias. A child with that name, or a derivative thereof, is not at ease.

But, here as elsewhere, we see the Lord call out to a man, and the response, ‘Here I am.’ That is the response, that one, who hears and does the Lord’s will, gives.
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*there was also Ismaël by Agar earlier, both who were cast off, and later:

And Abraham married another wife, named Cetura: Who bore him Zamran, and Jecsan, and Madan, and Madian, and Jesboc, and Sue. ― Genesis xxv.1-2. DRC

†Moriah, in some versions
‡yes, that is the correct word, donkey is a bowdlerisation

The hound, Hachi

In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at Imperial U.*, brought an akita pup from the snow country (Yukiguni), of Akita prefecture, to live with him. He would go to Shibuya station, in the morning accompanied by his hound, to travel to work. When the train returned in the afternoon, the dog would be waiting. One day, the next year, the professor was felled with a stroke. He never returned, and soon died. Hachi (*10 November 1923,†8 March 1935), the hound, was taken away, but would return to their old residence, until one day he returned to Shibuya station. This he would do for, more than, nine years.

People noticed. He was acknowledged, greeted and fed. Newspaper articles were written. A song was sung in schools by children. Hachikō was an exemplar of loyalty and faithfulness. These were the qualities the people, of the nation, should have for their country, and emperor.

People donated money for a statue of Hachikō†, while he was still a living model. When he died, a funeral service with many mourners gathered. He was stuffed, and placed as a museum exhibit. His bones were buried near his master.

The war came. The bronze statue, by Ando Teru, was melted in 1944 for armament. The akita breed had declined to a small number in the early twentieth century, after having been a favorite hunting dog of samurai. The furry and muscular hounds took down bears. During the war, dogs were butchered for food and pelt; similar stories were true in other lands too, certain breeds were nearing vanishing. In certain locales, the harboring of hounds became illegal, police would kill the animals. People who kept, and hid, their companions were harassed by their, own, family members.

Recently a book has been published, by Martha Sherrill, that tells the story of Morie Sawataishi’s rôle in saving the akita. From 1944 til he died in 2008, Sawataishi cared for the breed. The akita is a loyal breed of a loyal animal, that, has regular habits.

After the war a new statue‡ came to Shibuya station and it is, again, a landmark. A film, Hachikō Monogatari (1987), was made. This year an american version, set in New England, will be released. The 8th of April an annual remembrance takes place, for Hachikō, at the railway station.
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*now Tokyo U.
†Hachikō, a familiar diminutive form
‡ by the sculptor’s son, Takeshi; other statues have followed

8th Station

8th Station (Saint Procop, Cleve., O.)
VIII Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem
8. Jesús habla a las mujeres de Jerusalén

Luke xxiii ― 27 And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. 28 But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

27 Sequebátur autem illum multa turba pópuli et mulíerum, quæ plangébant et lamentabántur eum. 28 Convérsus autem ad illas Jesus, dixit : Fíliæ Jerúsalem, nolíte flere super me, sed super vos ipsas flete et super fílios vestros.

El que convive con el pobre, con el miserable, con el campesino y lo defiende y quiere como Cristo nuestro Señor predicar la liberación a los pobres, a los oprimidos, a los prisioneros, a los que sufren. Este es Cristo que está en medio de nosotros ― Monsenor Romero. 23 Marzo 1978.

The one who lives with the poor, the miserable, the peasant and who defends them and loves them like Christ our Lord, and who preaches the liberation of the poor, of the oppressed, of the one who suffers, this one is Christ in our midst.