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From the Gospel according
to Saint Matthew. 27:26-30
Then Pilate, having
scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of
the governor took Jesus into the praetorium, and they gathered the
whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet
robe upon him, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on his
head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him they
mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spat upon
him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.
MEDITATION
Inhumanity reaches new
heights. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns. History is full
of hatred and wars. Even today we witness acts of violence
beyond belief: murder, violence to women and children, kidnapping,
extortion, ethnic conflict, urban violence, physical and mental
torture, violations of human rights.
Jesus continues to suffer
when believers are persecuted, when justice is distorted in court,
corruption gets rooted, unjust structures grind the poor, minorities
are suppressed, refugees and migrants are ill-treated. Jesus’
garments are pulled away when the human person is put to shame on
the screen, when women are compelled to humiliate themselves, when
slum children go round the streets picking up crumbs.
Who are the guilty? Let us
not point a finger at others, for we ourselves may have contributed
a share to these forms of inhumanity.
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