Simon of Cyrene, Jesus’ Last Helper, Part 2
The following is part two of a letter to Simon of Cyrene that was written by Joseph McAuley (assistant editor of the magazine “America”) on March 26, 2016:
“…Carrying a cross demands everything a person has and in doing so, Jesus went to the boundaries of endurance and beyond, when he could endure no more and offered himself totally. He became the receptacle of humanity’s untold sins, crushed for them on the cross, in order to affect redemption. It is incomprehensible and frightening thing to do, but Jesus went to Calvary and stayed ‘obedient unto death, death upon a cross.’
Jesus entered Holy Week with palms and hosannas in the highest and ended it being treated worse than a criminal, being crucified between criminals, with the prospect of burial among criminals. And among the sufferings he had to endure were those of betrayal and denial, to the point that the only ones left at the foot of the cross were his mother, the dedicated women who believed in him, and the beloved disciple, John.
The connected and the powerful of his day disdained him and his message; his own people (and not a few of his disciples) hoped he would be a Messiah and the rescuer of Israel. Everyone, from Pilate on down, had him pegged wrong and only saw him in ways they only wanted to see him, not as he was. Because they were human, they could only see surface realities; the Romans and the Jews of the day could only think about what truly mattered: their rank and position in the world. For them, there was no other reality. It took Jesus being crucified on the cross to prove them wrong.
Once you and Jesus—and the cross you both carried—reached Calvary, you “disappeared.” You had done your duty in what was perhaps the very first act of Christian charity: you performed an act of mercy when you helped Jesus carry the cross. Simon of Cyrene, you are a figure of curiosity—what happened to you afterwards? Did you leave Calvary hill a changed man? Were your eyes opened by Jesus? Was your life given a new sense of purpose by what happened? Or were you like the others, who felt sorry for a good man who was overwhelmed by the powers that be who could not possibly have been the Messiah, but simply a man who preached justice and mercy but was given none?
I prefer to believe the presentation of you as a man of tender countenance who willingly offered your hand and your heart to Jesus, with mercy, pity and compassion. The picture of you that has survived through the millennia is a needed one, especially in these days, when hatred, intolerance and violence are the rampant diseases of people who wish to overwhelm everyone with their sense of rank and power, expressing in the evilest way possible their never-satiated need of entitlement and dominance, in defiance not only of their fellow man, but of God. Simon of Cyrene, you took it upon yourself to help a suffering Jesus. You didn’t have to, but you did. You are the model that the world needs today. In carrying that cross with Jesus, you became like him; help us to become like you, so we can become like him whom you helped that day and that in so doing, we can be the servants he wanted us to be and show the world yet again that there is another way.”
“…Carrying a cross demands everything a person has and in doing so, Jesus went to the boundaries of endurance and beyond, when he could endure no more and offered himself totally. He became the receptacle of humanity’s untold sins, crushed for them on the cross, in order to affect redemption. It is incomprehensible and frightening thing to do, but Jesus went to Calvary and stayed ‘obedient unto death, death upon a cross.’
Jesus entered Holy Week with palms and hosannas in the highest and ended it being treated worse than a criminal, being crucified between criminals, with the prospect of burial among criminals. And among the sufferings he had to endure were those of betrayal and denial, to the point that the only ones left at the foot of the cross were his mother, the dedicated women who believed in him, and the beloved disciple, John.
The connected and the powerful of his day disdained him and his message; his own people (and not a few of his disciples) hoped he would be a Messiah and the rescuer of Israel. Everyone, from Pilate on down, had him pegged wrong and only saw him in ways they only wanted to see him, not as he was. Because they were human, they could only see surface realities; the Romans and the Jews of the day could only think about what truly mattered: their rank and position in the world. For them, there was no other reality. It took Jesus being crucified on the cross to prove them wrong.
Once you and Jesus—and the cross you both carried—reached Calvary, you “disappeared.” You had done your duty in what was perhaps the very first act of Christian charity: you performed an act of mercy when you helped Jesus carry the cross. Simon of Cyrene, you are a figure of curiosity—what happened to you afterwards? Did you leave Calvary hill a changed man? Were your eyes opened by Jesus? Was your life given a new sense of purpose by what happened? Or were you like the others, who felt sorry for a good man who was overwhelmed by the powers that be who could not possibly have been the Messiah, but simply a man who preached justice and mercy but was given none?
I prefer to believe the presentation of you as a man of tender countenance who willingly offered your hand and your heart to Jesus, with mercy, pity and compassion. The picture of you that has survived through the millennia is a needed one, especially in these days, when hatred, intolerance and violence are the rampant diseases of people who wish to overwhelm everyone with their sense of rank and power, expressing in the evilest way possible their never-satiated need of entitlement and dominance, in defiance not only of their fellow man, but of God. Simon of Cyrene, you took it upon yourself to help a suffering Jesus. You didn’t have to, but you did. You are the model that the world needs today. In carrying that cross with Jesus, you became like him; help us to become like you, so we can become like him whom you helped that day and that in so doing, we can be the servants he wanted us to be and show the world yet again that there is another way.”