A spoken word artist hit the nail on the head about Jesus Christ’s being nailed on the cross around this time 2,000 years ago.
Writer and performer Juan Miguel Severo connected two of today’s most troubling concerns in the country with events that led to the death of Christianity’s savior on Calvary in a popular tweet.
Jesus threatened the status quo. He challenged existing ideas. He was a victim of fake news. He was framed, arrested, and tortured by the government. He was given the death penalty without due process.
This day has nothing to do with politics? You haven’t been paying attention.
— Juan Miguel Severo (@TheRainBro) April 19, 2019
Catholics and many Christian denominations, after having spent 40 days of Lent or a period of penitence and fasting, observe Holy Week. The week culminates in the commemoration of Christ’s passion and death on the cross on Good Friday, two days before the celebration of Easter Sunday or the day of his resurrection.
While Severo put it succinctly, leaders of the Catholic Church including those in the Philippines have long opposed policies deemed violating life, truth and morals, including the proliferation of disinformation or “fake news” on the internet and violence including unjustified executions.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas reflected on Jesus’ last hours.
“Two thousand years later, ignorance continues to hurt and kill. Ignorance continues to lurk in the dark alleys preying on weak souls. The ignorant is the hero. The sage is the villain. God is mocked again.”
“This ignorance about our dignity as children of God has made us clap at the murder of the poor in the name of the drug war; thumbs up for the 30,000 countrymen killed under the candy-coated term ‘crimes under investigation’ because ‘there are no extrajudicial killings’ here. Ignorance about ourselves is fatal for us and for others.”
In a message for Good Friday, Pope Francis explained:
“Today we relived the final hours of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, to the moment when, from the cross, he cried out ‘Consummatum est,’ ‘it is finished’.”
The pope, in leading the practice of the Way of the Cross, similarly related the problems that plagued the time of Jesus with those of today.
“We want to walk this via dolorosa (Way of the Cross) in union with the poor, the outcast of our societies and all those who even now are enduring crucifixion as victims of our narrowmindedness, our institutions and our laws, our blindness and selfishness, but especially our indifference and hardness of heart. We Christians too suffer from that disease.
“May the Cross of Christ, a means of death but also of new life, embracing heaven and earth, north and south, east and west, enlighten the consciences of citizens, of the Church, of lawmakers and of all those who call themselves followers of Christ, so that the Good News of our redemption may be made known to all.”
