The Coliseum in Rome was first opened in 80 A.D. Soon the surface of its floor which is 325,000 square feet was saturated by the blood of gladiators, other participants in bloody combat and hordes of executions. Today, the Pope on Good Friday leads a torch light Via Crucis to the site, and in recent times, it has been lit up by multinational protests against the death penalty. Similarly, in November, it had "No justice without life" written in letters of light on its outside walls. Last Tuesday, it was lit up again to celebrate a resolution against the death penalty passed by the UN and also for New Jersey's historic action the day before when the State became the first one in 40 years to abolish capital punishment. Sr. Helen Prejean, famous for "Dead Man Walking," announced the lights on the Coliseum when she spoke in the Governor's outer office where Governor Jon Corzine signed the legislation.
The Coliseum was always the symbol of the imperial Roman Empire, the clout of which sanctioned the execution of Jesus on the Cross outside Jerusalem in a horrendous, painful form of capital punishment. One does not need much faith to believe in the power of God at work in the transformation of the Cross, vilest form of execution, into a holy sign of hope that we hoist to the top of our churches, that we inscribe on the backs of our Bibles, wear around our necks, ritually make the sign of it on our bodies, and kiss it as a sacred instrument of our salvation. And the glorious conclusion of that thought is this: if a vicious form of execution can be so transformed, what of us in our great inadequacy.
Jesus was born to transform. To transform the worst into the best, hate into love, and death into life. And when He took his first breath, the air was better. His first step, the earth was better. His first word, truth was clearer.
O Jesus, the animals guietly warmed you in the cold, look at our global warming and help us to change our ways.
O Jesus, in your kindly attitude, help us to be non-violent.
O Jesus, in your loving ways, help us to stop the war that is killing and wrecking people.
O Jesus, in your sharing ways, help us to share the earth more fairly.
O Jesus, in not being welcomed at the inn, help us to welcome the poor in our neighborhoods.
O Jesus, in your death by capital punishment, help us to rid the world of injustice, revenge, and execution.
O Jesus, come! Come again! Take your place in the manger of each moment we live. Amen.
Happy Christmas!
