Fr. Cedric
No greater love (Jn. 15:13) Jesus taught, “No greater love has someone than to give up his life for another.” Jesus lived what he taught. We hear about heroic stories such as St. Maximillian Kolbe and others who sacrificially died in the place of others. Not only did Jesus give up his life, but he gave his life in intolerable excruciating pain. I suffer from panic attacks. Besides the social embarrassment, the most difficult aspect of this is the suffering that comes from not being able to breathe. It is hard to describe the panicky feeling that overwhelms a person in the throes of an anxiety attack. At its height, my heart is racing so fast, I am not able to gasp for air fast enough. People have described it as thinking they were going to die. These attacks come while I am trying to read publicly so it is very noticeable and doubly tough to try to masque it. It is like being underwater and unable to take a breath. If you have ever tried to hold your breath in water for as long as you can, try to remember that last milli-second when you can’t stand it any longer and have to surface. Your heart races. You begin to panic and your lungs ache and your body flails to get air. Without knowing it or thinking about it, 24/7, we breathe. Our bodies need precious oxygen in order to live. The cells of our blood must carry oxygen to the brain, heart and other organs of our body in order to function well and survive. Breathe is vital to our survival and wellbeing. I’ll spare you the details, but death from crucifixion was the worst execution method ever devised. The excruciating pain would make the crucified go mad. (If you are interested in the details read the book: A Doctor At Calvary.) Besides the over the top pain, the condemned person is reduced to the animalistic state of having to fight for every breath. In order to breathe they would have to pull themselves up causing even worse torturous pain. They reason they broke their legs was so they could no longer pull themselves up and death would come sooner by asphyxiation. Jesus died in the throes of maddening pain by asphyxiation. Get in touch with your breathing right now. The ability to breathe is a basic, yet wonderful gift we take for granted. Yet it is on the cross that Jesus “breathed his last.” God breathed the breath of life into the first Adam. The second Adam became a “life giving Spirit.” God proves his love for us in giving us Son for us on the cross. The most basic of bodily functions and of life itself is breath. The same word translated as breath in the Bible, pnuema, is also the word for Spirit. We are invigorated with the breath of God because Jesus breathed his last on the cross. If you want to know how much God loves you, simply get in touch with your ability to breathe. Never take this prized gift for granted. Not only did God give you breath in the first place, in his death Jesus was asphyxiated for me and you. God proves his love on the cross. While we were yet sinners, he gave up his love for us. God was willing to give up that which we all prize so dearly: breath. As he once breathed into mud and gave Adam life, he breathes in our direction to give us redemption and rebirth. You want to know you are loved? Simply breathe. ................
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