The Victory of the Cross

Homily preached by the Rev. James La Macchia
Trinity Parish of Newton Centre
March 20, 2016
The Sunday of the Passion:  Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50: 4-9a
Psalm 31: 9-16
Philippians 2: 5-11
Luke 22:14-23:56

My Friends:

Of the many stories of horror, cruelty, and courage to reach us from the Shoah, one in particular, witnessed by the Nobel-Laureate Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz, is especially poignant.  It involves the summary execution of a young boy at the notorious death camp.  The boy had been caught by a death-camp guard in some minor infraction of camp discipline.  After questioning the child to determine his alleged “guilt,” the commandant decided to make an example of the boy to his fellow prisoners.  So, he ordered the whole camp to assemble at dawn the next morning to witness the boy’s execution.  When the prisoners had been herded into the freezing, snowy yard of the camp, the frightened child was dragged before them, stripped of his clothing, and hung from a makeshift gallows as the entire prisoner population watched in helpless horror.  The camp guard who had caught the boy in his petty infraction then turned to a rabbi-prisoner and asked in a sneering voice, “So, rabbi, where is your God now?”  The rabbi looked his tormentor in the eye and calmly pointed to the twisting body of the hanging child.  “There he is,” the rabbi said, “hanging from your gallows.”