 |
||||||
[As
Jesus neared death] it was now about the sixth hour and, with the sun
eclipsed, a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.
The veil of the Temple was torn right down the middle; and when
Jesus had cried out in a loud voice, he said, 'Father, into your hands
I commit my spirit.' With these words he breathed his last.
When the centurion saw what had taken place, he gave praise to
God and said, "This was a great and good man." And when all the
people who had gathered for the spectacle saw what had happened, they
went home beating their breasts. All his friends stood at a
distance; so also did the women who had accompanied him from Galilee,
and they saw all this happen.
|
||||||
The
people who studied the life of Jim Braddock after he lived could say
one thing in total agreement: this man was a great and good man.
As the movie based on his life, "Cinderella Man" begins, he is riding
high with a series of boxing victories
that buy a comfortable, but not rich lifestyle for his wife Mae and
their children Jay, Rosemarie and Howard. Then Jim Braddock broke
his hand, lost some matches so badly his license was taken away, and
descended with his family to total poverty in the early days of the
Depression. What is truly remarkable is that during both the good
times and bad times, Jim Braddock remains a good person, concerned
about his family more than anything. In the total grip of
poverty, Jim Braddock's statement "I have to believe that when things
are bad, I can change them," was both a guide to what he would do later
on, and a statement of his good character.
|
||||||
|
It
is dangerous to compare anyone to Jesus Christ. Too many people
are like Jesus in a couple of things, but not at all like him in
others. And so, always the comparison limps a little. No
doubt, Jim Braddock had his faults and failings, but everyone who
writes about him says that he was simply a good man. It is a great
compliment, and something that everyone of us should desire. Jesus
Christ, of course in the
Christian understanding of things, was the ultimate good man. The
people who gazed upon him hanging on the cross, hearing his words,
thinking back to what he had done in his life, could only say one
thing, and in Luke's Gospel, it was spoken by the centurion: "This
was a great and good man."
It is important for the believer to transcend for a moment the fact that Jesus was God, and ask of the human Jesus, why was he good? For that matter, why was Jim Braddock good? Perhaps it is very simply a matter of understanding that both Jesus and Jim Braddock realized that they could be people who could do good things. As Jim Braddock put it, we can change the things that are bad. We can change the things that we should not do; we can help change the things that are bad in our neighborhoods, in our families, in our schools, and even, if we are brave enough, in our world. We will all die some day, of course, and the challenge that Jesus gives us is to work at being the type of person whom others will look upon and say that we were good people. |
||||||
|
THOUGHT
What are the principal
characteristics of a great and good person in today's world?
PRAYER Good and gracious
God, your Son was divine, but he was also a human person.
His human characteristics can be learned and practiced.
Help us discover what he did to make him a great and good human
person, and give us the grace to follow his way. Be with us, we
pray.
|
||||||
©2007 Capuchin
Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |