“When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, ‘Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be.’” (John 19:23-24)
People of one piece
Presidents, preachers, directors and leaders in every branch of our society today have to review their statements innumerable times before making them public or run the risk of saying something politically incorrect.
Jesus affirms in the Gospel: “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37) It can be said that during his life Jesus was made of one piece. The clarity and transparency of his words and actions provoked either rejection or unconditional acceptance, followers or persecutors.
Therefore it’s not a surprise that throughout the history of Christianity thousands of holy men and women remade their existence and styled it after Jesus with tunics of one piece woven from top to bottom by the radical evangelical principles they practiced during their life and in the moment of facing death.
To be radical does not mean to be a fanatic. To follow Christ means to imitate his radical love. The radical Christian has a clear path (holiness); he has an all-embracing passion (fraternity); he has flawless integrity (purity); he has liberating coherence (the truth). The fanatic generates division, imposition, fear and suspicion.
We Christians weave our own tunics day to day during our earthly existence. As we continue learning to weave we commit many errors and sins that force us to discard what we have already woven until we are able to weave without seams.
Envies, resentments, luxuries, lies, vanities and greediness — these are just coarse seams that disfigure the original design of God for each one of the believers. Through Christ our Lord who radically wove his earthly pilgrimage, God shows us how to accomplish our own.
Yes or no
Our baptismal commitment urges our hearts to be imitators of Christ. Radical as he was in favor for the life and dignity of each human being from the moment of their conception to their natural death. Radical in the defense of the nucleus of society based on marriage between on man and one woman and the family that originates from this union. Radical in the construction of peace through dialogue and forgiveness that creates new forms of justice. Radical with a resounding Yes in the proclamation of the dignity and respect that each woman and each man deserves regardless of race, culture or faith.
The tunic of humanity needs to be without seams. Our Christian life needs to be a No to the violence shamelessly committed against millions of girls and women in the world who are exploited through pornography and prostitution. We are Christians called to be the resounding No to extreme economic inequalities between the absurd luxuries and wastefulness of some and the millions who die of hunger.
In order to remove the seams of racism based on the color of skin or economic power, let us continue threading our lives of prayer and intimacy with God so that he may give us the wisdom to know when we should say Yes and when we should say No.
Mary wove a tunic without seams for Jesus which he surrendered to us on the cross. Her life was a radical Yes to the will of God of which she proclaimed herself a handmaiden. Her life was a radical No to the evil one, to sin in all its forms. She wove her tunic of one piece by fidelity to the simplest daily tasks so as to one day be radical in love and in faith, even unto forgiving the death of her Son and God.
May this magnificent woman, Joseph and all the saints continue showing us how to weave our lives into one piece without seams with the thread of divine love. That is the fashion our world needs.
Cristianos sin costuras" that appeared in the October 2015 issue of NORTHWEST CATHOLIC.