Transcript of the Video Above

Daily reflections for Lenten Easter, written by Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI.

When is one a victim, and when is one giving one’s life for others? At the level of outward appearance, this can be indistinguishable. Outward action is not the criterion. Inward freedom is. I am a victim when somebody takes my life. I am practicing selfless virtue when I freely give it.

Jesus illustrates this as he sacrifices freely his life, renouncing consistently his own needs in the face of the needs of others. He keeps repeating, as if a mantra, nobody takes my life from me.

“I give it freely.” It is from this Jesus example of a love that freely sacrifices unto death that we must learn.
Nobody escapes the unfairness of life, and nobody, other than a complete monster, goes through life without ever putting other people’s needs ahead of his or her own.

The challenge of the gospel is to move from bitter victim to joyful giver. Jesus was not a bitter victim. He made that plain in the Garden of Gethsemane. And again before Pilate. He chose to lay down his life. It was a free decision made in love. Nobody can take by force what one gives for free.