Ep 83 - Who Are We Crucifying Today?

In this Palm Sunday reflection, Fr. Isaac explores the Passion of Christ through the lens of the Scapegoating mechanism, a concept developed by René Girard.

By drawing parallels between the Gospel and real events in today’s world, this homily reveals a deeply human pattern: when faced with frustration, fear, or failure, we often look for someone to blame — usually someone vulnerable.

The Passion story exposes this tendency in its rawest form. Jesus, though innocent, becomes the victim of collective anger, false accusations, and silence from those who could have spoken up.

But the Christian message does something radically different — it declares the innocence of the victim and, in doing so, invites us to confront our own role in the cycle of blame and violence.

This episode challenges listeners to reflect honestly:
 Where are we participating in this pattern today?
 And what does it mean to follow a God who responds not with revenge, but with mercy?

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to episode 83 of Brother from Another Father as we celebrate Palm Sunday today. I'm sure that many of you are familiar with the story of Mrs. Helen Kamutumbe, a woman from Chingola, who was brutally murdered a week ago in a northwestern district in the town of Kalumbila. Those of you who are familiar with the story will know that there was an accusation against her by a young man, Mr. Prince Ntambo, that she had stolen his private parts, his Katundu. And this accusation was subsequently proved to be completely false. It was a lie. The whole nation of Zambia has been shocked by the savagery that was visited upon her by this mob justice. What is actually going on here in this story has been studied and described by a French anthropologist by the name of René Girard. And he calls this mechanism that was operative the scapegoating mechanism. What happens with the scapegoating mechanism, according to René Girard, is that in many societies, from since the beginning, the dawn of human civilization, there is a certain violence that inhabits all of us as human beings. A pent-up frustration that our lives are not going as we want them to go. And so what most societies will do will look for a scapegoat, someone to blame for the problems in society. And normally that scapegoat will be a weak and defenseless member of society, like a woman or a young child. And we see this in modern-day Europe, where immigrants are being blamed for the problems in society. They're being scapegoated and they're being said, you should get out of our society. You're the cause of everything going wrong here. We see it also in Nazi Germany, where the Jews were scapegoated and said, You are the problem, we need to get rid of you. And if we get rid of you, our nation will now be healed. And so what happens is that all this frustration is cast onto a defenseless member of society, and in an intense experience of violence, that violence now comes out of the society and goes into killing that scapegoat. And then for a time, the society is calm again. Peace can return. I think that this mechanism and this story of Mrs. Kamutumbe is immensely instructive for us in also understanding what is going on in the passion. And so it's worth our while to spend some time digging and finding out what was really going on here. Now, details online are really scamped as to why this person, this young boy, Mr. Prince Ntambo, really made this accusation of his Kartundu being stolen. Because if you think about it, this is not a joke. Some online commentators are saying, oh, well, he was just making a joke. There are lots of jokes about our sexuality. But all of those jokes actually point to something that's really critical, something that really obsesses us in our life. Because our sexuality is what enables us to fulfill our mission that we were given by God, go forth and multiply. Our sexuality is what enables us to live out our vocation of being made in the image and likeness of God, to participate in God's creative enterprise through procreation. And so our sexuality concerns our vitality. It concerns also our ability to enjoy life. And so, if when someone accuses someone else of stealing their katundu, what is essentially at play here, what they're saying is that I am frustrated, that I cannot, I cannot give life, I cannot be quote procreative, I cannot enjoy my life, I am not being fruitful. And so a man who accuses someone else of stealing his katundu is not a happy man. He's not someone whose life is going well. This is a frustrated man. This is someone who has failed to be fruitful in the way that he wanted to be. And so, what does he do? He takes his frustration out on an innocent victim. And the victim was vulnerable in two ways. Number one, she was a woman. Number two, she was a foreigner, at least in Kalumbila, because we know she was from Chingola. And so she there was no one who was going to come to her defense. And so she bears the brunt of this frustration that is pent up not only in Mr. Prince and Tambo, but in so many others in this mob who became frenzied with this violence and visited this violence upon this innocent victim, Helen Kamutumbe. This story bears many resemblances and parallels to the passion of Jesus. Jesus, too, was an innocent victim. We have Caiaphas, the high priest, putting this marvelously when he says, Don't you understand that it is better for one man to die for the whole nation than for the whole nation to be destroyed? We also see the same frustration in the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the Sadducees who accuse him falsely and lie about him. They are frustrated that their nation is no longer being fruitful, that the covenant with God is no longer leading Israel to be the light of the nations. If anything, they are now subjugated and oppressed by the Romans. And so all this frustration gets poured out onto Jesus. There are also other many remarkable parallels between this story and the passion. As this mob, this frenzied, angry mob, were taking Helen Kamutumbe to her death, one of the things that they did was take her to the chief. And for me, the chief represents Pilate. Because what did the chief do? The chief came out and said, Ah, this doesn't concern me. This is not my story. Take her to the police. Many commentators say if the chief had decided to at least keep her, he could have saved her. But like Pilate, he refuses to use his authority to spare someone vulnerable and weak in society. How many times does this happen in our own society, where people who are in power refuse to use that power and influence to save the weakest and the vulnerable in our society? There were also a few good people in this story. There was the headmaster of the school who tried to save her and took her into his house, but the crowd overpowered him and got her back, and their bloodlust was finally fulfilled in killing her. What does that show? It shows that, like just in the passion of Jesus Christ, there were not enough good people to stand up for her. There were too many bystanders, too many people, hundreds and hundreds of people who just simply folded their arms and watched as Helen Kumtrumbe was killed. And this has sparked a lot of soul searching in the nation of Zambia. We've asked ourselves, but how is this possible in a Christian nation that so many people can just stand by and do nothing? Just like the crowds stood by and watched Jesus be crucified. For me, the most remarkable parallel between these two stories is what Rene Girard identifies as the unique and special aspect of the Christian story. Namely, that unlike in all other societies, where the scapegoat is presumed to be guilty, is presumed to be the source of all the problems in society, Christianity is the only religion who has the courage to proclaim the innocence of the scapegoat, the innocence of the victim. Just like this story. When we found out that Mr. Prince Intambo had all of his Katundu intact, suddenly we realized that Helen Kamutumbe was innocent of the charge against her of witchcraft. And what did that do? That sparked a moment of huge soul searching in all of the people involved, plus in the whole nation, to say, wow, an innocent person has died. How did this happen? The death of Helen Kamutumbe rebounds back to us. And we cannot hide from our sinfulness. Just like the death of Jesus, one of the ways that the cross saves us is when we look at the cross, we cannot say that the one on the cross is guilty. No, he is innocent, which means that we are guilty. We cannot hide from our sins. It is our sins who have put Jesus there. Just like it is the collective sin of all of that crowd, the bystanders who did nothing, plus those who killed her. It is their sin and they cannot escape from it. We need to ask ourselves, what are the frustrations that I am bearing in my own life? We know it happens so often. We have a hard day at work. Our boss blames us for something that we've done. We come back home, we're angry. Who do we take it out on? Our kids, our wife, our husband. Innocent. But the scapegoating mechanism is well and alive. We make a mistake at work, our boss gets angry with us. Who do we take it out on? Our juniors. We get frustrated with them. We blame them for something that they didn't do. We're called by the cross to look at our own sinfulness and take responsibility for it. There is one now vital difference between the story of the cross, the passion, and this story that happened in Kalumbilla. Namely, that Helen Kamutumbe did not know she was going to die. She did not prepare for it. And her family are certainly not forgiving those who killed her. So far, there is no redemption, there is no forgiveness in this story. Those who killed her will probably go to prison. And if they're found guilty of murder in the first degree, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Happily, that is not the case with what we are celebrating today. Yes, there is a bad consequence. The Son of God ends up on the cross, an innocent man dies. But the good news is that that innocent man forgives us. It's almost as if God is saying to us, You as humanity, I know that you are sinful. Throw the worst that you have of yourselves at me. Throw the worst of yourselves at me, all the violence that inhabits you, all your frustration, all your hate, all your jealousy, throw it at me. I will absorb it and then respond with love. And that's how the cross saves us. It has two sides. First of all, it reveals to us our sinfulness, but then it says to us, If you are a sinner and you confess your sin, there is salvation, there is forgiveness. And so, Mr. Prince and Tambo, as he stares at what he has done and wonders, what have I done? And almost is tempted to lose hope, the cross, the story that we celebrate today, comes as a message of hope, telling him that your life is not over. You can convert, you can find some salvation, and that is the invitation offered to all of us to repent from our sin, to leave that life and say, sin is not the last word. The last word is God's mercy, the last word is God's love. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.