O my people, what have I done to you? How have I hurt you? Answer me. I led you out of Egypt. From slavery I set you free.I brought you into a land of promise; You have prepared a cross for me. I led you as a shepherd;I brought you safely through the sea; Fed you manna in the desert;You have prepared a cross for me. I fought for you in battles,I won you strength and victory;Gave you a royal crown and sceptre; You have prepared a cross for me. I planted you, my vineyard,And cared for you most tenderly;Looked for abundant fruit and found none - Only the cross you made for me. With a beam of cloud I led thee,And to Pilate you lead me,My people, what have I done to thee?I gave you a crown of kingship,And you give me a crown of thorns,You are my people — why do you torment me?Listen to my pleadingAnd do not turn away from me.You are my people: will you reject me? For you I suffer bitterly.The preceding text is a modernized, condensed translation of William Herebert’s rendering (in the 14th century) of the original, “Improperia" (Christ’s “Reproaches”), an early medieval Catholic litany from the 9th century. ______________________Erasing the perpetrators of the Crucifixion from historyBy Michael Hoffman
“At a Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis emphasized that ‘too many act like Pontius Pilate, denying justice' and he urged the faithful to see the cross as ‘the royal seat of God.' He added, 'If the mystery of evil is unfathomable, then the reality of Love poured through him is infinite.”
In fact, Pontius Pilate tried to acquit Jesus (Matthew 27:19-24). The Talmud agrees, stating that Jesus “had close connections with non-Jewish authorities and those authorities were interested in his acquittal.” (BT Sanhedrin 43a). So how is it that the media, popes of Rome, Protestants, conservative pundits (Bill O’Reilly, Judge Andrew Napolitano and many others), lay most of the blame on Pilate, and render him and the Romans generally as the evil perpetrators of the Crucifixion, while the actual perpetrators (I Thessalonians 2:14-15) are erased from history? When will they—and Pope Francis—have sufficient manhood to declare on Palm Sunday and Good Friday: Too many act like the Jewish Pharisees, denying justice to the Palestinians, and through their influence over the modern media, slandering Zionism’s political and religious rivals in the West. (Hoffman, one of the most controversial and banned writers of the 21st century, is the author of Judaism’s Strange Gods and Judaism Discovered)._____________________