There is but an hour remaining of Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013. The day marking the greatest event in the Christian calendar, its greatness flowing from its seminal message and expression of the Faith's core belief: the vanquishing of sin and death through God's super extraordinary compassion and love, reminded me of some of the many aspects of and stories about the human condition. The particular one that attracted my attention during these recent days of Holy Week comes out of the seething cauldron of still uncooled hatreds of that relatively recent event in European history: the Spanish Civil War.
In the early weeks and months of this internecine strife, particularly brutal acts were perpetrated by both the Nationalist and Republican sides. An infamous photograph taken in August 1936 shows "Rojos" or Republican militiamen shooting their rifles at a very large statue of The Sacred Heart Of Jesus located near Madrid on El Cerro de los Angeles (The Hill of the Angels). In short order the statue was not only defaced but then destroyed by dynamite on August 7th because of its obvious religious symbolism. A more vile and blatant rejection of the love of Christ seemed difficult to find until mass executions, tortures, defilements and other atrocities against civilians supporting the Nationalist uprising, as well as religious, began to sweep many parts of Spain in this period. Crimes were perpetrated by the Insurgents also, to be sure. Known as White Terror, these killings were no less horrific and were wounds to the Sacred Heart like all acts of war and manmade destruction of human life.
What is the meaning of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a reader may ask? In Christian traditions, the heart of Jesus Christ has been, since as early as the eleventh century the object of devotion and veneration. The physical representation of Christ's unconditional love for all of humanity, the Sacred Heart has been the focus of the prayers and adoration of countless organizations of religious as well as of laypersons the world over.
At about the same time of the incident on El Cerro de los Angeles (August 1936), the famed Andalusian poet, Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered in Andalusia, his home province. Garcia had achieved fame and his pro-Republican views were clearly known. He was likely killed by …To Be Continued
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