On this day in history, April 14, 2004, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I accepted an 2001 apology from Pope John Paul II. The Pope’s apology, formally issued on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, apologized for the Christian crusaders who sacked the city of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) in 1204.
The timeline is baffling! There were three years between the offer of forgiveness and the acceptance of forgiveness and nearly 800 years in-between the event and an apology.
Pope John Paul II’s apology, below, reveals the poignancy of the apology for the 1204 event which split the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church:
“Some memories are especially painful, and some events of the distant past have left deep wounds in the minds and hearts of people to this day. I am thinking of the disastrous sack of the imperial city of Constantinople, which was for so long the bastion of Christianity in the East. It is tragic that the assailants, who had set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their own brothers in the faith. The fact that they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret… To God alone belongs judgment, and therefore we entrust the heavy burden of the past to his endless mercy, imploring him to heal the wounds, which still cause suffering to the spirit of the Greek people.” [1]
“Pain . . . deep wounds . . turn[ing] against their own brothers in the faith . . . deep regret . . . heavy burden . . . suffering.” Clearly not even the passage of time, even eight centuries (!) could heal the divide caused by sin.
That is why, on this Holy Week in 2022, the cross and the resurrection are just as vital 2,000 years later. For only the cross and resurrection can heal the pain and divide of sin.
For “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). On the cross, Christ, although sinless and righteous, paid the debt we owed, endured the punishment we deserved, experienced the wrath of God’s righteous anger, and was even forsaken by his Father as we should have been.
Isaiah 53:5 foretold of Christ’s work on the cross: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
That was not the end of the story. Christ rose from the dead on the third day! After the resurrection, Christ appeared to his followers showing them his scars, but demonstrating that the pain, trauma, and suffering of the cross was healed in his resurrected body.
On this Holy Week, 2,000 years after the cross, we can take the pain, wounds, betrayal, regret, burdens and suffering we have caused, or have experienced, and know that in Jesus’ nail scarred hands we can find forgiveness, healing and the promise of resurrection life. Time doesn’t heal wounds. Jesus does.
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