Sculpture created by:

       Anthony Antonios

Foundry:

       Ranieri Sculpture Casting

Fotograph by:

       Lou Manna of The Manna

       Group, Inc.

History of The Crucifix

THE STORY OF JESUS THE LISTENER

Devotion to the Passion

In the Spring of 1978, Fr. Claudio Piccinini, C.P, was assigned to the Passionist monastery of Our Lady of Sorrows, West Springfield, MA. 

Fr. Augustine Paul Hennessy, C.P. the rector of the monastery at the time, asked Fr. Claudio to be the director of the Confraternity of the Sacred Passion, an organization of laity associated with the Passionist community.  As director, Fr. Claudio wanted to help the members deepen their devotion and remembrance of the Passion. 

It is within the Confraternity that The Story of Jesus the Listener begins. 

Fr. Claudio decided to obtain a large crucifix and carry it into members’ homes and the homes of their families and friends.  Father asked each individual member and the entire family to pray in front of this crucifix.   They were asked to meditate on the love that God has for each one of us as manifested through the Passion and Death of Jesus His Crucified Son. 

The idea of bringing the crucifix into the homes proved to be a very good one.  In fact, it turned out to be so good that Fr. Claudio felt that the Lord Himself must have inspired it.  Very early on Fr. Claudio saw that the idea was doing much good to the people involved.  As a result he decided to dedicate every free moment to the development of this devotion  to Jesus the Listener.

The Crucifix needed a name that would immediately indicate the content and scope of the devotion that was being started.  While talking to Fr. Jordan Loiselle, C.P., one of the Passionist priests living at the monastery, Fr. Claudio asked him whether he had any ideas on the matter.  Without hesitation, Fr. Jordan answered, “Call Him ‘The Listener’.”  Fr. Claudio responded:  “Yes, we will call Him ‘Jesus the Listener’”. 

Fr. Claudio’s enthusiasm grew recognizing that the title “Jesus the Listener” described his desire perfectly.  He thanked Fr. Jordan, and the crucifix was called “Jesus the Listener.” 

Fr. Claudio’s initial desire was to help the Confraternity members deepen their love and devotion to the Passion of Jesus.  It soon became apparent that a new devotion had been born and that it possessed a rich and profound theological insight filled with spiritual content.  We have always been told that “we” are to listen to God.  But this devotion teaches that Jesus is “The Listener.”  Jesus invites us to share with him our prayers, our requests, our hopes and dreams; and as our God, he always responds. 

The First Host Home

Through the generous donation of a benefactor from Northampton, MA, Fr. Claudio bought an artistic wooden crucifix from Italy for the Jesus the Listener program.  A portable wooden shrine was made to display it.  The first host-home family was chosen from the list of Confraternity members.

A new Mission of Evangelization

The devotion that had been initiated by Fr. Claudio was becoming the shared property of hundreds.  What had started as a simple way to encourage family prayer in the presence of the Crucifix was revealing itself to be a Mission of Evangelization with Jesus the Listener at its center.  The presence of the Jesus the Listener Crucifix in the home became a beautiful and deeply spiritual experience for everyone involved.  The program was successful because it was helping many people, spiritually and emotionally. 

One of the most interesting and beautiful phases of the development of this Evangelization Mission was that a few individuals were inspired to conduct Jesus the Listener home services themselves under the leadership of Fr. Claudio.  With this, a new Group Mission was born confirmed by the participation of the community.

The Mission

The crucifix is brought into the home for week-long periods, or for as long as the host home wishes to have it, using the following format.

1.  Initial Explanation of the Devotion

The presence of the Jesus the Listener Crucifix in the home reminds us of the presence of God in our lives through the Passion and Death of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ.  While there might be other crucifixes in the home, the presence of this Crucifix, so different from the others, reminds us specifically of the place that the Cross holds in our lives.  It is the Cross that most concretely shows the infinite mercy and compassion of a listening God.

The Crucifix is placed in a visible place of honor in the home enabling Jesus the Listener to become the light in the darkness, the sign on the road, the compass at sea.  The Crucifix becomes the concrete and physical point of contact among us and God, between our humanity and his Divinity. 

2.  Lighting of the Pascal Candle

A small Paschal candle is lit beside the Crucifix and remains lit as long as there is someone present.  This Paschal candle reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the World.  He is the Risen Lord.  He is living and active in our lives.

This burning candle also symbolizes the burning desire of our hearts to stay with our Crucified Lord and offer him our prayers and sacrifices in reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world.  It represents our desire to surrender our lives to the will of God and to be consumed and absorbed by his love for us.  It indicates to us that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that we are purified, comforted, forgiven and healed by his burning love, as gold is purified by fire.

3.  Prayer Service

The prayers, readings, meditations, Litany, Chaplet of the Five Wounds etc., in the Jesus the Listener book are used during the private or communal prayer meetings.

During the Prayer Service, besides proclaiming the Good News, whenever possible time is allotted for questions and answers.  The Prayer Service also aims to educate and inform those present on various points of our faith and Christian living.

4.  Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist

Whenever possible during the week, the Eucharist may be celebrated in the host home.  If there is a priest and it is requested, the Sacrament of Penance could also be celebrated.

5.  Conclusion of the Host Home Visit

The visit of the Jesus the Listener Crucifix to the host home concludes with 1) a ceremony for the departure of the Crucifix and 2) the enthronement of an 18-inch Jesus the Listener Crucifix that remains permanently in the home. 

6.  The Pocket Crucifix

As the Devotion of Jesus the Listener grew among the Confraternity members, Fr. Claudio also began distributing a pocket Jesus the Listener Crucifix during his Passionist Parish Missions.  This practice is still continuing and more than a million crucifixes have been distributed.

7.  The New Crucifix

Fr. Claudio realized from the very beginning that the crucifix he had initially purchased was not fully representative of the idea contained in the title of the Devotion.  The crucifix he needed would have to represent Jesus still alive and listening.  By its very appearance, the crucifix would need to express all the aspects of Jesus’ sufferings and the depth of his mercy and love for us.  The Jesus of this crucifix would have to show us, even physically, that he is indeed listening to us and that, even though he is bearing great suffering, he has the will to listen to our suffering as well. 

Fr. Claudio began looking for a way to produce such a crucifix, and after seventeen years, the Jesus the Listener Crucifix was realized.

The Crucifix that was specifically designed for the program is one that expresses the qualities necessary to draw us closer to Jesus the Listener and to inspire us to gratitude for his infinite love and mercy.  This new Crucifix helps us to place ourselves in the presence of God, a suffering God who has totally surrendered himself to death on the Cross so that we may live, now and for ever with him in his Kingdom.

A Theological Reflection

on

Jesus the Listener

“Jesus the Listener” is the title given to a crucifix representing Jesus hanging on the cross, still alive, leaning forward, in a posture of listening.  Jesus is portrayed wit his eyes open looking forward and asking everyone, as it were:  Speak to me, I am listening”

Those of us who are Christians believe, as a matter of Faith, that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, that He died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later.

Most representations of this great event, portrays Jesus as dead on the cross.  There are some, both in paintings and sculptures that represent Jesus still alive on the cross, but these representations do not focus the thoughts of the onlooker in any particular way. 

This new representation of Jesus on the cross alive and looking at us makes a specific statement that for us becomes a theological insight since it speaks of God and the way He acts.

The fundamental statement and meaning of the act of crucifixion is that precisely in this act of self-surrender on the part of Jesus God the Father redeems the universe.  Jesus is at the same time the sacrificial lamb and the High Priest offering himself on the altar of the cross to expiate our sins.  “Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life”  (Jn 3:16).  Jesus dies so that we may live as children of God restored to our original friendship with God that we had lost through original sin. 

With the creation of man and woman God brought to completion his first act of investment.  He had already created spiritual beings and He had created matter in calling into existence the physical universe.  In the creation of man and woman He crowned all that existed and made his act of creation even more daring by empowering human beings to share in the governing of the material world.  “God blessed them, saying:  ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth’” (Gen1:28).

This was something new.  God had not given the same power sharing capacity to the spiritual beings he had created.  The investment God was making in humanity possessing life and a free will to administer it and everything else there was around human creatures was total and full of potentials. 

The crucifixion of Jesus and his death on the cross was the event in the eternal plan of God that brings to completion the second act of investment on the part of God.  As it was with the first, so it is with the second act of God’s investment.  It is total and eternal.

With the death of Jesus God speaks his final word of what He thinks of life and of us.  He stops at nothing.  With and through the Passion and Death of Jesus on the cross, God reconfirms his first commitment to us and shows that his love is not temporary, but eternal.

The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is God’s seal on all that Jesus has done to show us the meaning of the Father’s love for us.  All that Jesus had said and done, including and especially his Passion, Death and Resurrection are salvific acts because they were acts of eternal love carried out to fulfill the eternal plan of the Father.  “Tell me, if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself has not been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too” (1 Cor 15:12-14).

This crucifix that we call “Jesus the Listener”, together with all the other crucifixes that have been made by the artistic talents of men and women, makes theological statements over and above the physical suffering obviously manifested at first sight.  In Jesus the Listener we are led to new and fresh theological insight.  Here we are in the presence of a kind of mystery that is at once impenetrable and yet visible.  God comes to us as The One Who Listens to us.

From the first to the last pages of the Bible we are told that God gives purpose to everything He made.  At the same time He gave us commands to be obeyed:  “The Lord God gave man this order:  ‘You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad.  From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die’” (Gen 2:16-17).

A superficial impression that the relationship God wants to establish with us is a one-way affair, is quickly dispelled as we read the story of the flood at the time of Noah.  We learn there that God is concerned about what is happening to humanity, takes steps to correct the situation and concludes his intervention by revealing that the relationship between Him and humanity is not one sided.  God acts to prove it.  “See, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you:  all the birds and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark.  I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood:  there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth”  (Gen 9:9-11).

From this time on the relationship between God and us becomes even clearer with the establishment of a covenant with Abraham.  “The Lord said to Abram:  ‘Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.  All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you”  (Gen 12:1-3).

Through this revelation we clearly see how God has decided to deal with us.  There is a true dialogue and God is truly listening.  This moment in the history of Revelation becomes thematic for all the rest and it is normative for our understanding of who God is.  He loves, He cares, He listens to all we are saying or even thinking.  “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him”  (Mt 6:8).

Yes, our God is a God who speaks to us and listens also.  Our needs, our dreams, our hopes and failures are of concern to Him.  Our God is a living and ever present God.  There is nothing we think or say that escapes His attention or goes unanswered. 

We need only look at the life of Jesus and His teaching to be totally confirmed in this fact.  Every time anyone approached Jesus and made a request for oneself or for anyone else, Jesus always answered the request if it was accompanied with Faith.  At times He answered those requests that were made in the privacy of one’s heart, such as the woman with the hemorrhage and the penitent woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. 

Throughout His life Jesus demonstrated that He was ever ready to listen and to respond to whatever concern was presented to Him.  In so doing He reveals to us what is most fundamental in His relationship with us.  He loves us with a love that is infinite, as befits His divinity, but He also shows us that His love is founded on true concern represented by His attentive listening.

DISCRITPION OF JESUS THE LISTENER CRUCIFIX

Jesus is hanging nailed to the Cross.  He is still alive and in a posture of listening.  His body is stretched out forward precisely because He wants to listen more attentively and more closely.

His eyes are turned toward the person in front of Him who is talking with Him.  Jesus is straining to listen.

His face expresses all the mercy of a man who loves without counting the cost and of a God who forgives without conditions.

His face expresses the divine compassion, love, and forgiveness of the human condition, together with the great suffering which His body and His soul are experiencing.

Jesus the Listener manifests in his body the atrocious condition of a crucified man, and the cruel reality of sin experienced in His soul.  Spiritually and physically, He feels and lives all the components of the tragedy which is Calvary.  At the same time He inspires the person who stands in front of Him who looks at Him and talks with Him, not only to feel sorrow, repentance, conversion and a sense of remorse, but above all to feel love, confidence and the hope of victory which the Passion of Jesus represents.

Jesus the Listener ought to inspire the person talking with him to want to talk with him, to be close to Him and to tell Him everything felt in ones soul and suffered in ones life.  The Jesus who is listening is ready to forget His personal suffering to sooth those of others.

The details of the crucifixion are those which can be observed in the Shroud of Turin as regards the place of the nails, what foot is over the other, the length of the hair and beard, the composition of the crown of thorns and the height of the body of Jesus, which seems to have been close to six feet.

The most important feature of this Crucifix is the expression of the face of Jesus, full of pain and suffering and at the same time full of mercy and compassion, of forgiveness and hope, of a joy which words cannot easily express.

The Crucifix must live and remain impressed in the mind of the person who has seen it as the One who Listens with patience and mercy.  Jesus on the cross is the presence of the greatest act of God's love toward each one of us.