Last Sunday was the start of Holy Week, easily the most holy week of the Christian calendar.

It is the time when Christians observe the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection is the culminating event, wrapped in hope for humankind and emblazoned with the contours of the possibility of a fulfilled life lived in the presence of God. The week is about the amazing redemptive love of God revealed and demonstrated in the life of Jesus.

You do not have to be a Christian to feel or experience the special significance of this holy season. Even those who pretend or are otherwise vehemently against any notion of a divine being cannot help feeling the solemnity of the season. They may wonder why millions of people continue to subscribe to a notion of a non-existent being that cannot be experienced by the physical senses or who appears to be a mere figment of the human imagination. They may deride any worship of such a being called “God”. But what they cannot disavow is the enduring quality of such devotion down through the ages. Even they themselves are moved to say, “Thank God” when something significant happens for them. They may quickly catch themselves or look around furtively to see if someone heard the cry. Where there is no God there is the tendency to create one, even in one’s own image. This is a very dangerous thing indeed.

So Holy Week, for those who believe, is a time to identify and stand in solidarity with the suffering of our Lord. The Gospels tell us plainly that his encounter with the cross is something that Jesus was quite aware of and on occasion brought to the attention of the disciples. They themselves, especially Peter, failed to understand the import of what he taught them. Even when he died on the cross, they were absent from the event, with the exception of the beloved disciple John.

Each year we try to understand, in context, what this special period means for us and the world at large. It is necessary to see the period in the context of what is happening in the world. Easter dawns this year against the background of wars and rumours of war in the world. For four years it has been Russian President Vladimir Putin’s putative war against Ukraine. This year the entire Middle East is enveloped in a war that many have warned may very well become the Third World War.

Man is one creature who never seems to learn from the mistakes of the past. Instead of learning that no one wins in a war, he has proceeded to build more and more sophisticated weapons of mass destruction intended for one purpose: the annihilation of all life as we know it on this planet. This might not be the direct intention when wars are fought, but it can be the undesired result that comes with the unintended consequences of war.

At the centre of the present war in the Middle East, and, as in all wars, there is the pervasive presence of hubris. This speaks to excessive pride or overconfidence in one’s ability to make decisions or to do things. This overweening and vaunted self-importance often leads the person stricken with hubris to ignore reality and indulge a kind of recklessness no matter the obvious consequences of such irrational behaviour. The leader does this because he or she feels that they are invincible or untouchable. The inevitable consequence of this mindset is the colossal destruction of lives and property in the case of a war and the self-destruction of the hapless victim of hubris. We have seen this repeatedly throughout human history.

Thus, in the present war being fought between America and Israel against Iran, there is no real indication of an end to the conflict as hubris works its way through the minds of the antagonists. It is being fought among three powers to whom humility is a curse word.

Israel has now invaded Lebanon and is clearly seizing territory in callous disregard for the horrific loss of lives, mass displacement of Lebanese citizens, and destruction of property. This is being done because Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fanatics are tethered to the belief that those lands were given to them by God. This mistaken ideology will lead to many more lives being lost.

For US President Donald Trump, America’s involvement in this war is not only to help their ally Israel, but to demonstrate to the world that he alone can accomplish what other presidents have failed to do: beat Iran into submission and prevent it from attaining nuclear bomb capability. He did not believe that he had to consult with the US Congress as presidents before him have done when contemplating war as his instincts and “feelings” told him that this was the correct path. After all, as commander-in-chief of the most powerful army on the planet, Iran would surely have been a walkover. But as he and his aides in the White House and Congress are discovering after over a month of fighting, this is certainly not the case.

Putin is also a victim of hubris in his war against Ukraine. A war that should have been days long has had Russia bogged down in a quagmire for four years and counting.

Iran shows no sign of letting up. The fascist cabal that rules this nation has no real regard for the lives of its citizens. A regime that is infused with a toxic mixture of hubris and vengeance will not easily give up. It will use its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and its drone and missile technology to attack other Arab nations to its greatest limits. The longer it holds out, the greater it incurs the wrath of America. But can America restrain Trump in this hour? That is the question to ask.

So Holy Week calls for solemn reflection on the power of humility, which is at the centre of the central message of the Gospel for this season. The cross casts a long shadow over human hubris. This is part of the theology of Paul’s reflection on redemptive love, summed up in his reflections in Philippians 2:5-11. It presents a new paradigm or model for power based on the humility of the Son of God. It is power exercised through service, which does not seek to dominate others but seeks the best interest and welfare, especially of the marginalised. It is not superiority as we see in political arrogance and even religious pride. It embraces servanthood over sovereignty, and so the sinner is presented with the opportunity to be brought into the nearer presence of God and experiences peace.

There is an intensely personal element to all this which calls on each one of us to examine our lives and find out the extent to which hubris lurks in them. For it is on the level of the personal that hubris does its work in us. Unchecked, it gives us an inflated sense of our own importance and a detachment from reality that makes us believe that we are better than others and best suited to dominate them.

It is arrogance and pride that trip us up daily, prevent us from having wholistic relationships, and even drive us to hurt those who we purport to love. The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus show us a different path. Let us find it, for in finding it we will see that humility wins all the time.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He also hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Raulston Nembhard