TORA TORA TORA

 

Have you ever heard somebody repeat the same phrase 3 times in a row? If you repeat the same word 3 times in a row, it is very, very important. If you say, “Help me! Help me! Help me!”, we all know that you need help right now. Pilots use the phrase, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” to tell others that they are in trouble.

In our Gospel today, Luke repeats something that happened to Jesus as he was hanging on the Cross. After He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” people mocked Jesus three times. First, the rulers mocked Jesus; then the soldiers mocked Him; and finally, one of the criminals hanging next to Jesus, mocked Him.

What this tells us is that these people delighted in mocking Jesus. You know who else mocked Jesus with great delight? Saul of Tarsus. Saul persecuted Christians and was present when Stephen was stoned to death. He heard the same words Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Here's another phrase that was repeated three times by a pilot 81 years ago. Mitsuo Fuchida was the pilot who led the Japanese attack on the US Navy Base Pearl Harbor. After the surprise success attack was successful, he said “tora tora tora.” It was a code phrase claiming victory over the enemy.

Years later, Fuchida became a Christian, and even though he killed many innocent people on December 7, 1941, he felt deep shame and guilt for what he did, and accepted Christ’s forgiveness, like the prisoner who asked Jesus to remember him in his kingdom, and like Saul of Tarsus, who then became Paul. St. Paul and Mitsuo Fuchida both became Christ’s apostles and spread the Gospel of Jesus, the Good News that on the Cross our sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven. With that we pray.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless all children, and give their fathers and mothers the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.