At the Procession with Palms
Catechism Links
CCC 557-560: Christ’s entry into Jerusalem
CCC 602-618: The Passion of Christ
CCC 2816: Christ’s kingship gained through his death and Resurrection
CCC 654, 1067-1068, 1085, 1362: The Paschal Mystery and the liturgy
CCC:
Is 50:4-10 713; Is 50:4 141
Ps 22 304
Phil 2:6-11 2641, 2667; Phil 2:6 449; Phil 2:7 472, 602, 705, 713, 876, 1224; Phil 2:8-9 908; Phil 2:8 411, 612, 623; Phil 2:9-11 449, 2812; Phil 2:9-10 434; Phil 2:10-11 201; Phil 2:10 633, 635
Mk 14:12-25 1339; Mk 14:18-20 474; Mk 14:22 1328; Mk 14:25 1335, 1403; Mk 14:26-30 474; Mk 14:33-34 1009; Mk 14:36 473, 2701; Mk 14:38 2849; Mk 14:57-58 585; Mk 14:61 443; Mk 15:11 597; Mk 15:34 603, 2605; Mk 15:37 2605; Mk 15:39 444
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Gospel 1
Mk 11:1-10
When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately on entering it,
you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
If anyone should say to you,
'Why are you doing this?' reply,
'The Master has need of it
and will send it back here at once.'"
So they went off
and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders said to them,
"What are you doing, untying the colt?"
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,
and they permitted them to do it.
So they brought the colt to Jesus
and put their cloaks over it.
And he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road,
and others spread leafy branches
that they had cut from the fields.
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:
"Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!"
or Jn 12:12-16
When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out:
"Hosanna!
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
the king of Israel."
Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written:
Fear no more, O daughter Zion;
see, your king comes, seated upon an ass's colt.
His disciples did not understand this at first,
but when Jesus had been glorified
they remembered that these things were written about him
and that they had done this for him.
38ABC At the Mass
Reading 1
Is 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
R. (2a) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Reading II
Phil 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel
Mk 14:1—15:47 or 15:1-39
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
were to take place in two days' time.
So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way
to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
They said, "Not during the festival,
for fear that there may be a riot among the people."
When he was in Bethany reclining at table
in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,
costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
There were some who were indignant.
"Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages
and the money given to the poor."
They were infuriated with her.
Jesus said, "Let her alone.
Why do you make trouble for her?
She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you,
and whenever you wish you can do good to them,
but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could.
She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
Amen, I say to you,
wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,
what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,
went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money.
Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,
one who is eating with me."
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,
"Surely it is not I?"
He said to them,
"One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him,
"Even though all should have their faith shaken,
mine will not be."
Then Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows twice
you will deny me three times."
But he vehemently replied,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I pray."
He took with him Peter, James, and John,
and began to be troubled and distressed.
Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch."
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me,
but not what I will but what you will."
When he returned he found them asleep.
He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?
Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open
and did not know what to answer him.
He returned a third time and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
It is enough. The hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
See, my betrayer is at hand."
Then, while he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs
who had come from the chief priests,
the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one;
arrest him and lead him away securely."
He came and immediately went over to him and said,
"Rabbi." And he kissed him.
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
One of the bystanders drew his sword,
struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear.
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs, to seize me?
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me;
but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled."
And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him
wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest,
and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest's courtyard
and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death, but they found none.
Many gave false witness against him,
but their testimony did not agree.
Some took the stand and testified falsely against him,
alleging, "We heard him say,
'I will destroy this temple made with hands
and within three days I will build another
not made with hands.'"
Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus,
saying, "Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But he was silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him and said to him,
"Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?"
Then Jesus answered, "I am;
and 'you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"
At that the high priest tore his garments and said,
"hat further need have we of witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?"
They all condemned him as deserving to die.
Some began to spit on him.
They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, "Prophesy!"
And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard,
one of the high priest's maids came along.
Seeing Peter warming himself,
she looked intently at him and said,
"You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus."
But he denied it saying,
"I neither know nor understand what you are talking about."
So he went out into the outer court.
Then the cock crowed.
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders,
"This man is one of them."
Once again he denied it.
A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more,
"Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean."
He began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know this man about whom you are talking."
And immediately a cock crowed a second time.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him,
"Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, AHail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
— which is translated Place of the Skull —
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
There were also women looking on from a distance.
Among them were Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee
and ministered to him.
There were also many other women
who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening,
since it was the day of preparation,
the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea,
a distinguished member of the council,
who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God,
came and courageously went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead.
He summoned the centurion
and asked him if Jesus had already died.
And when he learned of it from the centurion,
he gave the body to Joseph.
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down,
wrapped him in the linen cloth,
and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock.
Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses
watched where he was laid.
Or
Mk 15:1-39
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
—which is translated Place of the Skull—
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Isaiah 50:4-7
The Lord has given me
a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied
he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear,
to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help,
so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint;
I know I shall not be shamed.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 21(22):8-9,17-20,23-24
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
All who see me deride me.
They curl their lips, they toss their heads.
‘He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;
let him release him if this is his friend.’
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Many dogs have surrounded me,
a band of the wicked beset me.
They tear holes in my hands and my feet
I can count every one of my bones.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
They divide my clothing among them.
They cast lots for my robe.
O Lord, do not leave me alone,
my strength, make haste to help me!
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I will tell of your name to my brethren
and praise you where they are assembled.
‘You who fear the Lord give him praise;
all sons of Jacob, give him glory.
Revere him, Israel’s sons.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Second reading Philippians 2:6-11
Jesus Christ’s state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Mark 14:1-15:47
It was two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death. For they said, ‘It must not be during the festivities, or there will be a disturbance among the people.’
Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper; he was at dinner when a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on his head. Some who were there said to one another indignantly, ‘Why this waste of ointment? Ointment like this could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor’; and they were angry with her. But Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. Why are you upsetting her? What she has done for me is one of the good works. You have the poor with you always, and you can be kind to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. She has done what was in her power to do: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. I tell you solemnly, wherever throughout all the world the Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told also, in remembrance of her.’
Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, approached the chief priests with an offer to hand Jesus over to them. They were delighted to hear it, and promised to give him money; and he looked for a way of betraying him when the opportunity should occur.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, “The Master says: Where is my dining room in which I can eat the passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there,’ The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.
When evening came he arrived with the Twelve. And while they were at table eating, Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me, one of you eating with me.’ They were distressed and asked him, one after another, ‘Not I, surely?’ He said to them, ‘It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping into the same dish with me. Yes, the Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’
And as they were eating he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. ‘Take it,’ he said ‘this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’
After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all lose faith, for the scripture says: I shall strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, however after my resurrection I shall go before you to Galilee.’ Peter said, ‘Even if all lose faith, I will not.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will have disowned me three times.’ But he repeated still more earnestly, ‘If I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And they all said the same.
They came to a small estate called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Stay here while I pray.’ Then he took Peter and James and John with him. And a sudden fear came over him, and great distress. And he said to them, ‘My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here, and keep awake.’ And going on a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by. ‘Abba (Father)!’ he said ‘Everything is possible for you. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.’ He came back and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Had you not the strength to keep awake one hour? You should be awake, and praying not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And once more he came back and found them sleeping, their eyes were so heavy; and they could find no answer for him. He came back a third time and said to them, ‘You can sleep on now and take your rest. It is all over. The hour has come. Now the Son of Man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up! Let us go! My betrayer is close at hand already.’
Even while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came up with a number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the traitor had arranged a signal with them. ‘The one I kiss,’ he had said ‘he is the man. Take him in charge, and see he is well guarded when you lead him away.’ So when the traitor came, he went straight up to Jesus and said, ‘Rabbi!’ and kissed him. The others seized him and took him in charge. Then one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck out at the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.
Then Jesus spoke. ‘Am I a brigand’ he said ‘that you had to set out to capture me with swords and clubs? I was among you teaching in the Temple day after day and you never laid hands on me. But this is to fulfil the scriptures.’ And they all deserted him and ran away. A young man who followed him had nothing on but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the cloth in their hands and ran away naked.
They led Jesus off to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes assembled there. Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the high priest’s palace, and was sitting with the attendants warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus on which they might pass the death sentence. But they could not find any. Several, indeed, brought false evidence against him, but their evidence was conflicting. Some stood up and submitted this false evidence against him, ‘We heard him say, “I am going to destroy this Temple made by human hands, and in three days build another, not made by human hands.”’ But even on this point their evidence was conflicting. The high priest then stood up before the whole assembly and put this question to Jesus, ‘Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?’ But he was silent and made no answer at all. The high priest put a second question to him, ‘Are you the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus ‘and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest tore his robes, ‘What need of witnesses have we now?’ he said. ‘You heard the blasphemy. What is your finding?’ And they all gave their verdict: he deserved to die.
Some of them started spitting at him and, blindfolding him, began hitting him with their fists and shouting, ‘Play the prophet!’ And the attendants rained blows on him.
While Peter was down below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s servant-girls came up. She saw Peter warming himself there, stared at him and said, ‘You too were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’ But he denied it. ‘I do not know, I do not understand, what you are talking about’ he said. And he went out into the forecourt. The servant-girl saw him and again started telling the bystanders, ‘This fellow is one of them.’ But again he denied it. A little later the bystanders themselves said to Peter, ‘You are one of them for sure! Why, you are a Galilean.’ But he started calling down curses on himself and swearing, ‘I do not know the man you speak of.’ At that moment the cock crew for the second time, and Peter recalled how Jesus had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will have disowned me three times.’ And he burst into tears.
First thing in the morning, the chief priests together with the elders and scribes, in short the whole Sanhedrin, had their plan ready. They had Jesus bound and took him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘It is you who say it’ he answered. And the chief priests brought many accusations against him. Pilate questioned him again, ‘Have you no reply at all? See how many accusations they are bringing against you!’ But, to Pilate’s amazement, Jesus made no further reply.
At festival time Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, anyone they asked for. Now a man called Barabbas was then in prison with the rioters who had committed murder during the uprising. When the crowd went up and began to ask Pilate the customary favour, Pilate answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?’ For he realized it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over. The chief priests, however, had incited the crowd to demand that he should release Barabbas for them instead. Then Pilate spoke again. ‘But in that case,’ he said to them ‘what am I to do with the man you call king of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why?’ Pilate asked them ‘What harm has he done?’ But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, having ordered Jesus to be scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away to the inner part of the palace, that is, the Praetorium, and called the whole cohort together. They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on him. And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed and spat on him; and they went down on their knees to do him homage. And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple and dressed him in his own clothes.
They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.
They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it. Then they crucified him, and shared out his clothing, casting lots to decide what each should get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The inscription giving the charge against him read: ‘The King of the Jews.’ And they crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.
The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, ‘Aha! So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself: come down from the cross!’ The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.
When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling on Elijah.’ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink saying; ‘Wait and see if Elijah will come to take him down.’ But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, ‘In truth this man was a son of God.’
There were some women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary who was the mother of James the younger and Joset, and Salome. These used to follow him and look after him when he was in Galilee. And there were many other women there who had come up to Jerusalem with him.
It was now evening, and since it was Preparation Day (that is, the vigil of the sabbath), there came Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent member of the Council, who himself lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God, and he boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate, astonished that he should have died so soon, summoned the centurion and enquired if he was already dead. Having been assured of this by the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph who bought a shroud, took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the shroud and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joset were watching and took note of where he was laid.
Alternative gospel Mark 15:1-39
First thing in the morning, the chief priests together with the elders and scribes, in short the whole Sanhedrin, had their plan ready. They had Jesus bound and took him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘It is you who say it’ he answered. And the chief priests brought many accusations against him. Pilate questioned him again, ‘Have you no reply at all? See how many accusations they are bringing against you!’ But, to Pilate’s amazement, Jesus made no further reply.
At festival time Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, anyone they asked for. Now a man called Barabbas was then in prison with the rioters who had committed murder during the uprising. When the crowd went up and began to ask Pilate the customary favour, Pilate answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?’ For he realised it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over. The chief priests, however, had incited the crowd to demand that he should release Barabbas for them instead. Then Pilate spoke again. ‘But in that case,’ he said to them ‘what am I to do with the man you call king of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why?’ Pilate asked them ‘What harm has he done?’ But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, having ordered Jesus to be scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away to the inner part of the palace, that is, the Praetorium, and called the whole cohort together. They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on him. And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed and spat on him; and they went down on their knees to do him homage. And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple and dressed him in his own clothes.
They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.
They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it. Then they crucified him, and shared out his clothing, casting lots to decide what each should get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The inscription giving the charge against him read: ‘The King of the Jews.’ And they crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.
The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, ‘Aha! So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself: come down from the cross!’ The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.
When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling on Elijah.’ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink saying; ‘Wait and see if Elijah will come to take him down.’ But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, ‘In truth this man was a son of God.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
From: Mark 11:1-10 (At the Procession with Palms)
The Messiah Enters Jerusalem
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[1] And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, [2] and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. [3] If any one says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately." [4] And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. [5] And those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" [6] And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go. [7] And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and be sat upon it. [8] And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. [9] And those who went before and those who followed cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is be who comes.in the name of the Lord! [10] Blessed is the kingdom of Our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!"
[11] And he entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
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Commentary:
1-11. Jesus had visited Jerusalem various times before, but he never did so in this way. Previously he had not wanted to be recognized as the Messiah; he avoided the enthusiasm of the crowd; but now he accepts their acclaim and even implies that it is justified, by entering the city in the style of a pacific king. Jesus’s public ministry is about to come to a close: he has completed his mission; he has preached and worked miracles; he has revealed himself as God wished he should; now in this triumphant entry into Jerusalem he shows that he is the Messiah. The people, by shouting "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!", are proclaiming Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. When the leaders of the people move against him some days later, they reject this recognition the people have given him. Cf. notes on Mt 21:1-5 and 21:9.
3. Although, absolutely speaking, our Lord has no need of man, in fact he does choose to use us to carry out his plans just as he made use of the donkey for his entry into Jerusalem. "Jesus makes do with a poor animal for a throne. I don’t know about you; but I am not humiliated to acknowledge that in the Lord’s eyes I am a beast of burden: ‘I am like a donkey in your presence; nevertheless I am continually with you. You hold my right hand,’ (Ps 72:23), you take me by the bridle.
"Try to remember what a donkey is like--now that so few of them are left. Not an old, stubborn, vicious one that would give you a kick when you least expected, but a young one with his ears up like antennae. He lives on a meager diet, is hard-working and has a quick, cheerful trot. There are hundreds of animals more beautiful, more deft and strong. But it was a donkey Christ chose when he presented himself to the people as king in response to their acclamation. For Jesus has no time for calculations, for astuteness, for the cruelty of cold hearts, for attractive but empty beauty. What he likes is the cheerfulness of a young heart, a simple step, a natural voice, clean .eyes, attention to his affectionate word of advice. That is how he reigns in the soul" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 181).
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From: John 12:12-16 (At the Procession with Palms)
The Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem
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[12] The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. [13] So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! [14] And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it; as it is written,
[15] "Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on an ass’s colt!”
[16] His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him.
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Commentary:
13. When the crowd uses the words "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, taken from Psalm 118:26, they are acclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. The words 'the king of Israel”, not included in the Synoptics, underline Christ’s royalty: the Messiah is the King of Israel "par excellence". However, Jesus had previously fled from those who wanted to make him king because they had an earth-bound view of his mission (Jn 6:14-15). Later on, before Pilate, he will explain that his kingship "is not of this world”. "Christ”, St Augustine teaches, "was not king of Israel for exacting tribute, or arming a host with the sword; but king of Israel to rule souls, to counsel them for eternal life, to bring to the Kingdom of heaven those that believe, hope and love” ("In Ioann. Evang.", 51,4).
"Christ should reign first and foremost in our soul. But how would we reply if he asks us: 'How do you go about letting me reign in you?’ I would reply that I need lots of his grace. Only that way can my every heartbeat and breath, my least intense look, my most ordinary word, my most basic feeling be transformed into a hosanna to Christ my King” (Bl. J. Escrivá, "Christ Is Passing By, 181).
14-16. After Jesus’ resurrection, the Apostles will grasp the meaning of many episodes in our Lord’s life which they had not previously understood fully (cf. Jn 2:22). For example, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem with all the people acclaiming him as Messiah, they will see the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies (cf., e.g., in addition to Zech 9:9, which the Gospel quotes, Gen 49:10-11). See the notes on Mt 21:1-5; Mk 11:1-11; and Lk 19:30-35.
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From: Isaiah 50:4-7
Third Song of the Servant of the Lord
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[4] The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught; that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. [5] The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. [6]I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
[7] For the LORD GOD helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
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Commentary:
50:4-9. The second song dealt with the servant’s mission (cf. 49:6); the third song focuses on the servant himself. The term "servant" as such does not appear here, and therefore some commentators read the passage as being a description of a prophet and not part of the songs. Still, the context (cf. 50:10) does suggest that the protagonist is the servant. The poem is neatly constructed in three stanzas, each beginning with the words, "The Lord God" (vv. 4, 5, 7), and it has a conclusion containing that same wording (v. 9). The first stanza emphasizes the servant’s docility to the word of God; that is, he is not depicted as a self-taught teacher with original ideas, but as an obedient disciple. The second (vv. 5-6) speaks of the suffering that that docility has brought him, without his uttering a word of complaint. The third (vv. 7-8) shows how determined the servant is: if he suffers in silence, it is not out of cowardice but because God helps him and makes him stronger than his persecutors. The conclusion (v. 9) is like the verdict of a trial: when all is said and done, the servant will stand tall, and all his enemies will be struck down.
The evangelists saw the words of this song as finding fulfillment in Jesus--especially what the song has to say about the suffering and silent fortitude of the servant. The Gospel of John, for example, quotes Nicodemus’ acknowledgment of Christ’s wisdom: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him" (Jn 3:21). But the description of the servant’s sufferings was the part that most impressed the early Christians; that part of the song was recalled when they meditated on the passion of Jesus and how "they spat in his face; and struck him; and some slapped him" (Mt 26:67) and later how the Roman soldiers "spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head" (Mt 27:30; cf. also Mk 15:19; Jn 19:3). St Paul refers to v. 9 when applying to Christ Jesus the role of intercessor on behalf of the elect in the suit pressed constantly against them by the enemies of the soul: "Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?" (Rom 8:33).
St Jerome sees the servant’s docility as a reference to Christ: "His self-discipline and wisdom enabled him to communicate to us the knowledge of the Father. And he was obedient onto death, death on the cross; he offered his body to the blows they struck, his shoulders to the lash; and though he was wounded on the chest and on his face, he did not try to turn away and escape their violence" ("Commentarii In Isaiam", 50, 4). This passage is used in the liturgy of Palm Sunday (along with Psalm 22 and St Paul’s hymn in the Letter to the Philippians 2:6-11), before the reading of our Lord’s passion.
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From: Philippians 2:6-11
Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-Emptying
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([5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,) [6] who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to \the glory of God the Father.
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Commentary:
5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when He was offering Himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we may say with the same Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ' (Galatians 2:19)" ([Pope] Pius XII, "Mediator Dei", 22).
6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he is -- under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit -- giving a very profound exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practiced.
This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming, even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God and man.
The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the beginning of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man. The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses 9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine nature and which His human nature has merited.
The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation.
Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience. "We should learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," St. Escriva reminds us. "During His life on earth He did not even want the glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or human ambitions.
"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men" ("Christ Is Passing By", 62).
6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of God": "form" is the external aspect of something and manifests what it is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer to things visible to the senses; the "form of God" is a way of referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" professes it, "the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true God."
"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the Greek word translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to and boasted about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could have become man without setting His glory aside--He could have appeared as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff); instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7). By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).
"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is, to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of rights that belonged to Him as God--which was what He did.
Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis 3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory from all eternity, "emptied Himself": He chooses the way of humility, the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too, to the way previously taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up for the disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing mystery of Christ's humiliation or self-emptying ("kenosis" in Greek), this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christ's exaltation after death.
Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility. "What is more humble", St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experiences even death itself" ("Oratio I In Beatitudinibus").
This self-emptying is an example of God's infinite goodness in taking the initiative to meet man: "Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude at such a mystery and learn from it. All the power, all the majesty, all the beauty, all the infinite harmony of God, all His great and immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was hidden for our benefit in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined to eclipse His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to approach their Redeemer." (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 111).
8. Jesus Christ became man "for us men and for our salvation", we profess in the Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had a salvific value; His death on the cross represents the climax of His redemptive work for, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, "He did not experience death due to the fact of being born; rather, He took birth upon Himself in order to die" ("Oratio Catechetica Magna", 32).
Our Lord's obedience to the Father's saving plan, involving as it did death on the cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "obedience is the sign of true humility" ("Commentary on Phil., ad loc."). In St. Paul's time death by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for it was inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient "unto death, even death on a cross", Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was perfectly within His rights to manifest Himself in all His divine glory, but He chose instead the route leading to the most ignominious of deaths.
His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the Father's will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient: His obedience was active; He made the Father's salvific plans His own. He chose voluntarily to give Himself up to crucifixion in order to redeem mankind. "Debasing oneself when one is forced to do so is not humility", St. John Chrysostom explains; "humility is present when one debases oneself without being obliged to do so" ("Hom. On Phil., ad loc.").
Christ's self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love for us, for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). His loving initiative merits a loving response on our part: we should show that we desire to be one with Him, for love "seeks union, identification with the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate His life of dedication, His unlimited love and His sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service of others" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 236).
9-11. "God highly exalted Him": the Greek compounds the notion of exaltation, to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord Himself foretold this when He said, "He who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
Christ's sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His humiliation. The Church's Magisterium teaches that Christ's glorification affects his human nature only, for "in the form of God the Son was equal to the Father, and between the Begetter and the Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference in majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose anything which the Father might later return to Him as a gift" ([Pope] St. Leo the Great, "Promisisse Me Memini", Chapter 8). Exaltation is public manifestation of the glory which belongs to Christ's humanity by virtue of its being joined to the divine person of the Word. This union to the "form of a servant" (cf. verse 7) meant an immense act of humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the human nature He took on.
For the Jews the "name that is above every name" is the name of God (Yahweh), which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe. Also, they regarded a name given to someone, especially if given by God, as not just a way of referring to a person but as expressing something that belonged to the very core of his personality. Therefore, the statement that God "bestowed on Him the name which is above every name" means that God the Father gave Christ's human nature the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue of the hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the entire universe.
St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar to those used by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: "To Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve His Kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14). Christ's lordship extends to all created things. Sacred Scripture usually speaks of "heaven and earth" when referring to the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here be seen as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the universal sovereignty of Yahweh: "To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isaiah 45:23). All created things come under His sway, and men are duty-bound to accept the basic truth of Christian teaching: "Jesus Christ is Lord." The Greek word "Kyrios" used here by St. Paul is the word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old Testament, to translate the name of God ("Yahweh"). Therefore, this sentence means "Jesus Christ is God."
The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God who was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His exaltation after undergoing the humiliation of the cross. In this also Christ sets us an example: we cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless we understand the supernatural value of difficulties, ill-health and suffering: these are manifestations of Christ's cross present in our ordinary life. "We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross (Philippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. If we obey God's will, the cross will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christ's life will be fulfilled step by step in our own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no matter how many" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 21).
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From: Mark 14:1-15:47
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
The conspiracy against Jesus
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[1] It was now two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth, and kill him; [2] for they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people."
The anointing of Bethany and the treachery of Judas
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[3] And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. [4] But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment thus wasted? [5] For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." And they reproached her. [6] But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. [7] For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. [8] She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. [9] And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."
[10] Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. [11] And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Preparations for the Last Supper. Judas' treachery foretold
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[12] And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the passover?" [13] And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, [14] and wherever he enters, say to the householder, 'The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I am to eat the passover with my disciples?' [15] And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us." [16] And the disciples set out and went to the city, and found it as he had told them; and they prepared the passover.
[17] And when it was evening he came with the twelve. [18] And as they were at table eating, Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." [19] They began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one after another, "Is it I?" [20] He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. [21] For the Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."
The institution of the Eucharist
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[22] And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." [23] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. [24] And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. [25] Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
The disciples will desert Jesus
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[26] And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. [27] And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' [28] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." [29] Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not." [30] And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." [31] But he said vehemently, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you." And they all said the same.
Jesus' prayer and agony in the garden
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[32] And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I pray." [33] And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. [34] And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch." [35] And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. [36] And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt." [37] And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? [38] Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." [39] And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. [40] And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer him. [41] And he came the third time, and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come; the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. [42] Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."
The arrest of Jesus
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[43] And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. [44] Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away under guard." [45] And when he came, he went up to him at once, and said, "Master!" And he kissed him. [46] And they laid hands on him and seized him. [47] But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. [48] And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? [49] Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled." [50] And they all forsook him, and fled.
[51] And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, [52] but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Jesus before the chief priests
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[53] And they led Jesus to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were assembled. [54] And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the guards, and warming himself at the fire. [55] Now the chief priests and the whole council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none. [56] For many bore false witness against him, and their witness did not agree. [57] And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, [58] "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.'" [59] Yet not even so did their testimony agree. [60] And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" [61] But he was silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" [62] And Jesus said, "I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." [63] And the high priest tore his garments, and said, "Why do we still need witnesses? [64] You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?" And they all condemned him as deserving death. [65] And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to strike him, saying to him, "Prophesy!" And the guards received him with blows.
Peter's denial
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[66] And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the maids of the high priest came; [67] and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him, and said, "You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus." [68] But he denied it, saying, "I neither know nor understand what you mean." And he went out into the gateway. [69] And the maid saw him, and began again to say to the bystanders, "This man is one of them." [70] But again he denied it. And after a little while again the by-standers said to Peter, "Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean." [71] But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know this man of whom you speak." [72] And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." And he broke down and wept.
Jesus before Pilate
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15[1] And as soon as it was morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council held a consultation; and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him to Pilate. [2] And Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And he answered him, "You have said so." [3] And the chief priests accused him of many things. [4] And Pilate again asked him, "Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you." [5] But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate wondered. [6] Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. [7] And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. [8] And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he was wont to do for them. [9] And he answered them, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" [10] For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. [11] But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. [12] And Pilate again said to them, "Then what shall I do with the man whom you call the King of the Jews?" [13] And they cried out again, "Crucify him." [14] And Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him." [15] So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas; and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The crowning with thorns
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[16] And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the praetorium); and they called together the whole battalion. [17] And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on him. [18] And they began to salute him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" [19] And they struck his head with a reed, and spat upon him, and they knelt down in homage to him. [20] And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
The crucifixion and death of Jesus
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[21] And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. [22] And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). [23] And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh; but he did not take it. [24] And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. [25] And it was the third hour, when they crucified him. [26] And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." [27] And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. [29] And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Aha! n You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, [30] save yourself, and come down from the cross!" [31] So also the chief priests mocked him to one another with the scribes, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. [32] Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
[33] And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" [35] And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." [36] And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." [37] And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. [38] And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. [39] And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"
[40] There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, [41] who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered to him; and also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
The burial of Jesus
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[42] And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, [43] Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. [44] And Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. [45] And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. [46] And he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. [47] Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
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Commentary:
1. The Passover was the main national and religious festival. It lasted one week, during which the eating of leavened bread was forbidden, which is why the period was known as the Azymes, the feast of the Unleavened Bread. The celebration opened with the passover meal on the night of the 14th to 15th of the month of Nisan. The essential rite of the meal consisted in eating the paschal lamb sacrificed in the temple the afternoon before. During the meal the youngest member of the family asked what was the meaning of the ceremony; and the head of the household explained to those present that it commemorated God's liberation of the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt, and specifically the passing of the angel of Yahweh, doing no harm to the first-born of the Hebrews but destroying the first-born of the Egyptians (cf. Ex 12).
2. The chief priests and the scribes sought every means to ensure the condemnation and death of the Lord prior to the Passover, for during the festival Jerusalem would be thronged with pilgrims and they feared that Jesus' popularity might cause the complications referred to in the Gospel text. Cf. the note on Mt 26:3-5.
3-9. It was a custom at the time to honor distinguished guests by offering them scented water. This woman treated the Lord with exquisite refinement by pouring a flask of nard over his head: and we can see that he was very appreciative. Three hundred denarii was approximately what a worker would earn in a year: so her action was very generous. Breaking the flask to allow the last drop to flow, so that no one else could use it, implies that Jesus merited everything.
It is important to notice the significance our Lord gave to this gesture: it was an anticipation of the pious custom of embalming bodies prior to burial. This woman would never have thought that her action would become famous throughout the world, but Jesus knew the transcendence and universal dimension of even the smallest episodes in the Gospel story. His prophecy has been fulfilled: "Certainly we hear her story told in all the churches. . . . Wherever in the world you may go, everyone respectfully listens to the story of her good service. . . . And yet hers was not an extraordinary deed, nor was she a distinguished person, nor was there a large audience, nor was the place one where she could easily be seen. She made no entrance onto a theatre stage to perform her service but did her good deed in a private house. Nevertheless . . . , today she is more illustrious than any king or queen; no passage of years has buried in oblivion this service she performed" (St John Chrysostom, "Adversus Iudaeos", 5, 2).
This episode teaches us the refinement with which we should treat the holy humanity of Jesus; it also shows that generosity in things to do with sacred worship is always praiseworthy, for it is a sign of our love for the Lord. Cf. the note on Mt 26:8-11.
10-11. In contrast with the generous anointing by the woman, the Gospel now reports Judas' sad treachery. Her magnanimity highlights the covetousness of Jesus' false friend. "O folly, or rather ambition, of the traitor, for ambition spawns every kind of evil and enslaves souls by every sort of device; it causes forgetfulness and mental derangement. Judas, enslaved by his mad ambition, forgot all about the years he had spent alongside Jesus, forgot that he had eaten at his table, that he had been his disciple; forgot all the counsel and persuasion Jesus had offered him" (St John Chrysostom, "Hom. de prodit. Judae).
Judas' sin is always something Christians should he mindful of: "Today many people are horrified by Judas' crime -- that he could he so cruel and so sacrilegious as to sell his Master and his God; and yet they fail to realize that when they for human reasons dismiss the rights of charity and truth, they are betraying God, who is charity and truth" (St Bede, "Super qui audientes" ... ).
12-16. At first sight our Lord's behaviour described here seems quite out of character. However, if we think about it, it is quite consistent: probably Jesus wanted to avoid Judas knowing in advance the exact place where the Supper will be held, to prevent him notifying the Sanhedrin. And so God's plans for that memorable night of Holy Thursday were fulfilled: Judas was unable to advise the Sanhedrin where they could find Jesus until after the celebration of the passover meal (during which Judas left the Cenacle): cf. Jn 13:30.
St Mark describes in more detail than the other evangelists the place where the meal took place: he says it was a large, well-appointed room -- a dignified place. There is an ancient Christian tradition that the house of the Cenacle was owned by Mary the mother of St Mark, to whom, it seems, the Garden of Olives also belonged.
17-21. Jesus shows that he knows in advance what is going to happen and is acting freely and deliberately, identifying himself with the will of his Father. The words of vv. 18 and 19 are a further call to Judas to repent; our Lord refrained from denouncing him publicly, so making it easier for him to change his mind. But he did not want to remain silent about the incipient treachery; they should realize that the Master knew everything (cf. Jn 13:23ff).
22. The word "this" does not refer to the act of breaking the bread but to the "thing" which Jesus gives his disciples, that is, something which looked like bread and which was no longer bread but the body of Christ. "This is my body. That is to say, what I am giving you now and what you are taking is my body. For the bread is not only a symbol of the body of Christ; it becomes his very body, as the Lord has said: the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. Therefore, the Lord conserves the appearances of bread and wine but changes the bread and wine into the reality of his flesh and his blood" (Theophylact, "Enarratio in Evangelium Marci", in loc.). Therefore, any interpretation in the direction of symbolism or metaphor does not fit the meaning of the text. The same applies to the "This is my blood" (v. 24). On the realism of these expressions, see the first part of the note on Mt 26:26-29.
24. The words of consecration of the chalice clearly show that the Eucharist is a sacrifice: the blood of Christ is poured out, sealing the new and definitive Covenant of God with men. This Covenant remains sealed forever by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, in which Jesus is both Priest and Victim. The Church has defined this truth in these words: "If anyone says that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God, or that to be offered is nothing else but that Christ is given us to eat, let him be anathema" (Council of Trent, "De S. Missae sacrificio", chap. 1, can. 1).
These words pronounced over the chalice must have been very revealing for the apostles, because they show that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were in fact a preparation for and anticipation of Christ's sacrifice. The apostles were able to grasp that the Covenant of Sinai and the various sacrifices of the temple were merely an imperfect pre-figurement of the definitive sacrifice and definitive Covenant, which would take place on the cross and which they were anticipating in this Supper.
A clear explanation of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist can be found in the inspired text in chapters 8 and 9 of the Letter to the Hebrews. Similarly, the best preparation for understanding the real presence and the Eucharist as food for the soul is a reading of chapter 6 of the Gospel of St John.
At the Last Supper, then, Christ already offered himself voluntarily to his Father as a victim to be sacrificed. The Supper and the Mass constitute with the cross one and the same unique and perfect sacrifice, for in all these cases the victim offered is the same -- Christ; and the priest is the same -- Christ. The only difference is that the Supper, which takes place prior to the cross, anticipates the Lord's death in an unbloody way and offers a victim soon to be immolated; whereas the Mass offers, also in an unbloody manner, the victim already immolated on the cross, a victim who exists forever in heaven.
25. After instituting the Holy Eucharist, our Lord extends the Last Supper in intimate conversation with his disciples, speaking to them once more about his imminent death (cf. Jn, chaps. 13-17). His farewell saddens the apostles, but he promises that the day will come when he will meet with them again, when the Kingdom of God will have come in all its fullness: he is referring to the beatific life in heaven, so often compared to a banquet. Then there will be no need of earthly food or drink; instead there will be a new wine (cf. Is 25:6). Definitively, after the resurrection, the apostles and all the saints will be able to share the delight of being with Jesus.
The fact that St Mark brings in these words after the institution of the Eucharist indicates in some way that the Eucharist is an anticipation here on earth of possession of God in eternal blessedness, where God will be everything to everyone (cf. 1 Cor 15:28). "At the Last Supper," Vatican II teaches, "on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium", 47).
26. "When they had sung a hymn": it was a custom at the passover meal to recite prayers, called "Hallel", which included Psalms 113 to 118; the last part was recited at the end of the meal.
30-31. Only St Mark gives us the exact detail of the two cockcrows (v. 30), and Peter's insistence that he would never betray Jesus (v. 31). This is another sign of the connexion between St Mark's Gospel and St Peter's preaching; only Peter, full of contrition and humility, would so deliberately tell the first Christians about these episodes in which his presumption and failures contrasted with Jesus' mercy and understanding. The other evangelists, surely out of respect for the figure of Peter, pass over these incidents more quickly.
This account shows us that our Lord takes into account the weaknesses of those whom he calls to follow him and be his apostles. Peter is too self-confident; very soon he will deny him. Jesus knows this well and, in spite of everything, chooses him as head of the Church. "They [the disciples] remain just like that until they are filled with the Holy Spirit and thus become pillars of the Church. They are ordinary men, complete with defects and shortcomings, more eager to say than to do. Nevertheless, Jesus calls them to be fishers of men, co-redeemers, dispensers of the grace of God. Something similar has happened to us. . . . But I also realize that human logic cannot possibly explain the world of grace. God usually seeks out deficient instruments so that the work can more clearly be seen to be his" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 2 and 3).
32-42. The very human way Jesus approaches his passion and death is noteworthy. He feels everything any man would feel in those circumstances. "He takes with him only the three disciples who had seen his glorification on Mount Tabor, that these who saw his power should also see his sorrow and learn from that sorrow that he was truly man. And, because he assumed human nature in its entirety, he assumed the properties of man -- fear, strength, natural sorrow; for it is natural that men approach death unwillingly" (Theophylact, "Enarratio in Evangelium Marci", in loc.).
Jesus' prayer in the garden shows us, as nothing else in the Gospel does, that he prayed the prayer of petition -- not only for others, but also for himself. For, in the unity of his Person there were two natures, one human and one divine; and, since his human will was not omnipotent, it was appropriate for Christ to ask the Father to strengthen that will (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, "Summa theologiae", III, q. 21, a. 1).
Once more, Jesus prays with a deep sense of his divine sonship (cf. Mt 11:25; Lk 23:46; Jn 17: 1). Only St Mark retains in the original language his filial exclamation to the Father: "Abba", which is how children intimately addressed their parents. Every Christian should have a similar filial trust, especially when praying. At this moment of climax, Jesus turns from his private dialogue with his Father to ask his disciples to pray so as not to fall into temptation. It should be noted that the evangelists, inspired by the Holy Spirit, give us both Jesus' prayer and his commandment to us to pray. This is not a passing anecdote, but an episode which is a model of how Christians should act: prayer is indispensable for staying faithful to God. Anyone who does not pray should be under no illusions about being able to cope with the temptations of the devil: "If our Lord had said only "watch", we might expect that our own power would be sufficient, but when he adds "pray", he shows that "if he keeps not" our souls in time of temptation, in vain shall they watch who keep them (cf. Ps 127:1)" (St Francis de Sales, "Treatise on the Love of God", book 11, chap. 1).
34. "But when he had gone on a little way, he suddenly felt such a sharp and bitter attack of sadness, grief, fear, and weariness that he immediately uttered, even in their presence, those anguished words which gave expression to his overburdened feelings: 'My soul is sad unto death.' For a huge mass of troubles took possession of the tender and gentle body of our most holy Saviour. He knew that his ordeal was now imminent and just about to overtake him: the treacherous betrayer, the bitter enemies, binding ropes, false accusations, slanders, blows, thorns, nails, the cross, and horrible tortures stretched out over many hours. Over and above these, he was tormented by the thought of his disciples' terror, the loss of the Jews, even the destruction of the very man who so disloyally betrayed him, and finally the ineffable grief of his beloved Mother. The gathered storm of all these evils rushed into his most gentle heart and flooded it like the ocean sweeping through broken dikes" (St Thomas More, "De tristitia Christi", in loc.).
35. "Therefore, since he foresaw that there would be many people of such a delicate constitution that they would be convulsed with tenor at any danger of being tortured, he chose to enhearten them by the example of his own sorrow, his own sadness, his own weariness and unequalled fear, lest they should be so disheartened as they compare their own fearful state of mind with the boldness of the bravest martyrs that they would yield freely what they fear will be won from them by force. To such a person as this, Christ wanted his own deed to speak out (as it were) with his own living voice: 'O faint of heart, take courage and do not despair. You are afraid, you are sad, you are stricken with weariness and dread of the torment with which you have been cruelly threatened. Trust me; I conquered the world, and yet I suffered immeasurably more from fear; I was sadder, more afflicted with weariness, more horrified at the prospect of such cruel suffering drawing eagerly nearer and nearer. Let the brave man have his high-spirited martyrs, let him rejoice in imitating a thousand of them. But you, my timorous and feeble little sheep, be content to have me alone as your shepherd; follow my leadership. If you do not trust yourself, place your trust in me. See, I am walking ahead of you along this fearful road. Take hold of the border of my garment and you will feel going out from it a power which will stay your heart's blood from issuing in vain fears, and will make your mind more cheerful, especially when you remember that you are following closely in my footsteps (and I am to be trusted and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but I will give together with the temptation a way out that you may be able to endure it) and likewise when you remember that this light and momentary burden of tribulation will prepare for you a weight of glory which is beyond all measure. For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which will be revealed in you. As you reflect on such things, take heart, and use the sign of my cross to drive away this dread, this sadness, and weariness like vain specters of the darkness. Advance successfully and press through all obstacles, firmly confident that I will champion your cause until you are victorious and then in turn will reward you with the laurel crown of victory'" (ibid.).
36. "Jesus prays in the garden. "Pater mi" (Mt 26:39), "Abba Pater!" (Mk 14:36). God is my Father, even though he may send me suffering. He loves me tenderly, even while wounding me. Jesus suffers, to fulfil the Will of the Father. . . . And I, who also wish to fulfil the most holy Will of God, following the footsteps of the Master, can I complain if I too meet suffering as my traveling companion?
"It will be a sure sign of my sonship, because God is treating me as he treated his own divine Son. Then I, just as he did, will be able to groan and weep alone in my Gethsemane; but, as I lie prostrate on the ground, acknowledging my nothingness, there will rise up to the Lord a cry from the depths of my soul: 'Pater mi, Abba, Pater, . . . fiat!'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross", I, 1).
41-42. "See now, when Christ comes back to his apostles for the third time, there they are, buried in sleep, though he commanded them to bear up with him and to stay awake and pray because of the impending danger; but Judas the traitor at the same time was so wide awake and intent on betraying the Lord that the very idea of sleep never entered his mind.
"Does not this contrast between the traitor and the apostles present to us a clear and sharp minor image (as it were), a sad and terrible view of what has happened through the ages from those times even to our own? [. . .] For very many are sleepy and apathetic in sowing virtues among the people and maintaining the truth, while the enemies of Christ in order to sow vices and uproot the faith (that is, in- sofar as they can, to seize Christ and cruelly crucify him once again) are wide awake -- so much wiser (as Christ says) are the sons of darkness in their generation than the sons of light (cf Lk 16:8)" (St Thomas More, "De tristitia Christi", in loc.).
43-50. The Gospel reports the arrest of our Lord in a matter-of-fact sort of way. Jesus, who was expecting it, offered no resistance, thereby fulfilling the prophecies about him in the Old Testament, particularly this passage of the poem of the Servant of Yahweh in the Book of Isaiah: "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth . . . because he poured out his soul to death . . ." (Is 53:7 and 12). Dejected only moments earlier at the beginning of his prayer in Gethsemane Jesus now rises up strengthened to face his passion. These mysteries of our Lord, true God and true man, are truly impressive.
51-52. This detail about the young man in the linen cloth is found only in St Mark. Most interpreters see in it a discreet allusion to Mark himself. It is probable that the Garden of Olives belonged to Mark's family, which would explain the presence there at night-time of the boy, who would have been awakened suddenly by the noise of the crowd.
"One sees rich men -- less often, it is true, than I would like -- but still, thank God, one sometimes sees exceedingly rich men who would rather lose everything they have than keep anything at all by offending God through sin. These men have many clothes, but they are not tightly confined by them, so that when they need to run away from danger, they escape easily by throwing off their clothes. On the other hand we see people -- and far more of them than I would wish -- who happen to have only light garments and quite skimpy outfits and yet have so welded their affections to those poor riches of theirs that you could sooner strip skin from flesh than separate them from their goods. Such a person had better get going while there is still time. For once someone gets hold of his clothes, he will sooner die than leave his linen cloth behind. In summary, then, we learn from the example of this young man that we should always be prepared for troubles that arise suddenly, dangers that strike without warning and might make it necessary for us to run away; to be prepared, we ought not be so loaded with various garments, or so buttoned up in even one, that in an emergency we are unable to throw away our linen cloth and escape naked" (St Thomas More, "De tristitia Christi", in loc.).
53-65. This meeting of the Sanhedrin in the house of the high priest was quite irregular. The normal thing was for it to meet during the daytime and in the temple. Everything suggests that the rulers arranged this session secretly, probably to avoid opposition from the people, which would have thwarted their plans. The direct intervention of the high priest and the ill-treatment of the prisoner before sentence were also illegal. The Jewish authorities had for some time past been of a mind to do away with Jesus (cf., e.g., Mk 12:12; Jn 7:30; 11:45-50). Now all they are trying to do is give their actions an appearance of legality -- that is, looking for concurring witnesses to accuse him of capital crimes. Because they do not manage to do this, the chief priest goes right to the key issue: was Jesus the Messiah, yes or no? Jesus' affirmative answer is regarded as blasphemy. Appearances are saved; they can now condemn him to death and ask the Roman procurator to ratify the sentence (cf. the note on Mt 27:2). Despite the irregularities and even though not all the members of the Sanhedrin were present, the significance of this session lies in the fact that the Jewish authorities, the official representatives of the chosen people, reject Jesus as Messiah and condemn him to death.
57-59. From the Gospel of St John (2:19) we know the words of Jesus which gave rise to this accusation: "Destroy the temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Now they accuse him of having said three things: that he is going to destroy the temple; that the temple of Jerusalem is the work of human hands, not something divine; and that in three days he will raise up another one, not made by hands of men. As can be seen, this is not what our Lord said. First they change his words: Jesus did not say he was going to destroy the temple; and, secondly, they apply what he said to the temple of Jerusalem, not understanding that Jesus was speaking about his own body, as is made plain in St John (2:21-22). After the Resurrection, the apostles understood the depth of Jesus' words (Jn 2:22): the temple of Jerusalem, where God's presence was manifested in a special way and where he was offered due worship, was but a sign, a prefiguring of the humanity of Christ, in which the fullness of divinity, God, dwelt (cf. Col 2:9).
The same accusation is made at the martyrdom of St Stephen: "We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us" (Acts 6:14). In fact, St Stephen knew that the true temple was no longer that of Jerusalem but Jesus Christ; but once again they misinterpreted his meaning and accused him as they had our Lord.
61. As at other points during his passion, Jesus kept completely silent. He appeared defenseless before the false accusations of his enemies. "God our Savior," St Jerome says, "who has redeemed the world out of mercy, lets himself be led to death like a lamb, not saying a word; he does not complain, he makes no effort to defend himself. Jesus' silence obtains forgiveness for Adam's protest and excuse" ("Comm. on Mark", in loc.). This silence is another motive and encouragement to us to be silent at times in the face of calumny or criticism. "In quietness and in trust shall be your strength," says the prophet Isaiah (30:15).
"'Jesus remained silent, "Jesus autem tacebat."' Why do you speak, to console yourself, or to excuse yourself?
"Say nothing. Seek joy in contempt: you will always receive less than you deserve.
"Can you, by any chance, ask: 'Quid enim malifeci', what evil have I done?'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 671).
61-64. The high priest was undoubtedly trying to corner Jesus: if he replied that he was not the Christ, it would be equivalent to his contradicting everything he had said and done; if he answered yes, it would be interpreted as blasphemy, as we shall see later. Strictly speaking it was not blasphemy to call oneself the Messiah, or to say one was the Son of God, taking that phrase in a broad sense. Jesus' reply not only bore witness to his being the Messiah; it also showed the divine transcendence of his messianism, by applying to him the prophecy of the Son of man in Daniel (7:13-14). By making this confession, Jesus' reply opened the way for the high priest to make his theatrical gesture: he took it as a mockery of God and as blasphemy that this handcuffed man could be the transcendent figure of the Son of man. At this solemn moment Jesus defines himself by using the strongest of all the biblical expressions his hearers could understand – that which most clearly manifested his divinity. We might point out that had Jesus said simply "I am God" they would have thought it simply absurd and would have regarded him as mad: in which case he would not have borne solemn witness to his divinity before the authorities of the Jewish people.
63. The rending of garments was a custom in Israel to express indignation and protest against sacrilege and blasphemy. The rabbis had specified exactly how it should be done. Only a kind of seam was torn, to prevent the fabric being damaged. With this tragi-comic gesture Caiaphas brings the trial to an end, cleverly sabotaging any later procedure that might favor the prisoner and show up the truth.
64. Through Luke 23:51 and John 7:25-33 we know that not all the members of the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus, for Joseph of Arimathea did not consent in this act of deicide. It maybe supposed, therefore, that they were not present at this meeting of the council, either because they had not been summoned or because they absented themselves.
66-72. Although the accounts given by the three Synoptic Gospels are very alike, St Mark's narrative does have its own characteristics: the sacred text gives little details which add a touch of colour. He says that Peter was "below" (v. 66), which shows that the council session was held in an upstairs room; he also mentions the two cockcrows (v. 72), in a way consistent with our Lord's prophecy described in v. 30. On the theological and ascetical implications of this passage, see the note on Mt 26:70-75.
Chapter 15
1. At daybreak the Sanhedrin holds another meeting to work out how to get Pilate to ratify the death sentence. And then Christ is immediately brought before Pilate. It is not known for certain where the governor was residing during these days. It was either in Herod's palace, built on the western hill of the city, south of the Jaffa Gate, or the Antonia fortress, which was on the north-east of the temple esplanade. It is more than likely that, for the Passover, Pilate lived in the fortress. From there he could have a full view of the whole outside area of the temple, where unrest and riots were most likely to occur. In the centre of this impressive building there was a perfectly paved courtyard of about 2,500 square meters (approximately half an acre). This may well have been the yard where Pilate judged our Lord and which St John (19:13) called The Pavement ("Lithostrotos", in Greek). Philo, Josephus and other historians depict Pilate as having the defects of the worst type of Roman governor. The evangelists emphasize his cowardice and his sycophancy bordering on wickedness.
2. Jesus' reply, as given in St Mark, can be interpreted in two ways. It may mean: You say that l am king; I say nothing; or else: I am a king. The second interpretation is the more common and logical, since in other Gospel passages he affirms his kingship quite categorically (cf. Mt 27:37 and par.; in 18:36-38). In St John's Gospel (18:33-38) Jesus tells Pilate that he is a King and explains the special nature of his kingship: his Kingdom is not of this world; it transcends this world (cf. the note on Jn 18:35-37).
3-5. On three occasions the evangelists specify that Jesus remained silent in the face of these unjust accusations: before the Sanhedrin (14:61); here, before Pilate; and later on, before Herod (Lk 23:9). From the Gospel of St John we know that our Lord did say other things during this trial. St Mark says that he made no further reply, since he is referring only to the accusations made against our Lord: being false, they deserved no reply. Besides, any attempt at defense was futile, since they had decided in advance that he should die. Nor did Pilate need any further answer, since he was more concerned to please the Jewish authorities than, correctly, to find Jesus innocent.
6-15. Instead of simply coming to the rescue of this innocent prisoner, as was his duty and as his conscience advised him, Pilate wants to avoid a confrontation with the Sanhedrin; so he tries to deal with the people and have them set Jesus free. Since it was customary to release a prisoner of the people's choice to celebrate the Passover, Pilate offers them the chance of selecting Jesus. The priests, seeing through this maneuver, incite the crowd to ask for Barabbas. This was not difficult to do, since many felt disillusioned about Jesus because he had not set them free of the foreign yoke. Pilate could not oppose their choice; and so it became even more difficult for him to give a just decision. All he can do now is appeal to the people on behalf of 'the King of the Jews". The humble and helpless appearance of Jesus exasperates the crowd: this is not the sort of king they want, and they ask for his crucifixion.
In the course of the trial Pilate was threatened with being reported to the emperor if he interfered in this affair (cf. Jn 19:12); he now accedes to their shouting and signs the warrant for death by crucifixion, to protect his political career.
15. Scourging, like crucifixion, was a degrading form of punishment applied only to slaves. The whip or flagellum used to punish serious crimes was strengthened with small sharp pieces of metal at the end of the thongs, which had the effect of tearing the flesh and even fracturing bones. Scourging often caused death. The condemned person was tied to a post to prevent him collapsing. People condemned to crucifixion were scourged beforehand.
These sufferings of Jesus have a redemptive value. In other passages of the Gospel our Lord made carrying the cross a condition of following him. Through self-denial a Christian associates himself with Christ's passion and plays a part in the work of redemption (cf. Col 1:24).
"Bound to the pillar. Covered with wounds. The blows of the lash sound upon his torn flesh, upon his undefiled flesh, which suffers for your sinful flesh. More blows. More fury. Still more . . . It is the last extreme of human cruelty.
"Finally, exhausted, they untie Jesus. And the body of Christ yields to pain and falls limp, broken and half dead.
"You and I cannot speak. Words are not needed. Look at him, look at him . . .slowly.
"After this . . . can you ever fear penance?" (St. J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", second sorrowful mystery).
16-19. The soldiers make Jesus object of mockery; they accuse him pretending to be a king, and crown him and dress him up as one.
The image of the suffering Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns, with a reed in his hands and an old purple cloak around his shoulders, has become a vivid symbol of human pain, under the title of the "Ecce homo".
But, as St Jerome teaches, "his ignominy has blotted out ours, his bonds have set us free, his crown of thorns has won for us the crown of the Kingdom, wounds have cured us" ("Comm. in Marcum", in loc.).
"You and I . . . , haven't we crowned him anew with thorns and struck him and spat on him?" (St. J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", third sorrowful mystery).
21. "Jesus is exhausted. His footsteps become more and more unsteady, and the soldiers are in a hurry to he finished. So, when they are going out of the city through the Judgment Gate, they take hold of a man who was coming in from a farm, a man called Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, and they force him to carry the Cross of Jesus (cf. Mk 15:21).
"In the whole context of the Passion, this help does not add up to very much. But for Jesus, a smile, a word, a gesture, a little bit of love is enough for him to pour out his grace bountifully on the soul of his friend. Years later, Simon's sons, Christians by then, will be known and held in high esteem among their brothers in the faith. And it all started with this unexpected meeting with the Cross.
"'I went to those who were not looking for me; I was found by those who sought me not (Is 65:1)'".
"At times the Cross appears without our looking for it: it is Christ who is seeking us out. And if by chance, before this unexpected Cross which, perhaps, is therefore more difficult to understand, your heart were to show repugnance . . . don't give it consolations. And, filled with a noble compassion, when it asks for them, say to it slowly, as one speaking in confidence: 'Heart: Heart on the Cross! Heart on the Cross!'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross", V).
St Mark stops for a moment to say who this Simon was: he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. It appears that Rufus, years later, moved with his mother to Rome; St Paul sent them affectionate greetings in his Letter to the Romans (16:13). It seems reasonable to imagine that Simon first felt victimized at being forced to do such unpleasant work, but contact with the Holy Cross -- the altar on which the divine Victim was going to be sacrificed -- and the sight of the suffering and death of Jesus, must have touched his heart; and the Cyrenean, who was at first indifferent, left Calvary a faithful disciple of Christ: Jesus had amply rewarded him. How often it happens that divine providence, through some mishap, places us face to face with suffering and brings about in us a deeper conversion.
When reading this passage, we might reflect that, although our Lord has rescued us voluntarily, and although his merits are infinite, he does seek our cooperation. Christ bears the burden of the cross, but we have to help him carry it by accepting all the difficulties and contradictions with which divine providence presents us. In this way we grow in holiness, at the same time atoning for our faults and sins.
From the Gospel of St John (19:17) we know that Jesus bore the cross on his shoulders. In Christ burdened by the cross St Jerome sees, among other meanings, the fulfillment of the figure of Abel, the innocent victim, and particularly of Isaac (cf. Gen 22:6), who carried the wood for his own sacrifice (cf. St Jerome, "Comm. in Marcum", in loc.). Later, weakened from the scourging, Jesus can go no further on his own, which is why they compel this man from Cyrene to carry the cross.
"If anyone would follow me . . . Little friend, we are sad, living the Passion of our Lord Jesus. See how lovingly he embraces the Cross. Learn from him. Jesus carries the Cross for you: you . . . carry it for Jesus.
"But don't drag the Cross . . . . Carry it squarely on your shoulder, because the Cross, if you carry it like that, will not be just any Cross. . . . It will be the Holy Cross. Don't carry your Cross with resignation: resignation is not a generous word. Love the Cross. When you really love it, your Cross will be . . . a Cross without a Cross. And surely you will find Mary on the way, just as Jesus did" (St. J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", fourth sorrowful mystery).
22. There is no doubt about where this place was: it was a small, bare hill, at that time outside the city, right beside a busy main road.
23. Following the advice of Proverbs (31:6), the Jews used to offer dying criminals wine mixed with myrrh or incense to drug them and thus alleviate their suffering.
Jesus tastes it (according to Mt 27:34), but he does not drink it. He wishes to remain conscious to the last moment and to keep offering the chalice of the Passion, which he accepted at the Incarnation (Heb 10:9) and did not refuse in Gethsemane. St Augustine ("On the Psalms", 21:2 and 8) explains that our Lord wanted to suffer to the very end in order to purchase our redemption at a high price (cf. 1 Cor 6:20).
Faithful souls have also experienced this generosity of Christ in embracing pain: "Let us drink to the last drop the chalice of pain in this poor present life. What does it matter to suffer for ten years, twenty, fifty . . . if afterwards there is heaven for ever, for ever. . . for ever?
"And, above all rather than because of the reward, 'propter retributionem' what does suffering matter if we suffer to console, to please God our Lord, in a spirit of reparation, united to him on his cross; in a word: if we suffer for Love? (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 182).
24-28. Crucifixion, as well as being the most degrading of punishments, was also the most painful. By condemning him to death, Jesus' enemies try to achieve the maximum contrast with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem some days previously. Usually, the bodies of people crucified were left on the gibbet for some days as a warning to people. In the case of Christ they also sought death by crucifixion as the most convincing proof that he was not the Messiah.
Crucifixion took various forms. The usual one, and perhaps the one applied to Jesus, consisted of first erecting the upright beam and then positioning the crossbeam with the prisoner nailed to it by his hands; and finally nailing his feet to the lower part of the upright.
According to St John's Gospel (19:23-25) the seamless tunic -- that is, woven in a piece -- was wagered for separately from the rest of his clothes, which were divided into four lots, one for each soldier. The words of this verse reproduce those of Psalm 22:18. Any Jew versed in the Scriptures reading this passage would immediately see in it the fulfillment of a prophecy. St John expressly notes it (cf. 19:24). St Mark, without losing the thread of his account of the Passion, implicitly argues that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, for in him this prophecy is fulfilled.
Looking at Jesus on the cross, it is appropriate to recall that God "decreed that man should be saved through the wood of the Cross. The tree of man's defeat became his tree of victory; where life was lost, there life has been restored" ("Roman Missal", Preface of the Holy Cross).
25. "The third hour": between nine o'clock and noon. St Mark is the only evangelist who specifies the time at which our Lord was nailed to the cross. For the relationship between our clock and the Jewish system in that period, see the note on Mt 20:3.
26. This inscription was usually put in a prominent place so that everyone could see what the prisoner was guilty of. Pilate ordered them to write "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews," in Latin, Greek and Hebrew; St Mark summarizes the inscription.
Motivated by malice, these Jews accuse Jesus of a political crime, when all his life and preaching left it quite clear that his mission was not political but supernatural. On the meaning of the inscription over the cross and the circumstances surrounding it, see John 19:19-22 and note.
27. Jesus is thus put to further shame; his disciples will also experience the humiliation of being treated like common criminals.
But in the case of Jesus this was providential, for it fulfilled the Scripture which prophesies that he would be counted among the evildoers. The Vulgate, following some Greek codices, adds: "And the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'He was reckoned with the transgressors'" (v. 28; cf. Lk 22:37). "Positioned between the evildoers," St Jerome teaches, "the Truth places one on his left and one on his right, as will be the case on the day of judgment. So we see how distinct the end of similar sinners can be. One precedes Peter into Paradise, the other enters hell before Judas: a brief confession brings eternal life, a momentary blasphemy is punished with eternal death" ("Comm. in Marcum", in loc.).
The Christian people have from early on given various names to these thieves. The most common in the West is Dismas for the good thief and Gestas for the bad thief.
29-32. Christ's suffering did not finish with the crucifixion: there now follows a form of mockery worse (if possible) than the crowning with thorns. He is mocked by passers-by, by the priests chanting insults with the scribes, and even by the two crucified thieves (cf., however, the clarification in Lk 23:39-43). They combine to reproach him for his weakness, as if his miracles had been deceptions, and incite him to manifest his power.
The fact that they ask him to work a miracle does not indicate that they have any desire to believe in him. For faith is a gift from God which only those receive who have a simple heart. "You ask for very little," St Jerome upbraids the Jews, "when the greatest event in history is taking place before your very eyes. Your blindness cannot be cured even by much greater miracles than those you call for" ("Comm. on Mark", in loc.).
Precisely because he was the Messiah and the Son of God he did not get down from the cross; in great pain, he completed the work his Father had entrusted to him. Christ teaches us that suffering is our best and richest treasure. Our Lord did not win victory from a throne or with a scepter in his hand, but by opening his arms on the cross. A Christian, who, like any other person, will experience pain and sorrow during his life, should not flee it or rebel against it, but offer it to God, as his Master did.
33. The evangelist reports this as a miraculous phenomenon signaling the magnitude of the crime of deicide which was taking place. The phrase "over the whole land" means over all the immediate horizon, without specifying its limits. The normal interpretation of the meaning of this event is dual and complementary; Origen (In "Matth. comm.", 143) sees it as an expression of the spiritual darkness which overtook the Jewish people as a punishment for having rejected -- crucified – him who is the true light (cf. Jn 1:4-9). St Jerome ("Comm. on Matthew", in loc.) explains the darkness as expressing, rather, the mourning of the universe at the death of its Creator, nature's protest against the unjust killing of its Lord (cf. Rom 8:19-22).
These words, spoken in Aramaic, are the start of Psalm 22, the prayer of the just man who, hunted and cornered, feels utterly alone, like "a worm, and no man; scorned by men and despised by the people" (v. 7). From this abyss of misery and total abandonment, the just man has recourse to Yahweh: "My God, my God, why art thou so far from helping me. . . . Since my mother bore me thou has been my God. . . . But thou, O Lord, be not far off! O thou my help, hasten to my aid!" (vv. 2, 10 and 19). Thus, far from expressing a moment of despair, these words of Christ reveal his complete trust in his heavenly Father, the only one on whom he can rely in the midst of suffering, to whom he can complain like a Son and in whom he abandons himself without reserve: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" (Lk 23:46; Ps 31:5).
One of the most painful situations a person can experience is to feel alone in the face of misunderstanding and persecution on all sides, to feel completely insecure and afraid. God permits these tests to happen so that, experiencing our own smallness and world-weariness, we place all our trust in him who draws good from evil for those who love him (cf. Rom 8:28).
"So much do I love Christ on the Cross that every crucifix is like a loving reproach from my God: '. . . I suffering, and you . . . a coward. I loving you, and you forgetting me. I begging you, and you . . . denying me. I, here, with arms wide open as an Eternal Priest, suffering all that can be suffered for love of you . . . and you complain at the slightest misunderstanding, over the tiniest humiliation . . .'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross", XI, 2).
35-36. The soldiers near the cross, on hearing our Lord speak, may have thought, wrongly, that he was calling on Elijah for help. However, it seems it is the Jews themselves who, twisting our Lord's words, find another excuse for jeering at him. There was a belief that Elijah would come to herald the Messiah, which is why they used these words to continue to ridicule Christ on the cross.
37. The evangelist recalls it very succinctly: "Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last.' It is as if he did not dare make any comment, leaving it to the reader to pause and meditate. Although the death of Christ is a tremendous mystery, we must insist: Jesus Christ died; it was a real, not an apparent, death; nor should we forget that our sin was what caused our Lord's death. "The abyss of malice, which sin opens wide, has been bridged by his infinite charity. God does not abandon men. His plans foresee that the sacrifices of the Old Law were insufficient to repair our faults and re-establish the unity which has been lost: a man who was God must offer himself up. To help us grasp in some measure this unfathomable mystery, we might imagine the Blessed Trinity taking counsel together in its uninterrupted intimate relationship of infinite love. As a result of its eternal decision, the only-begotten Son of God the Father takes on our human condition and bears the burden of our wretchedness and sorrows, to end up sewn with nails to a piece of wood. Let us meditate on our Lord, wounded from head to foot out of love for us" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ is Passing By", 95).
". . . Now it is all over. The work of our Redemption has been accomplished. We are now children of God, because Jesus has died for us and his death has ransomed us.
"Empti enim estis pretio magno! (1 Cor 6:20), you and I have been bought at a great price.
"We must bring into our lives, to make them our own, the life and death of Christ. We must die through mortification and penance, so that Christ may live in us through Love. And then follow in the footsteps of Christ, with a zeal to co-redeem all mankind.
"We must give our lives for others. That is the only way to live the life of Jesus Christ and to become one and the same thing with him" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross, XIV).
38. The strictly sacred precinct of the temple of Jerusalem had two parts: the first, called "the Holy Place," where only priests could enter for specific liturgical functions; the second, called "the Holy of Holies" ("Sancta Sanctorum"). This was the most sacred room where once the Ark of the Covenant stood, containing the tablets of the Law. Above the Ark was the "propitiatory" with figures of two cherubim. Only once a year did the high priest have access to the Holy of Holies, on the great Day of Atonement, to perform the rite of purification of the people. The curtain of the temple was the great curtain which separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place (cf. 1 Kings 6:15f).
The prodigy of the tearing of the curtain of the temple -- apparently of no great importance -- is full of theological meaning. It signifies dramatically that with Christ's death the worship of the Old Covenant has been brought to an end; the temple of Jerusalem has no longer any raison d'être. The worship pleasing to God -- in spirit and truth (cf. in 4:23) -- is rendered him through the humanity of Christ, who is both Priest and Victim.
39. Regarding this passage St Bede says that this miracle of the conversion of the Roman officer is due to the fact that, on seeing the Lord die in this way, he could not but recognize his divinity; for no one has the power to surrender his spirit but he who is the Creator of souls (cf. St Bede, "In Marci Evangelium expositio", in loc.). Christ, indeed, being God, had the power to surrender his spirit; whereas in the case of other people their spirit is taken from them at the moment of death. But the Christian has to imitate Christ, also at this supreme moment: that is, we should accept death peacefully and joyfully. Death is the point planned by God for us to leave our spirit in his hands; the difference is that Christ yielded up his spirit when he chose (cf. Jn 10-18), whereas we do so when God so disposes.
"Don't be afraid of death. Accept it from now on, generously . . . when God wills it, where God wills it, as God wills it. Don't doubt what I say: it will come in the moment, in the place and in the way that are best: sent by your Father-God. Welcome be our sister death!" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 739).
43-46. Unlike the apostles, who fled, Joseph of Arimathea, who had not consented to the decision of the Sanhedrin (cf. Lk 23:51), had the bold and refined piety of personally taking charge of everything to do with the burial of Jesus. Christ's death had not shaken his faith. It is worth noting that he does this immediately after the debacle of Calvary and before the triumph of the glorious resurrection of the Lord. His action will be rewarded by his name being written in the Book of Life and recorded in the Holy Gospel and in the memory of all generations of Christians. Joseph of Arimathea put himself at the service of Jesus, without expecting any human recompense and even at personal risk: he ventured his social position, his own as yet unused tomb, and everything else that was needed. He will always be a vivid example for every Christian of how one ought to risk money, position and honour in the service of God.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
Mk 11:1-10
When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately on entering it,
you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
If anyone should say to you,
'Why are you doing this?' reply,
'The Master has need of it
and will send it back here at once.'"
So they went off
and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders said to them,
"What are you doing, untying the colt?"
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,
and they permitted them to do it.
So they brought the colt to Jesus
and put their cloaks over it.
And he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road,
and others spread leafy branches
that they had cut from the fields.
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:
"Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!"
or Jn 12:12-16
When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out:
"Hosanna!
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
the king of Israel."
Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written:
Fear no more, O daughter Zion;
see, your king comes, seated upon an ass's colt.
His disciples did not understand this at first,
but when Jesus had been glorified
they remembered that these things were written about him
and that they had done this for him.
38ABC At the Mass
Reading 1
Is 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
R. (2a) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Reading II
Phil 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel
Mk 14:1—15:47 or 15:1-39
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
were to take place in two days' time.
So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way
to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
They said, "Not during the festival,
for fear that there may be a riot among the people."
When he was in Bethany reclining at table
in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,
costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
There were some who were indignant.
"Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages
and the money given to the poor."
They were infuriated with her.
Jesus said, "Let her alone.
Why do you make trouble for her?
She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you,
and whenever you wish you can do good to them,
but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could.
She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
Amen, I say to you,
wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,
what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,
went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money.
Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,
one who is eating with me."
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,
"Surely it is not I?"
He said to them,
"One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him,
"Even though all should have their faith shaken,
mine will not be."
Then Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows twice
you will deny me three times."
But he vehemently replied,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I pray."
He took with him Peter, James, and John,
and began to be troubled and distressed.
Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch."
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me,
but not what I will but what you will."
When he returned he found them asleep.
He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?
Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open
and did not know what to answer him.
He returned a third time and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
It is enough. The hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
See, my betrayer is at hand."
Then, while he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs
who had come from the chief priests,
the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one;
arrest him and lead him away securely."
He came and immediately went over to him and said,
"Rabbi." And he kissed him.
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
One of the bystanders drew his sword,
struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear.
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs, to seize me?
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me;
but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled."
And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him
wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest,
and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest's courtyard
and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death, but they found none.
Many gave false witness against him,
but their testimony did not agree.
Some took the stand and testified falsely against him,
alleging, "We heard him say,
'I will destroy this temple made with hands
and within three days I will build another
not made with hands.'"
Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus,
saying, "Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But he was silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him and said to him,
"Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?"
Then Jesus answered, "I am;
and 'you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"
At that the high priest tore his garments and said,
"hat further need have we of witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?"
They all condemned him as deserving to die.
Some began to spit on him.
They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, "Prophesy!"
And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard,
one of the high priest's maids came along.
Seeing Peter warming himself,
she looked intently at him and said,
"You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus."
But he denied it saying,
"I neither know nor understand what you are talking about."
So he went out into the outer court.
Then the cock crowed.
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders,
"This man is one of them."
Once again he denied it.
A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more,
"Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean."
He began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know this man about whom you are talking."
And immediately a cock crowed a second time.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him,
"Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, AHail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
— which is translated Place of the Skull —
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
There were also women looking on from a distance.
Among them were Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee
and ministered to him.
There were also many other women
who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening,
since it was the day of preparation,
the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea,
a distinguished member of the council,
who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God,
came and courageously went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead.
He summoned the centurion
and asked him if Jesus had already died.
And when he learned of it from the centurion,
he gave the body to Joseph.
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down,
wrapped him in the linen cloth,
and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock.
Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses
watched where he was laid.
Or
Mk 15:1-39
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
—which is translated Place of the Skull—
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Isaiah 50:4-7
The Lord has given me
a disciple’s tongue.
So that I may know how to reply to the wearied
he provides me with speech.
Each morning he wakes me to hear,
to listen like a disciple.
The Lord has opened my ear.
For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.
The Lord comes to my help,
so that I am untouched by the insults.
So, too, I set my face like flint;
I know I shall not be shamed.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 21(22):8-9,17-20,23-24
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
All who see me deride me.
They curl their lips, they toss their heads.
‘He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;
let him release him if this is his friend.’
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Many dogs have surrounded me,
a band of the wicked beset me.
They tear holes in my hands and my feet
I can count every one of my bones.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
They divide my clothing among them.
They cast lots for my robe.
O Lord, do not leave me alone,
my strength, make haste to help me!
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I will tell of your name to my brethren
and praise you where they are assembled.
‘You who fear the Lord give him praise;
all sons of Jacob, give him glory.
Revere him, Israel’s sons.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Second reading Philippians 2:6-11
Jesus Christ’s state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Mark 14:1-15:47
It was two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death. For they said, ‘It must not be during the festivities, or there will be a disturbance among the people.’
Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper; he was at dinner when a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on his head. Some who were there said to one another indignantly, ‘Why this waste of ointment? Ointment like this could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor’; and they were angry with her. But Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. Why are you upsetting her? What she has done for me is one of the good works. You have the poor with you always, and you can be kind to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. She has done what was in her power to do: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. I tell you solemnly, wherever throughout all the world the Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told also, in remembrance of her.’
Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, approached the chief priests with an offer to hand Jesus over to them. They were delighted to hear it, and promised to give him money; and he looked for a way of betraying him when the opportunity should occur.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, “The Master says: Where is my dining room in which I can eat the passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there,’ The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.
When evening came he arrived with the Twelve. And while they were at table eating, Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me, one of you eating with me.’ They were distressed and asked him, one after another, ‘Not I, surely?’ He said to them, ‘It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping into the same dish with me. Yes, the Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’
And as they were eating he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. ‘Take it,’ he said ‘this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’
After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all lose faith, for the scripture says: I shall strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, however after my resurrection I shall go before you to Galilee.’ Peter said, ‘Even if all lose faith, I will not.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will have disowned me three times.’ But he repeated still more earnestly, ‘If I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And they all said the same.
They came to a small estate called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Stay here while I pray.’ Then he took Peter and James and John with him. And a sudden fear came over him, and great distress. And he said to them, ‘My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here, and keep awake.’ And going on a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by. ‘Abba (Father)!’ he said ‘Everything is possible for you. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.’ He came back and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Had you not the strength to keep awake one hour? You should be awake, and praying not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And once more he came back and found them sleeping, their eyes were so heavy; and they could find no answer for him. He came back a third time and said to them, ‘You can sleep on now and take your rest. It is all over. The hour has come. Now the Son of Man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up! Let us go! My betrayer is close at hand already.’
Even while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came up with a number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the traitor had arranged a signal with them. ‘The one I kiss,’ he had said ‘he is the man. Take him in charge, and see he is well guarded when you lead him away.’ So when the traitor came, he went straight up to Jesus and said, ‘Rabbi!’ and kissed him. The others seized him and took him in charge. Then one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck out at the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.
Then Jesus spoke. ‘Am I a brigand’ he said ‘that you had to set out to capture me with swords and clubs? I was among you teaching in the Temple day after day and you never laid hands on me. But this is to fulfil the scriptures.’ And they all deserted him and ran away. A young man who followed him had nothing on but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the cloth in their hands and ran away naked.
They led Jesus off to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes assembled there. Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the high priest’s palace, and was sitting with the attendants warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus on which they might pass the death sentence. But they could not find any. Several, indeed, brought false evidence against him, but their evidence was conflicting. Some stood up and submitted this false evidence against him, ‘We heard him say, “I am going to destroy this Temple made by human hands, and in three days build another, not made by human hands.”’ But even on this point their evidence was conflicting. The high priest then stood up before the whole assembly and put this question to Jesus, ‘Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?’ But he was silent and made no answer at all. The high priest put a second question to him, ‘Are you the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus ‘and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest tore his robes, ‘What need of witnesses have we now?’ he said. ‘You heard the blasphemy. What is your finding?’ And they all gave their verdict: he deserved to die.
Some of them started spitting at him and, blindfolding him, began hitting him with their fists and shouting, ‘Play the prophet!’ And the attendants rained blows on him.
While Peter was down below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s servant-girls came up. She saw Peter warming himself there, stared at him and said, ‘You too were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’ But he denied it. ‘I do not know, I do not understand, what you are talking about’ he said. And he went out into the forecourt. The servant-girl saw him and again started telling the bystanders, ‘This fellow is one of them.’ But again he denied it. A little later the bystanders themselves said to Peter, ‘You are one of them for sure! Why, you are a Galilean.’ But he started calling down curses on himself and swearing, ‘I do not know the man you speak of.’ At that moment the cock crew for the second time, and Peter recalled how Jesus had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will have disowned me three times.’ And he burst into tears.
First thing in the morning, the chief priests together with the elders and scribes, in short the whole Sanhedrin, had their plan ready. They had Jesus bound and took him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘It is you who say it’ he answered. And the chief priests brought many accusations against him. Pilate questioned him again, ‘Have you no reply at all? See how many accusations they are bringing against you!’ But, to Pilate’s amazement, Jesus made no further reply.
At festival time Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, anyone they asked for. Now a man called Barabbas was then in prison with the rioters who had committed murder during the uprising. When the crowd went up and began to ask Pilate the customary favour, Pilate answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?’ For he realized it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over. The chief priests, however, had incited the crowd to demand that he should release Barabbas for them instead. Then Pilate spoke again. ‘But in that case,’ he said to them ‘what am I to do with the man you call king of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why?’ Pilate asked them ‘What harm has he done?’ But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, having ordered Jesus to be scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away to the inner part of the palace, that is, the Praetorium, and called the whole cohort together. They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on him. And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed and spat on him; and they went down on their knees to do him homage. And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple and dressed him in his own clothes.
They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.
They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it. Then they crucified him, and shared out his clothing, casting lots to decide what each should get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The inscription giving the charge against him read: ‘The King of the Jews.’ And they crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.
The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, ‘Aha! So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself: come down from the cross!’ The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.
When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling on Elijah.’ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink saying; ‘Wait and see if Elijah will come to take him down.’ But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, ‘In truth this man was a son of God.’
There were some women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary who was the mother of James the younger and Joset, and Salome. These used to follow him and look after him when he was in Galilee. And there were many other women there who had come up to Jerusalem with him.
It was now evening, and since it was Preparation Day (that is, the vigil of the sabbath), there came Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent member of the Council, who himself lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God, and he boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate, astonished that he should have died so soon, summoned the centurion and enquired if he was already dead. Having been assured of this by the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph who bought a shroud, took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the shroud and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joset were watching and took note of where he was laid.
Alternative gospel Mark 15:1-39
First thing in the morning, the chief priests together with the elders and scribes, in short the whole Sanhedrin, had their plan ready. They had Jesus bound and took him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘It is you who say it’ he answered. And the chief priests brought many accusations against him. Pilate questioned him again, ‘Have you no reply at all? See how many accusations they are bringing against you!’ But, to Pilate’s amazement, Jesus made no further reply.
At festival time Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, anyone they asked for. Now a man called Barabbas was then in prison with the rioters who had committed murder during the uprising. When the crowd went up and began to ask Pilate the customary favour, Pilate answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?’ For he realised it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over. The chief priests, however, had incited the crowd to demand that he should release Barabbas for them instead. Then Pilate spoke again. ‘But in that case,’ he said to them ‘what am I to do with the man you call king of the Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why?’ Pilate asked them ‘What harm has he done?’ But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, having ordered Jesus to be scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away to the inner part of the palace, that is, the Praetorium, and called the whole cohort together. They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on him. And they began saluting him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed and spat on him; and they went down on their knees to do him homage. And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple and dressed him in his own clothes.
They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.
They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it. Then they crucified him, and shared out his clothing, casting lots to decide what each should get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The inscription giving the charge against him read: ‘The King of the Jews.’ And they crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.
The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, ‘Aha! So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself: come down from the cross!’ The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.
When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling on Elijah.’ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink saying; ‘Wait and see if Elijah will come to take him down.’ But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, ‘In truth this man was a son of God.’
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
From: Mark 11:1-10 (At the Procession with Palms)
The Messiah Enters Jerusalem
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[1] And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, [2] and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. [3] If any one says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately." [4] And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. [5] And those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" [6] And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go. [7] And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and be sat upon it. [8] And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. [9] And those who went before and those who followed cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is be who comes.in the name of the Lord! [10] Blessed is the kingdom of Our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!"
[11] And he entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
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Commentary:
1-11. Jesus had visited Jerusalem various times before, but he never did so in this way. Previously he had not wanted to be recognized as the Messiah; he avoided the enthusiasm of the crowd; but now he accepts their acclaim and even implies that it is justified, by entering the city in the style of a pacific king. Jesus’s public ministry is about to come to a close: he has completed his mission; he has preached and worked miracles; he has revealed himself as God wished he should; now in this triumphant entry into Jerusalem he shows that he is the Messiah. The people, by shouting "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!", are proclaiming Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. When the leaders of the people move against him some days later, they reject this recognition the people have given him. Cf. notes on Mt 21:1-5 and 21:9.
3. Although, absolutely speaking, our Lord has no need of man, in fact he does choose to use us to carry out his plans just as he made use of the donkey for his entry into Jerusalem. "Jesus makes do with a poor animal for a throne. I don’t know about you; but I am not humiliated to acknowledge that in the Lord’s eyes I am a beast of burden: ‘I am like a donkey in your presence; nevertheless I am continually with you. You hold my right hand,’ (Ps 72:23), you take me by the bridle.
"Try to remember what a donkey is like--now that so few of them are left. Not an old, stubborn, vicious one that would give you a kick when you least expected, but a young one with his ears up like antennae. He lives on a meager diet, is hard-working and has a quick, cheerful trot. There are hundreds of animals more beautiful, more deft and strong. But it was a donkey Christ chose when he presented himself to the people as king in response to their acclamation. For Jesus has no time for calculations, for astuteness, for the cruelty of cold hearts, for attractive but empty beauty. What he likes is the cheerfulness of a young heart, a simple step, a natural voice, clean .eyes, attention to his affectionate word of advice. That is how he reigns in the soul" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 181).
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From: John 12:12-16 (At the Procession with Palms)
The Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem
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[12] The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. [13] So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! [14] And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it; as it is written,
[15] "Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on an ass’s colt!”
[16] His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him.
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Commentary:
13. When the crowd uses the words "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, taken from Psalm 118:26, they are acclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. The words 'the king of Israel”, not included in the Synoptics, underline Christ’s royalty: the Messiah is the King of Israel "par excellence". However, Jesus had previously fled from those who wanted to make him king because they had an earth-bound view of his mission (Jn 6:14-15). Later on, before Pilate, he will explain that his kingship "is not of this world”. "Christ”, St Augustine teaches, "was not king of Israel for exacting tribute, or arming a host with the sword; but king of Israel to rule souls, to counsel them for eternal life, to bring to the Kingdom of heaven those that believe, hope and love” ("In Ioann. Evang.", 51,4).
"Christ should reign first and foremost in our soul. But how would we reply if he asks us: 'How do you go about letting me reign in you?’ I would reply that I need lots of his grace. Only that way can my every heartbeat and breath, my least intense look, my most ordinary word, my most basic feeling be transformed into a hosanna to Christ my King” (Bl. J. Escrivá, "Christ Is Passing By, 181).
14-16. After Jesus’ resurrection, the Apostles will grasp the meaning of many episodes in our Lord’s life which they had not previously understood fully (cf. Jn 2:22). For example, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem with all the people acclaiming him as Messiah, they will see the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies (cf., e.g., in addition to Zech 9:9, which the Gospel quotes, Gen 49:10-11). See the notes on Mt 21:1-5; Mk 11:1-11; and Lk 19:30-35.
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From: Isaiah 50:4-7
Third Song of the Servant of the Lord
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[4] The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught; that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. [5] The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. [6]I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
[7] For the LORD GOD helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
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Commentary:
50:4-9. The second song dealt with the servant’s mission (cf. 49:6); the third song focuses on the servant himself. The term "servant" as such does not appear here, and therefore some commentators read the passage as being a description of a prophet and not part of the songs. Still, the context (cf. 50:10) does suggest that the protagonist is the servant. The poem is neatly constructed in three stanzas, each beginning with the words, "The Lord God" (vv. 4, 5, 7), and it has a conclusion containing that same wording (v. 9). The first stanza emphasizes the servant’s docility to the word of God; that is, he is not depicted as a self-taught teacher with original ideas, but as an obedient disciple. The second (vv. 5-6) speaks of the suffering that that docility has brought him, without his uttering a word of complaint. The third (vv. 7-8) shows how determined the servant is: if he suffers in silence, it is not out of cowardice but because God helps him and makes him stronger than his persecutors. The conclusion (v. 9) is like the verdict of a trial: when all is said and done, the servant will stand tall, and all his enemies will be struck down.
The evangelists saw the words of this song as finding fulfillment in Jesus--especially what the song has to say about the suffering and silent fortitude of the servant. The Gospel of John, for example, quotes Nicodemus’ acknowledgment of Christ’s wisdom: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him" (Jn 3:21). But the description of the servant’s sufferings was the part that most impressed the early Christians; that part of the song was recalled when they meditated on the passion of Jesus and how "they spat in his face; and struck him; and some slapped him" (Mt 26:67) and later how the Roman soldiers "spat upon him, and took the reed and struck him on the head" (Mt 27:30; cf. also Mk 15:19; Jn 19:3). St Paul refers to v. 9 when applying to Christ Jesus the role of intercessor on behalf of the elect in the suit pressed constantly against them by the enemies of the soul: "Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?" (Rom 8:33).
St Jerome sees the servant’s docility as a reference to Christ: "His self-discipline and wisdom enabled him to communicate to us the knowledge of the Father. And he was obedient onto death, death on the cross; he offered his body to the blows they struck, his shoulders to the lash; and though he was wounded on the chest and on his face, he did not try to turn away and escape their violence" ("Commentarii In Isaiam", 50, 4). This passage is used in the liturgy of Palm Sunday (along with Psalm 22 and St Paul’s hymn in the Letter to the Philippians 2:6-11), before the reading of our Lord’s passion.
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From: Philippians 2:6-11
Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-Emptying
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([5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,) [6] who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to \the glory of God the Father.
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Commentary:
5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when He was offering Himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we may say with the same Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ' (Galatians 2:19)" ([Pope] Pius XII, "Mediator Dei", 22).
6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he is -- under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit -- giving a very profound exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practiced.
This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming, even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God and man.
The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the beginning of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man. The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses 9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine nature and which His human nature has merited.
The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation.
Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience. "We should learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," St. Escriva reminds us. "During His life on earth He did not even want the glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or human ambitions.
"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men" ("Christ Is Passing By", 62).
6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of God": "form" is the external aspect of something and manifests what it is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer to things visible to the senses; the "form of God" is a way of referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" professes it, "the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true God."
"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the Greek word translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to and boasted about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could have become man without setting His glory aside--He could have appeared as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff); instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7). By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).
"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is, to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of rights that belonged to Him as God--which was what He did.
Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis 3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory from all eternity, "emptied Himself": He chooses the way of humility, the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too, to the way previously taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up for the disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing mystery of Christ's humiliation or self-emptying ("kenosis" in Greek), this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christ's exaltation after death.
Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility. "What is more humble", St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experiences even death itself" ("Oratio I In Beatitudinibus").
This self-emptying is an example of God's infinite goodness in taking the initiative to meet man: "Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude at such a mystery and learn from it. All the power, all the majesty, all the beauty, all the infinite harmony of God, all His great and immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was hidden for our benefit in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined to eclipse His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to approach their Redeemer." (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 111).
8. Jesus Christ became man "for us men and for our salvation", we profess in the Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had a salvific value; His death on the cross represents the climax of His redemptive work for, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, "He did not experience death due to the fact of being born; rather, He took birth upon Himself in order to die" ("Oratio Catechetica Magna", 32).
Our Lord's obedience to the Father's saving plan, involving as it did death on the cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "obedience is the sign of true humility" ("Commentary on Phil., ad loc."). In St. Paul's time death by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for it was inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient "unto death, even death on a cross", Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was perfectly within His rights to manifest Himself in all His divine glory, but He chose instead the route leading to the most ignominious of deaths.
His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the Father's will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient: His obedience was active; He made the Father's salvific plans His own. He chose voluntarily to give Himself up to crucifixion in order to redeem mankind. "Debasing oneself when one is forced to do so is not humility", St. John Chrysostom explains; "humility is present when one debases oneself without being obliged to do so" ("Hom. On Phil., ad loc.").
Christ's self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love for us, for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). His loving initiative merits a loving response on our part: we should show that we desire to be one with Him, for love "seeks union, identification with the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate His life of dedication, His unlimited love and His sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service of others" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 236).
9-11. "God highly exalted Him": the Greek compounds the notion of exaltation, to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord Himself foretold this when He said, "He who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
Christ's sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His humiliation. The Church's Magisterium teaches that Christ's glorification affects his human nature only, for "in the form of God the Son was equal to the Father, and between the Begetter and the Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference in majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose anything which the Father might later return to Him as a gift" ([Pope] St. Leo the Great, "Promisisse Me Memini", Chapter 8). Exaltation is public manifestation of the glory which belongs to Christ's humanity by virtue of its being joined to the divine person of the Word. This union to the "form of a servant" (cf. verse 7) meant an immense act of humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the human nature He took on.
For the Jews the "name that is above every name" is the name of God (Yahweh), which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe. Also, they regarded a name given to someone, especially if given by God, as not just a way of referring to a person but as expressing something that belonged to the very core of his personality. Therefore, the statement that God "bestowed on Him the name which is above every name" means that God the Father gave Christ's human nature the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue of the hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the entire universe.
St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar to those used by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: "To Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve His Kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14). Christ's lordship extends to all created things. Sacred Scripture usually speaks of "heaven and earth" when referring to the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here be seen as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the universal sovereignty of Yahweh: "To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isaiah 45:23). All created things come under His sway, and men are duty-bound to accept the basic truth of Christian teaching: "Jesus Christ is Lord." The Greek word "Kyrios" used here by St. Paul is the word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old Testament, to translate the name of God ("Yahweh"). Therefore, this sentence means "Jesus Christ is God."
The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God who was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His exaltation after undergoing the humiliation of the cross. In this also Christ sets us an example: we cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless we understand the supernatural value of difficulties, ill-health and suffering: these are manifestations of Christ's cross present in our ordinary life. "We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross (Philippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. If we obey God's will, the cross will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christ's life will be fulfilled step by step in our own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no matter how many" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 21).
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From: Mark 14:1-15:47
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark
The conspiracy against Jesus
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[1] It was now two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth, and kill him; [2] for they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people."
The anointing of Bethany and the treachery of Judas
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[3] And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. [4] But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment thus wasted? [5] For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." And they reproached her. [6] But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. [7] For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. [8] She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. [9] And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."
[10] Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. [11] And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Preparations for the Last Supper. Judas' treachery foretold
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[12] And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the passover?" [13] And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, [14] and wherever he enters, say to the householder, 'The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I am to eat the passover with my disciples?' [15] And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us." [16] And the disciples set out and went to the city, and found it as he had told them; and they prepared the passover.
[17] And when it was evening he came with the twelve. [18] And as they were at table eating, Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." [19] They began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one after another, "Is it I?" [20] He said to them, "It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. [21] For the Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."
The institution of the Eucharist
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[22] And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." [23] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. [24] And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. [25] Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
The disciples will desert Jesus
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[26] And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. [27] And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' [28] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." [29] Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not." [30] And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." [31] But he said vehemently, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you." And they all said the same.
Jesus' prayer and agony in the garden
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[32] And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I pray." [33] And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. [34] And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch." [35] And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. [36] And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt." [37] And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? [38] Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." [39] And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. [40] And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer him. [41] And he came the third time, and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come; the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. [42] Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."
The arrest of Jesus
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[43] And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. [44] Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away under guard." [45] And when he came, he went up to him at once, and said, "Master!" And he kissed him. [46] And they laid hands on him and seized him. [47] But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. [48] And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? [49] Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled." [50] And they all forsook him, and fled.
[51] And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, [52] but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Jesus before the chief priests
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[53] And they led Jesus to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were assembled. [54] And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the guards, and warming himself at the fire. [55] Now the chief priests and the whole council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none. [56] For many bore false witness against him, and their witness did not agree. [57] And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, [58] "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.'" [59] Yet not even so did their testimony agree. [60] And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" [61] But he was silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" [62] And Jesus said, "I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." [63] And the high priest tore his garments, and said, "Why do we still need witnesses? [64] You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?" And they all condemned him as deserving death. [65] And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to strike him, saying to him, "Prophesy!" And the guards received him with blows.
Peter's denial
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[66] And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the maids of the high priest came; [67] and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him, and said, "You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus." [68] But he denied it, saying, "I neither know nor understand what you mean." And he went out into the gateway. [69] And the maid saw him, and began again to say to the bystanders, "This man is one of them." [70] But again he denied it. And after a little while again the by-standers said to Peter, "Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean." [71] But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know this man of whom you speak." [72] And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." And he broke down and wept.
Jesus before Pilate
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15[1] And as soon as it was morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council held a consultation; and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him to Pilate. [2] And Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And he answered him, "You have said so." [3] And the chief priests accused him of many things. [4] And Pilate again asked him, "Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you." [5] But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate wondered. [6] Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. [7] And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. [8] And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he was wont to do for them. [9] And he answered them, "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" [10] For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. [11] But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. [12] And Pilate again said to them, "Then what shall I do with the man whom you call the King of the Jews?" [13] And they cried out again, "Crucify him." [14] And Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Crucify him." [15] So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas; and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The crowning with thorns
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[16] And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the praetorium); and they called together the whole battalion. [17] And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and plaiting a crown of thorns they put it on him. [18] And they began to salute him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" [19] And they struck his head with a reed, and spat upon him, and they knelt down in homage to him. [20] And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
The crucifixion and death of Jesus
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[21] And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. [22] And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). [23] And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh; but he did not take it. [24] And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. [25] And it was the third hour, when they crucified him. [26] And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." [27] And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. [29] And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Aha! n You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, [30] save yourself, and come down from the cross!" [31] So also the chief priests mocked him to one another with the scribes, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. [32] Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
[33] And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" [35] And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." [36] And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." [37] And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. [38] And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. [39] And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"
[40] There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome, [41] who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered to him; and also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
The burial of Jesus
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[42] And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, [43] Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. [44] And Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. [45] And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. [46] And he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. [47] Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
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Commentary:
1. The Passover was the main national and religious festival. It lasted one week, during which the eating of leavened bread was forbidden, which is why the period was known as the Azymes, the feast of the Unleavened Bread. The celebration opened with the passover meal on the night of the 14th to 15th of the month of Nisan. The essential rite of the meal consisted in eating the paschal lamb sacrificed in the temple the afternoon before. During the meal the youngest member of the family asked what was the meaning of the ceremony; and the head of the household explained to those present that it commemorated God's liberation of the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt, and specifically the passing of the angel of Yahweh, doing no harm to the first-born of the Hebrews but destroying the first-born of the Egyptians (cf. Ex 12).
2. The chief priests and the scribes sought every means to ensure the condemnation and death of the Lord prior to the Passover, for during the festival Jerusalem would be thronged with pilgrims and they feared that Jesus' popularity might cause the complications referred to in the Gospel text. Cf. the note on Mt 26:3-5.
3-9. It was a custom at the time to honor distinguished guests by offering them scented water. This woman treated the Lord with exquisite refinement by pouring a flask of nard over his head: and we can see that he was very appreciative. Three hundred denarii was approximately what a worker would earn in a year: so her action was very generous. Breaking the flask to allow the last drop to flow, so that no one else could use it, implies that Jesus merited everything.
It is important to notice the significance our Lord gave to this gesture: it was an anticipation of the pious custom of embalming bodies prior to burial. This woman would never have thought that her action would become famous throughout the world, but Jesus knew the transcendence and universal dimension of even the smallest episodes in the Gospel story. His prophecy has been fulfilled: "Certainly we hear her story told in all the churches. . . . Wherever in the world you may go, everyone respectfully listens to the story of her good service. . . . And yet hers was not an extraordinary deed, nor was she a distinguished person, nor was there a large audience, nor was the place one where she could easily be seen. She made no entrance onto a theatre stage to perform her service but did her good deed in a private house. Nevertheless . . . , today she is more illustrious than any king or queen; no passage of years has buried in oblivion this service she performed" (St John Chrysostom, "Adversus Iudaeos", 5, 2).
This episode teaches us the refinement with which we should treat the holy humanity of Jesus; it also shows that generosity in things to do with sacred worship is always praiseworthy, for it is a sign of our love for the Lord. Cf. the note on Mt 26:8-11.
10-11. In contrast with the generous anointing by the woman, the Gospel now reports Judas' sad treachery. Her magnanimity highlights the covetousness of Jesus' false friend. "O folly, or rather ambition, of the traitor, for ambition spawns every kind of evil and enslaves souls by every sort of device; it causes forgetfulness and mental derangement. Judas, enslaved by his mad ambition, forgot all about the years he had spent alongside Jesus, forgot that he had eaten at his table, that he had been his disciple; forgot all the counsel and persuasion Jesus had offered him" (St John Chrysostom, "Hom. de prodit. Judae).
Judas' sin is always something Christians should he mindful of: "Today many people are horrified by Judas' crime -- that he could he so cruel and so sacrilegious as to sell his Master and his God; and yet they fail to realize that when they for human reasons dismiss the rights of charity and truth, they are betraying God, who is charity and truth" (St Bede, "Super qui audientes" ... ).
12-16. At first sight our Lord's behaviour described here seems quite out of character. However, if we think about it, it is quite consistent: probably Jesus wanted to avoid Judas knowing in advance the exact place where the Supper will be held, to prevent him notifying the Sanhedrin. And so God's plans for that memorable night of Holy Thursday were fulfilled: Judas was unable to advise the Sanhedrin where they could find Jesus until after the celebration of the passover meal (during which Judas left the Cenacle): cf. Jn 13:30.
St Mark describes in more detail than the other evangelists the place where the meal took place: he says it was a large, well-appointed room -- a dignified place. There is an ancient Christian tradition that the house of the Cenacle was owned by Mary the mother of St Mark, to whom, it seems, the Garden of Olives also belonged.
17-21. Jesus shows that he knows in advance what is going to happen and is acting freely and deliberately, identifying himself with the will of his Father. The words of vv. 18 and 19 are a further call to Judas to repent; our Lord refrained from denouncing him publicly, so making it easier for him to change his mind. But he did not want to remain silent about the incipient treachery; they should realize that the Master knew everything (cf. Jn 13:23ff).
22. The word "this" does not refer to the act of breaking the bread but to the "thing" which Jesus gives his disciples, that is, something which looked like bread and which was no longer bread but the body of Christ. "This is my body. That is to say, what I am giving you now and what you are taking is my body. For the bread is not only a symbol of the body of Christ; it becomes his very body, as the Lord has said: the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. Therefore, the Lord conserves the appearances of bread and wine but changes the bread and wine into the reality of his flesh and his blood" (Theophylact, "Enarratio in Evangelium Marci", in loc.). Therefore, any interpretation in the direction of symbolism or metaphor does not fit the meaning of the text. The same applies to the "This is my blood" (v. 24). On the realism of these expressions, see the first part of the note on Mt 26:26-29.
24. The words of consecration of the chalice clearly show that the Eucharist is a sacrifice: the blood of Christ is poured out, sealing the new and definitive Covenant of God with men. This Covenant remains sealed forever by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, in which Jesus is both Priest and Victim. The Church has defined this truth in these words: "If anyone says that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God, or that to be offered is nothing else but that Christ is given us to eat, let him be anathema" (Council of Trent, "De S. Missae sacrificio", chap. 1, can. 1).
These words pronounced over the chalice must have been very revealing for the apostles, because they show that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were in fact a preparation for and anticipation of Christ's sacrifice. The apostles were able to grasp that the Covenant of Sinai and the various sacrifices of the temple were merely an imperfect pre-figurement of the definitive sacrifice and definitive Covenant, which would take place on the cross and which they were anticipating in this Supper.
A clear explanation of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist can be found in the inspired text in chapters 8 and 9 of the Letter to the Hebrews. Similarly, the best preparation for understanding the real presence and the Eucharist as food for the soul is a reading of chapter 6 of the Gospel of St John.
At the Last Supper, then, Christ already offered himself voluntarily to his Father as a victim to be sacrificed. The Supper and the Mass constitute with the cross one and the same unique and perfect sacrifice, for in all these cases the victim offered is the same -- Christ; and the priest is the same -- Christ. The only difference is that the Supper, which takes place prior to the cross, anticipates the Lord's death in an unbloody way and offers a victim soon to be immolated; whereas the Mass offers, also in an unbloody manner, the victim already immolated on the cross, a victim who exists forever in heaven.
25. After instituting the Holy Eucharist, our Lord extends the Last Supper in intimate conversation with his disciples, speaking to them once more about his imminent death (cf. Jn, chaps. 13-17). His farewell saddens the apostles, but he promises that the day will come when he will meet with them again, when the Kingdom of God will have come in all its fullness: he is referring to the beatific life in heaven, so often compared to a banquet. Then there will be no need of earthly food or drink; instead there will be a new wine (cf. Is 25:6). Definitively, after the resurrection, the apostles and all the saints will be able to share the delight of being with Jesus.
The fact that St Mark brings in these words after the institution of the Eucharist indicates in some way that the Eucharist is an anticipation here on earth of possession of God in eternal blessedness, where God will be everything to everyone (cf. 1 Cor 15:28). "At the Last Supper," Vatican II teaches, "on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium", 47).
26. "When they had sung a hymn": it was a custom at the passover meal to recite prayers, called "Hallel", which included Psalms 113 to 118; the last part was recited at the end of the meal.
30-31. Only St Mark gives us the exact detail of the two cockcrows (v. 30), and Peter's insistence that he would never betray Jesus (v. 31). This is another sign of the connexion between St Mark's Gospel and St Peter's preaching; only Peter, full of contrition and humility, would so deliberately tell the first Christians about these episodes in which his presumption and failures contrasted with Jesus' mercy and understanding. The other evangelists, surely out of respect for the figure of Peter, pass over these incidents more quickly.
This account shows us that our Lord takes into account the weaknesses of those whom he calls to follow him and be his apostles. Peter is too self-confident; very soon he will deny him. Jesus knows this well and, in spite of everything, chooses him as head of the Church. "They [the disciples] remain just like that until they are filled with the Holy Spirit and thus become pillars of the Church. They are ordinary men, complete with defects and shortcomings, more eager to say than to do. Nevertheless, Jesus calls them to be fishers of men, co-redeemers, dispensers of the grace of God. Something similar has happened to us. . . . But I also realize that human logic cannot possibly explain the world of grace. God usually seeks out deficient instruments so that the work can more clearly be seen to be his" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 2 and 3).
32-42. The very human way Jesus approaches his passion and death is noteworthy. He feels everything any man would feel in those circumstances. "He takes with him only the three disciples who had seen his glorification on Mount Tabor, that these who saw his power should also see his sorrow and learn from that sorrow that he was truly man. And, because he assumed human nature in its entirety, he assumed the properties of man -- fear, strength, natural sorrow; for it is natural that men approach death unwillingly" (Theophylact, "Enarratio in Evangelium Marci", in loc.).
Jesus' prayer in the garden shows us, as nothing else in the Gospel does, that he prayed the prayer of petition -- not only for others, but also for himself. For, in the unity of his Person there were two natures, one human and one divine; and, since his human will was not omnipotent, it was appropriate for Christ to ask the Father to strengthen that will (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, "Summa theologiae", III, q. 21, a. 1).
Once more, Jesus prays with a deep sense of his divine sonship (cf. Mt 11:25; Lk 23:46; Jn 17: 1). Only St Mark retains in the original language his filial exclamation to the Father: "Abba", which is how children intimately addressed their parents. Every Christian should have a similar filial trust, especially when praying. At this moment of climax, Jesus turns from his private dialogue with his Father to ask his disciples to pray so as not to fall into temptation. It should be noted that the evangelists, inspired by the Holy Spirit, give us both Jesus' prayer and his commandment to us to pray. This is not a passing anecdote, but an episode which is a model of how Christians should act: prayer is indispensable for staying faithful to God. Anyone who does not pray should be under no illusions about being able to cope with the temptations of the devil: "If our Lord had said only "watch", we might expect that our own power would be sufficient, but when he adds "pray", he shows that "if he keeps not" our souls in time of temptation, in vain shall they watch who keep them (cf. Ps 127:1)" (St Francis de Sales, "Treatise on the Love of God", book 11, chap. 1).
34. "But when he had gone on a little way, he suddenly felt such a sharp and bitter attack of sadness, grief, fear, and weariness that he immediately uttered, even in their presence, those anguished words which gave expression to his overburdened feelings: 'My soul is sad unto death.' For a huge mass of troubles took possession of the tender and gentle body of our most holy Saviour. He knew that his ordeal was now imminent and just about to overtake him: the treacherous betrayer, the bitter enemies, binding ropes, false accusations, slanders, blows, thorns, nails, the cross, and horrible tortures stretched out over many hours. Over and above these, he was tormented by the thought of his disciples' terror, the loss of the Jews, even the destruction of the very man who so disloyally betrayed him, and finally the ineffable grief of his beloved Mother. The gathered storm of all these evils rushed into his most gentle heart and flooded it like the ocean sweeping through broken dikes" (St Thomas More, "De tristitia Christi", in loc.).
35. "Therefore, since he foresaw that there would be many people of such a delicate constitution that they would be convulsed with tenor at any danger of being tortured, he chose to enhearten them by the example of his own sorrow, his own sadness, his own weariness and unequalled fear, lest they should be so disheartened as they compare their own fearful state of mind with the boldness of the bravest martyrs that they would yield freely what they fear will be won from them by force. To such a person as this, Christ wanted his own deed to speak out (as it were) with his own living voice: 'O faint of heart, take courage and do not despair. You are afraid, you are sad, you are stricken with weariness and dread of the torment with which you have been cruelly threatened. Trust me; I conquered the world, and yet I suffered immeasurably more from fear; I was sadder, more afflicted with weariness, more horrified at the prospect of such cruel suffering drawing eagerly nearer and nearer. Let the brave man have his high-spirited martyrs, let him rejoice in imitating a thousand of them. But you, my timorous and feeble little sheep, be content to have me alone as your shepherd; follow my leadership. If you do not trust yourself, place your trust in me. See, I am walking ahead of you along this fearful road. Take hold of the border of my garment and you will feel going out from it a power which will stay your heart's blood from issuing in vain fears, and will make your mind more cheerful, especially when you remember that you are following closely in my footsteps (and I am to be trusted and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but I will give together with the temptation a way out that you may be able to endure it) and likewise when you remember that this light and momentary burden of tribulation will prepare for you a weight of glory which is beyond all measure. For the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which will be revealed in you. As you reflect on such things, take heart, and use the sign of my cross to drive away this dread, this sadness, and weariness like vain specters of the darkness. Advance successfully and press through all obstacles, firmly confident that I will champion your cause until you are victorious and then in turn will reward you with the laurel crown of victory'" (ibid.).
36. "Jesus prays in the garden. "Pater mi" (Mt 26:39), "Abba Pater!" (Mk 14:36). God is my Father, even though he may send me suffering. He loves me tenderly, even while wounding me. Jesus suffers, to fulfil the Will of the Father. . . . And I, who also wish to fulfil the most holy Will of God, following the footsteps of the Master, can I complain if I too meet suffering as my traveling companion?
"It will be a sure sign of my sonship, because God is treating me as he treated his own divine Son. Then I, just as he did, will be able to groan and weep alone in my Gethsemane; but, as I lie prostrate on the ground, acknowledging my nothingness, there will rise up to the Lord a cry from the depths of my soul: 'Pater mi, Abba, Pater, . . . fiat!'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross", I, 1).
41-42. "See now, when Christ comes back to his apostles for the third time, there they are, buried in sleep, though he commanded them to bear up with him and to stay awake and pray because of the impending danger; but Judas the traitor at the same time was so wide awake and intent on betraying the Lord that the very idea of sleep never entered his mind.
"Does not this contrast between the traitor and the apostles present to us a clear and sharp minor image (as it were), a sad and terrible view of what has happened through the ages from those times even to our own? [. . .] For very many are sleepy and apathetic in sowing virtues among the people and maintaining the truth, while the enemies of Christ in order to sow vices and uproot the faith (that is, in- sofar as they can, to seize Christ and cruelly crucify him once again) are wide awake -- so much wiser (as Christ says) are the sons of darkness in their generation than the sons of light (cf Lk 16:8)" (St Thomas More, "De tristitia Christi", in loc.).
43-50. The Gospel reports the arrest of our Lord in a matter-of-fact sort of way. Jesus, who was expecting it, offered no resistance, thereby fulfilling the prophecies about him in the Old Testament, particularly this passage of the poem of the Servant of Yahweh in the Book of Isaiah: "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth . . . because he poured out his soul to death . . ." (Is 53:7 and 12). Dejected only moments earlier at the beginning of his prayer in Gethsemane Jesus now rises up strengthened to face his passion. These mysteries of our Lord, true God and true man, are truly impressive.
51-52. This detail about the young man in the linen cloth is found only in St Mark. Most interpreters see in it a discreet allusion to Mark himself. It is probable that the Garden of Olives belonged to Mark's family, which would explain the presence there at night-time of the boy, who would have been awakened suddenly by the noise of the crowd.
"One sees rich men -- less often, it is true, than I would like -- but still, thank God, one sometimes sees exceedingly rich men who would rather lose everything they have than keep anything at all by offending God through sin. These men have many clothes, but they are not tightly confined by them, so that when they need to run away from danger, they escape easily by throwing off their clothes. On the other hand we see people -- and far more of them than I would wish -- who happen to have only light garments and quite skimpy outfits and yet have so welded their affections to those poor riches of theirs that you could sooner strip skin from flesh than separate them from their goods. Such a person had better get going while there is still time. For once someone gets hold of his clothes, he will sooner die than leave his linen cloth behind. In summary, then, we learn from the example of this young man that we should always be prepared for troubles that arise suddenly, dangers that strike without warning and might make it necessary for us to run away; to be prepared, we ought not be so loaded with various garments, or so buttoned up in even one, that in an emergency we are unable to throw away our linen cloth and escape naked" (St Thomas More, "De tristitia Christi", in loc.).
53-65. This meeting of the Sanhedrin in the house of the high priest was quite irregular. The normal thing was for it to meet during the daytime and in the temple. Everything suggests that the rulers arranged this session secretly, probably to avoid opposition from the people, which would have thwarted their plans. The direct intervention of the high priest and the ill-treatment of the prisoner before sentence were also illegal. The Jewish authorities had for some time past been of a mind to do away with Jesus (cf., e.g., Mk 12:12; Jn 7:30; 11:45-50). Now all they are trying to do is give their actions an appearance of legality -- that is, looking for concurring witnesses to accuse him of capital crimes. Because they do not manage to do this, the chief priest goes right to the key issue: was Jesus the Messiah, yes or no? Jesus' affirmative answer is regarded as blasphemy. Appearances are saved; they can now condemn him to death and ask the Roman procurator to ratify the sentence (cf. the note on Mt 27:2). Despite the irregularities and even though not all the members of the Sanhedrin were present, the significance of this session lies in the fact that the Jewish authorities, the official representatives of the chosen people, reject Jesus as Messiah and condemn him to death.
57-59. From the Gospel of St John (2:19) we know the words of Jesus which gave rise to this accusation: "Destroy the temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Now they accuse him of having said three things: that he is going to destroy the temple; that the temple of Jerusalem is the work of human hands, not something divine; and that in three days he will raise up another one, not made by hands of men. As can be seen, this is not what our Lord said. First they change his words: Jesus did not say he was going to destroy the temple; and, secondly, they apply what he said to the temple of Jerusalem, not understanding that Jesus was speaking about his own body, as is made plain in St John (2:21-22). After the Resurrection, the apostles understood the depth of Jesus' words (Jn 2:22): the temple of Jerusalem, where God's presence was manifested in a special way and where he was offered due worship, was but a sign, a prefiguring of the humanity of Christ, in which the fullness of divinity, God, dwelt (cf. Col 2:9).
The same accusation is made at the martyrdom of St Stephen: "We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us" (Acts 6:14). In fact, St Stephen knew that the true temple was no longer that of Jerusalem but Jesus Christ; but once again they misinterpreted his meaning and accused him as they had our Lord.
61. As at other points during his passion, Jesus kept completely silent. He appeared defenseless before the false accusations of his enemies. "God our Savior," St Jerome says, "who has redeemed the world out of mercy, lets himself be led to death like a lamb, not saying a word; he does not complain, he makes no effort to defend himself. Jesus' silence obtains forgiveness for Adam's protest and excuse" ("Comm. on Mark", in loc.). This silence is another motive and encouragement to us to be silent at times in the face of calumny or criticism. "In quietness and in trust shall be your strength," says the prophet Isaiah (30:15).
"'Jesus remained silent, "Jesus autem tacebat."' Why do you speak, to console yourself, or to excuse yourself?
"Say nothing. Seek joy in contempt: you will always receive less than you deserve.
"Can you, by any chance, ask: 'Quid enim malifeci', what evil have I done?'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 671).
61-64. The high priest was undoubtedly trying to corner Jesus: if he replied that he was not the Christ, it would be equivalent to his contradicting everything he had said and done; if he answered yes, it would be interpreted as blasphemy, as we shall see later. Strictly speaking it was not blasphemy to call oneself the Messiah, or to say one was the Son of God, taking that phrase in a broad sense. Jesus' reply not only bore witness to his being the Messiah; it also showed the divine transcendence of his messianism, by applying to him the prophecy of the Son of man in Daniel (7:13-14). By making this confession, Jesus' reply opened the way for the high priest to make his theatrical gesture: he took it as a mockery of God and as blasphemy that this handcuffed man could be the transcendent figure of the Son of man. At this solemn moment Jesus defines himself by using the strongest of all the biblical expressions his hearers could understand – that which most clearly manifested his divinity. We might point out that had Jesus said simply "I am God" they would have thought it simply absurd and would have regarded him as mad: in which case he would not have borne solemn witness to his divinity before the authorities of the Jewish people.
63. The rending of garments was a custom in Israel to express indignation and protest against sacrilege and blasphemy. The rabbis had specified exactly how it should be done. Only a kind of seam was torn, to prevent the fabric being damaged. With this tragi-comic gesture Caiaphas brings the trial to an end, cleverly sabotaging any later procedure that might favor the prisoner and show up the truth.
64. Through Luke 23:51 and John 7:25-33 we know that not all the members of the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus, for Joseph of Arimathea did not consent in this act of deicide. It maybe supposed, therefore, that they were not present at this meeting of the council, either because they had not been summoned or because they absented themselves.
66-72. Although the accounts given by the three Synoptic Gospels are very alike, St Mark's narrative does have its own characteristics: the sacred text gives little details which add a touch of colour. He says that Peter was "below" (v. 66), which shows that the council session was held in an upstairs room; he also mentions the two cockcrows (v. 72), in a way consistent with our Lord's prophecy described in v. 30. On the theological and ascetical implications of this passage, see the note on Mt 26:70-75.
Chapter 15
1. At daybreak the Sanhedrin holds another meeting to work out how to get Pilate to ratify the death sentence. And then Christ is immediately brought before Pilate. It is not known for certain where the governor was residing during these days. It was either in Herod's palace, built on the western hill of the city, south of the Jaffa Gate, or the Antonia fortress, which was on the north-east of the temple esplanade. It is more than likely that, for the Passover, Pilate lived in the fortress. From there he could have a full view of the whole outside area of the temple, where unrest and riots were most likely to occur. In the centre of this impressive building there was a perfectly paved courtyard of about 2,500 square meters (approximately half an acre). This may well have been the yard where Pilate judged our Lord and which St John (19:13) called The Pavement ("Lithostrotos", in Greek). Philo, Josephus and other historians depict Pilate as having the defects of the worst type of Roman governor. The evangelists emphasize his cowardice and his sycophancy bordering on wickedness.
2. Jesus' reply, as given in St Mark, can be interpreted in two ways. It may mean: You say that l am king; I say nothing; or else: I am a king. The second interpretation is the more common and logical, since in other Gospel passages he affirms his kingship quite categorically (cf. Mt 27:37 and par.; in 18:36-38). In St John's Gospel (18:33-38) Jesus tells Pilate that he is a King and explains the special nature of his kingship: his Kingdom is not of this world; it transcends this world (cf. the note on Jn 18:35-37).
3-5. On three occasions the evangelists specify that Jesus remained silent in the face of these unjust accusations: before the Sanhedrin (14:61); here, before Pilate; and later on, before Herod (Lk 23:9). From the Gospel of St John we know that our Lord did say other things during this trial. St Mark says that he made no further reply, since he is referring only to the accusations made against our Lord: being false, they deserved no reply. Besides, any attempt at defense was futile, since they had decided in advance that he should die. Nor did Pilate need any further answer, since he was more concerned to please the Jewish authorities than, correctly, to find Jesus innocent.
6-15. Instead of simply coming to the rescue of this innocent prisoner, as was his duty and as his conscience advised him, Pilate wants to avoid a confrontation with the Sanhedrin; so he tries to deal with the people and have them set Jesus free. Since it was customary to release a prisoner of the people's choice to celebrate the Passover, Pilate offers them the chance of selecting Jesus. The priests, seeing through this maneuver, incite the crowd to ask for Barabbas. This was not difficult to do, since many felt disillusioned about Jesus because he had not set them free of the foreign yoke. Pilate could not oppose their choice; and so it became even more difficult for him to give a just decision. All he can do now is appeal to the people on behalf of 'the King of the Jews". The humble and helpless appearance of Jesus exasperates the crowd: this is not the sort of king they want, and they ask for his crucifixion.
In the course of the trial Pilate was threatened with being reported to the emperor if he interfered in this affair (cf. Jn 19:12); he now accedes to their shouting and signs the warrant for death by crucifixion, to protect his political career.
15. Scourging, like crucifixion, was a degrading form of punishment applied only to slaves. The whip or flagellum used to punish serious crimes was strengthened with small sharp pieces of metal at the end of the thongs, which had the effect of tearing the flesh and even fracturing bones. Scourging often caused death. The condemned person was tied to a post to prevent him collapsing. People condemned to crucifixion were scourged beforehand.
These sufferings of Jesus have a redemptive value. In other passages of the Gospel our Lord made carrying the cross a condition of following him. Through self-denial a Christian associates himself with Christ's passion and plays a part in the work of redemption (cf. Col 1:24).
"Bound to the pillar. Covered with wounds. The blows of the lash sound upon his torn flesh, upon his undefiled flesh, which suffers for your sinful flesh. More blows. More fury. Still more . . . It is the last extreme of human cruelty.
"Finally, exhausted, they untie Jesus. And the body of Christ yields to pain and falls limp, broken and half dead.
"You and I cannot speak. Words are not needed. Look at him, look at him . . .slowly.
"After this . . . can you ever fear penance?" (St. J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", second sorrowful mystery).
16-19. The soldiers make Jesus object of mockery; they accuse him pretending to be a king, and crown him and dress him up as one.
The image of the suffering Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns, with a reed in his hands and an old purple cloak around his shoulders, has become a vivid symbol of human pain, under the title of the "Ecce homo".
But, as St Jerome teaches, "his ignominy has blotted out ours, his bonds have set us free, his crown of thorns has won for us the crown of the Kingdom, wounds have cured us" ("Comm. in Marcum", in loc.).
"You and I . . . , haven't we crowned him anew with thorns and struck him and spat on him?" (St. J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", third sorrowful mystery).
21. "Jesus is exhausted. His footsteps become more and more unsteady, and the soldiers are in a hurry to he finished. So, when they are going out of the city through the Judgment Gate, they take hold of a man who was coming in from a farm, a man called Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, and they force him to carry the Cross of Jesus (cf. Mk 15:21).
"In the whole context of the Passion, this help does not add up to very much. But for Jesus, a smile, a word, a gesture, a little bit of love is enough for him to pour out his grace bountifully on the soul of his friend. Years later, Simon's sons, Christians by then, will be known and held in high esteem among their brothers in the faith. And it all started with this unexpected meeting with the Cross.
"'I went to those who were not looking for me; I was found by those who sought me not (Is 65:1)'".
"At times the Cross appears without our looking for it: it is Christ who is seeking us out. And if by chance, before this unexpected Cross which, perhaps, is therefore more difficult to understand, your heart were to show repugnance . . . don't give it consolations. And, filled with a noble compassion, when it asks for them, say to it slowly, as one speaking in confidence: 'Heart: Heart on the Cross! Heart on the Cross!'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross", V).
St Mark stops for a moment to say who this Simon was: he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. It appears that Rufus, years later, moved with his mother to Rome; St Paul sent them affectionate greetings in his Letter to the Romans (16:13). It seems reasonable to imagine that Simon first felt victimized at being forced to do such unpleasant work, but contact with the Holy Cross -- the altar on which the divine Victim was going to be sacrificed -- and the sight of the suffering and death of Jesus, must have touched his heart; and the Cyrenean, who was at first indifferent, left Calvary a faithful disciple of Christ: Jesus had amply rewarded him. How often it happens that divine providence, through some mishap, places us face to face with suffering and brings about in us a deeper conversion.
When reading this passage, we might reflect that, although our Lord has rescued us voluntarily, and although his merits are infinite, he does seek our cooperation. Christ bears the burden of the cross, but we have to help him carry it by accepting all the difficulties and contradictions with which divine providence presents us. In this way we grow in holiness, at the same time atoning for our faults and sins.
From the Gospel of St John (19:17) we know that Jesus bore the cross on his shoulders. In Christ burdened by the cross St Jerome sees, among other meanings, the fulfillment of the figure of Abel, the innocent victim, and particularly of Isaac (cf. Gen 22:6), who carried the wood for his own sacrifice (cf. St Jerome, "Comm. in Marcum", in loc.). Later, weakened from the scourging, Jesus can go no further on his own, which is why they compel this man from Cyrene to carry the cross.
"If anyone would follow me . . . Little friend, we are sad, living the Passion of our Lord Jesus. See how lovingly he embraces the Cross. Learn from him. Jesus carries the Cross for you: you . . . carry it for Jesus.
"But don't drag the Cross . . . . Carry it squarely on your shoulder, because the Cross, if you carry it like that, will not be just any Cross. . . . It will be the Holy Cross. Don't carry your Cross with resignation: resignation is not a generous word. Love the Cross. When you really love it, your Cross will be . . . a Cross without a Cross. And surely you will find Mary on the way, just as Jesus did" (St. J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", fourth sorrowful mystery).
22. There is no doubt about where this place was: it was a small, bare hill, at that time outside the city, right beside a busy main road.
23. Following the advice of Proverbs (31:6), the Jews used to offer dying criminals wine mixed with myrrh or incense to drug them and thus alleviate their suffering.
Jesus tastes it (according to Mt 27:34), but he does not drink it. He wishes to remain conscious to the last moment and to keep offering the chalice of the Passion, which he accepted at the Incarnation (Heb 10:9) and did not refuse in Gethsemane. St Augustine ("On the Psalms", 21:2 and 8) explains that our Lord wanted to suffer to the very end in order to purchase our redemption at a high price (cf. 1 Cor 6:20).
Faithful souls have also experienced this generosity of Christ in embracing pain: "Let us drink to the last drop the chalice of pain in this poor present life. What does it matter to suffer for ten years, twenty, fifty . . . if afterwards there is heaven for ever, for ever. . . for ever?
"And, above all rather than because of the reward, 'propter retributionem' what does suffering matter if we suffer to console, to please God our Lord, in a spirit of reparation, united to him on his cross; in a word: if we suffer for Love? (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 182).
24-28. Crucifixion, as well as being the most degrading of punishments, was also the most painful. By condemning him to death, Jesus' enemies try to achieve the maximum contrast with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem some days previously. Usually, the bodies of people crucified were left on the gibbet for some days as a warning to people. In the case of Christ they also sought death by crucifixion as the most convincing proof that he was not the Messiah.
Crucifixion took various forms. The usual one, and perhaps the one applied to Jesus, consisted of first erecting the upright beam and then positioning the crossbeam with the prisoner nailed to it by his hands; and finally nailing his feet to the lower part of the upright.
According to St John's Gospel (19:23-25) the seamless tunic -- that is, woven in a piece -- was wagered for separately from the rest of his clothes, which were divided into four lots, one for each soldier. The words of this verse reproduce those of Psalm 22:18. Any Jew versed in the Scriptures reading this passage would immediately see in it the fulfillment of a prophecy. St John expressly notes it (cf. 19:24). St Mark, without losing the thread of his account of the Passion, implicitly argues that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, for in him this prophecy is fulfilled.
Looking at Jesus on the cross, it is appropriate to recall that God "decreed that man should be saved through the wood of the Cross. The tree of man's defeat became his tree of victory; where life was lost, there life has been restored" ("Roman Missal", Preface of the Holy Cross).
25. "The third hour": between nine o'clock and noon. St Mark is the only evangelist who specifies the time at which our Lord was nailed to the cross. For the relationship between our clock and the Jewish system in that period, see the note on Mt 20:3.
26. This inscription was usually put in a prominent place so that everyone could see what the prisoner was guilty of. Pilate ordered them to write "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews," in Latin, Greek and Hebrew; St Mark summarizes the inscription.
Motivated by malice, these Jews accuse Jesus of a political crime, when all his life and preaching left it quite clear that his mission was not political but supernatural. On the meaning of the inscription over the cross and the circumstances surrounding it, see John 19:19-22 and note.
27. Jesus is thus put to further shame; his disciples will also experience the humiliation of being treated like common criminals.
But in the case of Jesus this was providential, for it fulfilled the Scripture which prophesies that he would be counted among the evildoers. The Vulgate, following some Greek codices, adds: "And the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'He was reckoned with the transgressors'" (v. 28; cf. Lk 22:37). "Positioned between the evildoers," St Jerome teaches, "the Truth places one on his left and one on his right, as will be the case on the day of judgment. So we see how distinct the end of similar sinners can be. One precedes Peter into Paradise, the other enters hell before Judas: a brief confession brings eternal life, a momentary blasphemy is punished with eternal death" ("Comm. in Marcum", in loc.).
The Christian people have from early on given various names to these thieves. The most common in the West is Dismas for the good thief and Gestas for the bad thief.
29-32. Christ's suffering did not finish with the crucifixion: there now follows a form of mockery worse (if possible) than the crowning with thorns. He is mocked by passers-by, by the priests chanting insults with the scribes, and even by the two crucified thieves (cf., however, the clarification in Lk 23:39-43). They combine to reproach him for his weakness, as if his miracles had been deceptions, and incite him to manifest his power.
The fact that they ask him to work a miracle does not indicate that they have any desire to believe in him. For faith is a gift from God which only those receive who have a simple heart. "You ask for very little," St Jerome upbraids the Jews, "when the greatest event in history is taking place before your very eyes. Your blindness cannot be cured even by much greater miracles than those you call for" ("Comm. on Mark", in loc.).
Precisely because he was the Messiah and the Son of God he did not get down from the cross; in great pain, he completed the work his Father had entrusted to him. Christ teaches us that suffering is our best and richest treasure. Our Lord did not win victory from a throne or with a scepter in his hand, but by opening his arms on the cross. A Christian, who, like any other person, will experience pain and sorrow during his life, should not flee it or rebel against it, but offer it to God, as his Master did.
33. The evangelist reports this as a miraculous phenomenon signaling the magnitude of the crime of deicide which was taking place. The phrase "over the whole land" means over all the immediate horizon, without specifying its limits. The normal interpretation of the meaning of this event is dual and complementary; Origen (In "Matth. comm.", 143) sees it as an expression of the spiritual darkness which overtook the Jewish people as a punishment for having rejected -- crucified – him who is the true light (cf. Jn 1:4-9). St Jerome ("Comm. on Matthew", in loc.) explains the darkness as expressing, rather, the mourning of the universe at the death of its Creator, nature's protest against the unjust killing of its Lord (cf. Rom 8:19-22).
These words, spoken in Aramaic, are the start of Psalm 22, the prayer of the just man who, hunted and cornered, feels utterly alone, like "a worm, and no man; scorned by men and despised by the people" (v. 7). From this abyss of misery and total abandonment, the just man has recourse to Yahweh: "My God, my God, why art thou so far from helping me. . . . Since my mother bore me thou has been my God. . . . But thou, O Lord, be not far off! O thou my help, hasten to my aid!" (vv. 2, 10 and 19). Thus, far from expressing a moment of despair, these words of Christ reveal his complete trust in his heavenly Father, the only one on whom he can rely in the midst of suffering, to whom he can complain like a Son and in whom he abandons himself without reserve: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" (Lk 23:46; Ps 31:5).
One of the most painful situations a person can experience is to feel alone in the face of misunderstanding and persecution on all sides, to feel completely insecure and afraid. God permits these tests to happen so that, experiencing our own smallness and world-weariness, we place all our trust in him who draws good from evil for those who love him (cf. Rom 8:28).
"So much do I love Christ on the Cross that every crucifix is like a loving reproach from my God: '. . . I suffering, and you . . . a coward. I loving you, and you forgetting me. I begging you, and you . . . denying me. I, here, with arms wide open as an Eternal Priest, suffering all that can be suffered for love of you . . . and you complain at the slightest misunderstanding, over the tiniest humiliation . . .'" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross", XI, 2).
35-36. The soldiers near the cross, on hearing our Lord speak, may have thought, wrongly, that he was calling on Elijah for help. However, it seems it is the Jews themselves who, twisting our Lord's words, find another excuse for jeering at him. There was a belief that Elijah would come to herald the Messiah, which is why they used these words to continue to ridicule Christ on the cross.
37. The evangelist recalls it very succinctly: "Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last.' It is as if he did not dare make any comment, leaving it to the reader to pause and meditate. Although the death of Christ is a tremendous mystery, we must insist: Jesus Christ died; it was a real, not an apparent, death; nor should we forget that our sin was what caused our Lord's death. "The abyss of malice, which sin opens wide, has been bridged by his infinite charity. God does not abandon men. His plans foresee that the sacrifices of the Old Law were insufficient to repair our faults and re-establish the unity which has been lost: a man who was God must offer himself up. To help us grasp in some measure this unfathomable mystery, we might imagine the Blessed Trinity taking counsel together in its uninterrupted intimate relationship of infinite love. As a result of its eternal decision, the only-begotten Son of God the Father takes on our human condition and bears the burden of our wretchedness and sorrows, to end up sewn with nails to a piece of wood. Let us meditate on our Lord, wounded from head to foot out of love for us" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ is Passing By", 95).
". . . Now it is all over. The work of our Redemption has been accomplished. We are now children of God, because Jesus has died for us and his death has ransomed us.
"Empti enim estis pretio magno! (1 Cor 6:20), you and I have been bought at a great price.
"We must bring into our lives, to make them our own, the life and death of Christ. We must die through mortification and penance, so that Christ may live in us through Love. And then follow in the footsteps of Christ, with a zeal to co-redeem all mankind.
"We must give our lives for others. That is the only way to live the life of Jesus Christ and to become one and the same thing with him" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way of the Cross, XIV).
38. The strictly sacred precinct of the temple of Jerusalem had two parts: the first, called "the Holy Place," where only priests could enter for specific liturgical functions; the second, called "the Holy of Holies" ("Sancta Sanctorum"). This was the most sacred room where once the Ark of the Covenant stood, containing the tablets of the Law. Above the Ark was the "propitiatory" with figures of two cherubim. Only once a year did the high priest have access to the Holy of Holies, on the great Day of Atonement, to perform the rite of purification of the people. The curtain of the temple was the great curtain which separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place (cf. 1 Kings 6:15f).
The prodigy of the tearing of the curtain of the temple -- apparently of no great importance -- is full of theological meaning. It signifies dramatically that with Christ's death the worship of the Old Covenant has been brought to an end; the temple of Jerusalem has no longer any raison d'être. The worship pleasing to God -- in spirit and truth (cf. in 4:23) -- is rendered him through the humanity of Christ, who is both Priest and Victim.
39. Regarding this passage St Bede says that this miracle of the conversion of the Roman officer is due to the fact that, on seeing the Lord die in this way, he could not but recognize his divinity; for no one has the power to surrender his spirit but he who is the Creator of souls (cf. St Bede, "In Marci Evangelium expositio", in loc.). Christ, indeed, being God, had the power to surrender his spirit; whereas in the case of other people their spirit is taken from them at the moment of death. But the Christian has to imitate Christ, also at this supreme moment: that is, we should accept death peacefully and joyfully. Death is the point planned by God for us to leave our spirit in his hands; the difference is that Christ yielded up his spirit when he chose (cf. Jn 10-18), whereas we do so when God so disposes.
"Don't be afraid of death. Accept it from now on, generously . . . when God wills it, where God wills it, as God wills it. Don't doubt what I say: it will come in the moment, in the place and in the way that are best: sent by your Father-God. Welcome be our sister death!" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 739).
43-46. Unlike the apostles, who fled, Joseph of Arimathea, who had not consented to the decision of the Sanhedrin (cf. Lk 23:51), had the bold and refined piety of personally taking charge of everything to do with the burial of Jesus. Christ's death had not shaken his faith. It is worth noting that he does this immediately after the debacle of Calvary and before the triumph of the glorious resurrection of the Lord. His action will be rewarded by his name being written in the Book of Life and recorded in the Holy Gospel and in the memory of all generations of Christians. Joseph of Arimathea put himself at the service of Jesus, without expecting any human recompense and even at personal risk: he ventured his social position, his own as yet unused tomb, and everything else that was needed. He will always be a vivid example for every Christian of how one ought to risk money, position and honour in the service of God.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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