The Church begins the Palm Sunday Mass with a procession of
Palms. The singing and the reading of the Gospel bring us jubilantly into the
Church, and then we read the Passion of Christ. And we feel the full thrust of
Christ’s sufferings. The Church does this because it wants us to enter into the
experience of the apostles who were at first elated by Christ’s entry into
Jerusalem and then struck to despair by His crucifixion.
All four Gospels mention the crucifixion of Christ. Matthew
and Mark’s Gospels are practically the same in the crucifixion accounts. Let us
compare the words of Christ in the Gospels.
St. Luke talks about Christ as being the great advocate
before the Father. The first words that Jesus spoke from the cross in Luke’s
gospel are, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Here
Jesus is advocating for those who crucified him. His second words in St. Luke’s
Gospel are to the repentant thief. “This day you will be with me in paradise.” Luke
is showing that Jesus did not come just for the faithful but for the outcasts
as well. The first one to go to heaven after Jesus’ death was a thief. The last
words that Jesus speaks in St. Luke’s Gospel are, “Father, into your hands I
commend my spirit.” Jesus is offering himself to the very mercy of God. He goes
to the Father to plead for humanity.
In John’s gospel, we hear three other utterances of Christ.
John talks about us being adopted children of God and about being in the family
of God. The first words that Jesus speaks in John’s account of the crucifixion
are to Mary and to the disciple John. “Woman, behold thy son.” And “Behold thy
mother.” Jesus is saying, “I give you my Mother. I am going to my Father. We
are a family. You are part of that family. The one who sees me sees the Father.
Now I am giving you my Mother.” Jesus’ second words are, “I thirst.” This
statement brings us back to Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well
where he says to her that he is thirsty and asks for a drink. She says to him, “Why
are you asking me for a drink? You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan. You should
not even be talking to me.” But Jesus makes her realize that she is the one who
is thirsty, she is thirsty for God. Now Jesus on the cross is thirsting for
souls. He wants us to understand that if we go to him we will never be thirsty
again. The final words of Jesus in the Gospel of St. John are, “It is
consummated.” It is accomplished. Our salvation is accomplished. Now the world
knows that God loves it unto death. God gave himself totally. He handed himself
to the Father and accomplished what he had been sent to do. Jesus poured out on
us the love of God.
In Matthew and Mark’s Gospel account of the crucifixion
Jesus says only one sentence. But what a sentence it is. “My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?” Jesus wants us to listen carefully and to think about
what he is saying. He wants us to realize how close God has come to us. Here he
is speaking as one of us. Having borne our guilt and shame. he cries out as one
of us, for he knows our suffering, our pain, and he shows us the empathy of God
for us. This cry is a cry of humanity. It is the voice of every human being
from Adam and Eve down to our times, a beautiful cry to the Father that draws
the Father close to us. God heard that cry and made the Word flesh. Bible
scholars tell us that Jesus, by speaking the first words of Psalm 22, was in
fact speaking the entire Psalm to the people who were listening. The Psalm is a
prophecy about the suffering Messiah and ends with his eventual glory. Matthew
foretells this glory when he indicates that, after Jesus gave his spirit back
to God, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the
earth quaked, and the rocks were rent.” God came close to us and now there is
no curtain veil between us and God. God’s mercy entered the human race and
peace was made with it through the scapegoat of Christ; the veil in the temple
is torn in two because God has not abandoned his people who betrayed them. God
has come to them through the veil.
So let us pick up our cross and follow Christ, remembering
his words from the cross. Let us follow him to our Father’s house where he is,
where he has redeemed us and sanctified us and where we will live forever.
Transcribed as closely as possible from a homily by Father
David Engo, FFM
No comments:
Post a Comment