Commentary

Commentary - Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion- Year A

 

April 13, 2014

 

FIRST READING - Isaiah 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.

 

Commentary

 

For years, we have read and reread these amazing texts called "Servant Songs", taken from the book of Isaiah. They are of particular interest to us Christians for two reasons: first because of the message that Isaiah wanted to give to his contemporaries; and secondly, because the early Christians applied these Servant Songs to Jesus Christ.

 

I begin with the message of the prophet Isaiah to his contemporaries. One thing is certain: Isaiah was obviously not thinking about Jesus Christ when he wrote this, probably in the 6th century BC, during the Babylonian Exile. Seeing how his people in exile are in harsh conditions that could well lead to their discouragement, Isaiah reminds them that they are still God’s servant; and that God counts on his servant (his people) to achieve God’s plan of salvation for humanity. The people of Israel are indeed the servant of God, nourished each morning by the Word, but also persecuted for their faith.

 

In this text, Isaiah admirably describes the special relationship that unites the servant (Israel) to God. Its main characteristic is one of listening to the Word of God, "Morning after morning he opens my ear" as Isaiah says. Our text ads: “that I may hear”; but the Hebrew meaning of this phrase refers to a learner: “to listen as those who are taught." To listen to the Word, to be taught by it, means to live in trust. "Listen" is a word that has a special meaning in the Bible: it means to trust. Our lives incessantly waver between two opposing attitudes: confidence in God, serene abandonment to God’s will because we know from experience that this will is good ... or mistrust, suspicion of God’s intentions ... and rebellion when we are faced with trials, a rebellion that can lead us to believe that God has abandoned us, or worse, that God finds satisfaction in our suffering.

 

One after another, the prophets repeatedly entreated the people with: "Hear, O Israel", “Hear what the Lord says,” “Listen.” And in their mouth the word "Listen" always meant "trust God no matter what happens". St. Paul explains why: it is because "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God." From every evil, from every difficulty and trial, God brings forth good. God counters hatred with a stronger love, persecution with the power of forgiveness, and death with life, with resurrection.

 

What we have here is a story of mutual trust. God has confidence in the servant to whom God entrusts a mission; in return the servant confidently accepts the mission. And it is this mutual trust that gives the servant the necessary strength to stand firm even in the face of inevitable opposition. Here the mission is one of witness "that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them." When entrusting this mission, the Lord provides the necessary strength – the Lord “gives” the necessary language: "The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue." And God also provides the confidence from which springs the audacity of service to others: "He opens my ear," indicates that listening (in the biblical sense of trusting) is itself a gift from God. Everything is gift: the mission and also the strength and the confidence that makes one unwavering in one’s mission.  It is characteristic of the believer to recognize everything as a gift from God. Whoever lives in this permanent giftedness is ready to face anything: "I have not rebelled, have not turned back."

 

Fidelity to the mission entrusted inevitably brings persecution: true prophets, that is to say those who actually speak the word of God, are rarely appreciated in their lifetime. And so Isaiah specifically warns his contemporaries: hold on tight, the Lord has not abandoned you; on the contrary, God has entrusted you with a mission; so do not be surprised if you are mistreated. Why? Because the servant who truly "listens" to the Word of God, who concretely lives it, quickly becomes extremely discomfiting. His conversion calls others to conversion. Some consequently hear the call ... others reject it, and full of their own good reasons, they persecute the servant. Each morning, the servant must renew his strength at the foot of the One who enables him to face whatever comes: "Morning after morning he opens my ear ... The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced..." And then Isaiah uses a slightly curious expression to our ears but typical in Hebrew: "I have set my face like flint "*: it expresses resolve and courage.  We sometimes say of a distraught person that his “face fell”; well here the servant says, "you won’t see me with a fallen face; nothing will crush me, whatever happens I will hold on". This confidence is not a prideful boast; it comes from knowing the source of his strength: "The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced..."

 

I said at the beginning that the prophet Isaiah addressed his humiliated, persecuted contemporaries in exile in Babylon; but, of course, when one reads the Passion of Christ, it is obvious that Christ perfectly embodies this image of the servant of God: an open ear to God’s Word, an unshakable confidence that brings with it the certainty of victory in the midst of persecution, all this characterized Jesus as the crowds cheered him on in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, thereby precipitating his fateful end.

 

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·         Luke uses this exact phrase when speaking of Jesus: "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9, 51)

·

 

Psalm 22, 1, 8-9, 17-20, 22b-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?

 

Commentary

 

Psalm 22 holds a few surprises. First surprise: It begins with the well-known phrase "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" - a phrase over which has been poured much ink and musical notes! The trouble is that we take this phrase out of its context, and as a result change its meaning. In order to understand this phrase, we must read the entire psalm. It is fairly long: 32 verses, yet we rarely read the final verses. What does the psalm say? It is an act of thanksgiving: "…you have rescued me. 
I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you." He who cried out, "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" in the first verse, gives thanks a few verses later for the salvation granted. Not only is he not dead, he is giving thanks to God for not abandoning him!

 

Second surprise: At first sight, we could really think that Psalm 22 was written about Jesus Christ: "They have pierced my hands and feet; I can count all my bones." Indeed this fits the agony of a crucified man that takes place under the cruel eyes of the executioners and perhaps even of curious onlookers: "Indeed, many dogs surround me, a pack of evildoers closes in upon me… They stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots."

 

But in reality, this psalm was not written about Jesus Christ; it was composed for the return from the Babylonian Exile. This return is compared to the resurrection of a man condemned to death - because the Exile was indeed the death sentence of the people of Israel; a little more, and they would have been wiped off the map!

 

And so, in this Psalm, Israel is compared to a condemned man who nearly died on the cross (the cross was a very common form of punishment which explains why the example of crucifixion is used); the offender has suffered insults, humiliation, the piercing of nails, abandonment in the hands of executioners ... and then, miraculously, he has escaped, he is not dead. Translate: ‘Israel has returned from exile’. And now he abandons himself to his joy and shouts it to everyone; he shouts it louder than he had shouted his distress.

 

The crucifixion is not central to the psalm; its purpose is to showcase the thanksgiving prayer of the one (Israel) who has just escaped from horror.

 

From the midst of its distress, Israel has never ceased to call for help nor did it ever doubt that God was listening. Its well-known loud cry: "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" is a cry of distress before God's silence, but it is not a cry of despair, much less a cry of doubt. Quite the contrary! It is the prayer of the one who in his suffering dares to shout his suffering.

 

Incidentally, this sheds light on our own prayer when we are suffering: we have the right to scream; the Bible invites us to do so.

 

This psalm then, is actually a song of the return from Exile in which Israel gives thanks. It recalls its past pain, its anguish, and God’s apparent silence; it thought itself abandoned in the hands of its enemies ... but nevertheless continued to pray, which proves that the people had not completely lost hope, otherwise they would have given up on prayer! Throughout its exile Israel continued to remember the Covenant and all of God’s blessings.

 

Basically, this psalm is the equivalent of our ex-voto. During a time of great danger, we pray and make a vow: "if I escape, I will offer a votive offering to such or such a saint" (The word "ex-voto" means "following a vow"). Once our prayer has been answered, our promise is kept. In certain churches in the south of France, for example, the walls are covered with paintings of the circumstances of the danger escaped – perhaps from a fire, an accident or a shipwreck ... sometimes we see a young woman dying in childbirth with many children at her bedside. What almost happened is always presented dramatically; we see parents and relatives weeping helplessly; they are the ones who promise to request this painting once the loved one is out of danger. In general, the painting is divided into three sections: the danger encountered, the family and relatives in prayer, and at the top of the canvas, in a corner of the sky, the saint who came to their assistance, or the Virgin. This ex-voto with all its parts is itself the expression of thanksgiving that wells up in the hearts of those for whom all ended well.

 

Psalm 21 is exactly like that: it paints the horror of the Exile, the distress of the people of Israel and of Jerusalem under siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and the sense of helplessness in this time of trial; and here the trial is none other than the hatred of men. The people pray in supplication: "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" which can be translated as "Why, to what end, have you abandoned me to the hatred of my enemies?" God knows the many times that the people of Israel faced the hatred of men. But this psalm, just like our ex-votos, goes beyond this: it is also the thanksgiving prayer of the one who acknowledges that he owes his salvation to God alone. "But you, O LORD, be not far from 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!"

 

The final verses of the psalm are a cry of praise and gratitude. Unfortunately, we do not sing them for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion ... maybe because we are supposed to know them by heart? "The poor will eat their fill; those who seek the LORD will offer praise. May your hearts enjoy life forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD; all the families of nations will bow low before him… And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought."

 

SECOND READING - Philippians 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.

 

Commentary

 

This familiar text is often called the "Philippians Hymn" because we have the impression that Paul did not write it himself, but rather cites a hymn that was regularly sung in the liturgy.

 

To begin with I want to make two points: first, once again, we are struck by the New Testament’s emphasis on the subject of the servant, "he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave." It is clear that the early Christians, faced with the scandal of the cross, reflected long and hard on Isaiah’s Servant Songs. These texts were able to provide a way of understanding the mystery of the person of Christ.

 

Second remark: "Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped." Our translation reads "though he was in the form of God," but in reality it is the opposite: it should read, "because he was in the form of God, he did not see fit to assert his right to be treated as God’s equal."

 

On a more serious note, what is critical here is our temptation to read this text in terms of our human idea of reward - as if the pattern went like this: Jesus behaved admirably and therefore he received a wonderful reward! If I speak of temptation it is because any presentation of God's benevolent plan that uses terms of calculation, of reward, of merit, what I call arithmetic thinking, is contrary to God’s "free grace". As its name suggests, grace is gratuitous! Oddly enough, we have a lot of trouble thinking in terms of gratuity; we are always tempted to talk about merits; but if God waited for us to produce merits, then we would have reason to worry... The wonder of God's love is that it does not wait for us to merit it; this in any case is what the people of the Bible discovered through Revelation.

 

So to be faithful to the text, it must be read in terms of gratuity. We are liable to misinterpret it if we forget that with God everything is gift, "everything is grace" as Bernanos said.

 

For Paul, it is obvious that God’s gift is gratuitous; it is a conviction that runs through all of his letters, so much so that he does not need to bring it up again.

 

To summarize Paul's thought: God's benevolent plan is to invite us into God’s intimacy, happiness and perfect love: all this is absolutely free, which is not surprising, since it stems from love. Our part is simply to accept with wonder and awe this gift of God, this entry in divine life; there is no room for merit here since it is a gift freely offered. With God, everything is gift. But we exclude ourselves from this free gift if we adopt an attitude of entitlement, if we behave like the woman in the Garden of Eden: she takes the forbidden fruit, she takes it like a demanding child in a toy store ... Jesus Christ, on the contrary, was totally receptive (what St. Paul calls "obedient" - more on that word later), and because he was open to accepting the gift of God and did not claim it as his own, this gift was given him to the full.

 

"Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped." It is precisely because he is in the form of God that Jesus Christ knows that love is freely given; he knows that it is not good to have an attitude of entitlement and does not regard equality with God as his right... And yet this is exactly what God wants to give! To give as Gift, which is what Jesus recieves in the end.

 

This receptivity is also at the heart of the story of Christ’s temptations in the desert (which we read the first Sunday of Lent). The divider (in Greek, this is precisely what the word for ‘devil’ - diabolos - means) tempts Jesus only with things that are already part of God's plan! But Jesus refuses to take them. He relies on his Father to give them to him. The Tempter says, "If you are the Son of God, you are entitled to everything, your Father cannot refuse you anything. So if you are hungry turn these stones into bread... God will always protect you so throw yourself from the heights, ... the world is yours, if you only worship me." But Jesus waits for all things from God alone.

 

Jesus receives the name that is above every other name: the name of God! To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that he is God. In the Old Testament, the title "Lord" was reserved for God – as was the act of genuflexion. “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bend”: this is a reference to a phrase from the prophet Isaiah:  “To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear, says God” (Is 45: 23).

 

Jesus lived his human life in humility and trust, even when faced with the worst, that is to say, with human hatred and death. I used the word "trust" whereas Paul speaks of "obedience."  To obey, "ob-audire" in Latin, literally means to put one’s ear (audire) before (ob) the word spoken: it is the attitude of truly open dialogue, of total trust. If you put your ear to the word it is because you know that word is love; you can hear it without fear.

 

The hymn ends with "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father": the glory referred to here is the manifestation, the revelation of infinite love; it is love personified. Christ carries love to its highest height, even to the point of accepting death to show us the extent of God’s love. Thus we can say with the centurion, "Yes, truly, this one is the Son of God "... because God is love.

 

GOSPEL - Mt 26, 14-27, 66

 

Jesus stood before the governor, Pontius Pilate, who questioned him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus said, “You say so.”

And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,

he made no answer.

Then Pilate said to him,

“Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?”

But he did not answer him one word,

so that the governor was greatly amazed.

 

Now on the occasion of the feast

the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd

one prisoner whom they wished.

And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,

“Which one do you want me to release to you,

Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?”

For he knew that it was out of envy

that they had handed him over.

While he was still seated on the bench,

his wife sent him a message,

“Have nothing to do with that righteous man.

I suffered much in a dream today because of him.”

The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds

to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.

The governor said to them in reply,

“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”

They answered, “Barabbas!”

Pilate said to them,

“Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”

They all said,

“Let him be crucified!”

But he said,

“Why? What evil has he done?”

They only shouted the louder,

“Let him be crucified!”

When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,

but that a riot was breaking out instead,

he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,

saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.

Look to it yourselves.”

And the whole people said in reply,

“His blood be upon us and upon our children.”

Then he released Barabbas to them,

but after he had Jesus scourged,

he handed him over to be crucified.

 

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium

and gathered the whole cohort around him.

They stripped off his clothes

and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.

Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,

and a reed in his right hand.

And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,

“Hail, King of the Jews!”

They spat upon him and took the reed

and kept striking him on the head.

And when they had mocked him,

they stripped him of the cloak,

dressed him in his own clothes,

and led him off to crucify him.

 

As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;

this man they pressed into service

to carry his cross.

 

And when they came to a place called Golgotha

— which means Place of the Skull —,

they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.

But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.

After they had crucified him,

they divided his garments by casting lots;

then they sat down and kept watch over him there.

And they placed over his head the written charge against him:

This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,

one on his right and the other on his left.

Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,

“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

save yourself, if you are the Son of God,

and come down from the cross!”

Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,

“He saved others; he cannot save himself.

So he is the king of Israel!

Let him come down from the cross now,

and we will believe in him.

He trusted in God;

let him deliver him now if he wants him.

For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

The revolutionaries who were crucified with him

also kept abusing him in the same way.

 

From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land

until three in the afternoon.

And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”

which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Some of the bystanders who heard it said,

“This one is calling for Elijah.”

Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;

he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,

gave it to him to drink.

But the rest said,

‘Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.”

But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,

and gave up his spirit.

 

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

 

And behold, the veil of the sanctuary

was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,

and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,

they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus

feared greatly when they saw the earthquake

and all that was happening, and they said,

“Truly, this was the Son of God!”

 

Commentary

 

Each year on Palm Sunday we read the story of the Passion from one of the three synoptic Gospels. This year it is from the Gospel of Matthew, and certain episodes are uniquely his. Overall, the four gospel accounts of the Passion are very similar, but if we look a little closer, we see that each of the evangelists has his own emphasis. This is not surprising; after all, those who witness the same event usually recount the facts in their own way. The evangelists relate the event of the Passion of Christ in four different ways; they do not recount all the same events or use the same wording.

 

 So what seems to be characteristic of Matthew’s account? First, we have the impression that Matthew wants to highlight what for him was the terrible paradox of this drama: that other than Jesus’ family and a few disciples, the majority of the Jews, who ought to have been the ones closest to Jesus, have instead ignored him, despised him and humiliated him. In contrast, it is the others, the Gentiles who have unknowingly given Jesus his true titles of nobility.

 

We can’t help but note the abundance of titles given to Jesus in these few lines, which cover his last few hours of life on earth. This crushed man, wounded in body and dignity, reviled, accused of blasphemy, which was the worst of sins in the eyes of his contemporaries, is at the same time honored by strangers who quite unknowingly award him the highest titles of the Jewish religion: King of the Jews, Messiah, righteous man, and finally, Son of God.

 

The first title, King of the Jews: The governor, Pontius Pilate, asks him, “Are you the king of the Jews?" To which Jesus answers, "You say so," which seems to express agreement. In Matthew’s Gospel, these words are virtually Jesus’ last before his death. All during his trial and execution, he will say nothing, until the moment of his death when he will utter a Jewish prayer from Psalm 22: "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me” - the thanksgiving prayer of the people of Israel in recognition of God’s saving actions even from the worst dangers.

 

The title King of the Jews is applied three more times to Jesus, but always in a mocking way, to insult him, to ridicule his claims. First it is the Roman soldiers who have a go at him: they dress him up as king; after he has been flogged, they throw a red coat on him, improvise a crown and a scepter, kneel before him, and pay him the homage supposedly due to his rank ... One can imagine how after the resurrection, Christians would remember this sinister comedy: designed to humiliate him, it failed to erase the glory of his true kingship. It is Matthew after all who reported the words of Jesus: "the powers of death will not prevail...”

 

Then there is the sign on the cross, with the inscription: "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Matthew has already had the opportunity to tell his readers the meaning of the name Jesus; when the angel announced the birth to Joseph, he said, "You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins "(Mt 1, 21). So here in this simple inscription we have the mystery of Jesus: king and savior of his people, which was exactly what was expected of the Messiah.

 

And thirdly, religious leaders, chief priests, scribes and elders affirm in turn that this is “the king of Israel”, always to ridicule Jesus of course, but by dwelling on this title, Matthew lets us understand that "they do not know how right they are! "

 

Second title - Messiah: it is given by Pilate twice and together these two statements frame another equally important statement about Jesus, from the mouth of Pilate’s wife this time, therefore from a pagan; she had a revelation and she speaks of a dream (and we know the importance of dreams in Matthew’s Gospel). Here she accords Jesus the most noble of Old Testament titles, that of the “righteous man”. She too does not understand the scope of the words she utters, but a few years later (and even today) Christians celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ are forced to recognize that it was pagans, foreign nationals belonging to the occupying nation, who were the first to tell the truth about Jesus, at the very moment that he was apparently being removed from world history.

 

Finally, the third title, Son of God: it is first conferred on him out of pure derision, to further humiliate him, by passersby who cruelly point out to the agonizing man the contrast between the grandeur of the title above his head and his permanent impotence. Then once again it is the chief priests, the scribes and elders who defy him: if he really were the Son of God, he would not be on a cross. They have a point, for it is true that certain statements in the Old Testament were often read in this sense. However the title of Son of God will finally be given to Jesus by the Roman centurion;  in his mouth it sounds like a true profession of faith: "Truly, this was the Son of God!"

 

Here I have the impression that this title given to Jesus is really the culmination of the story. This sentence foreshadows the conversion of the Gentiles, and we understand Saint Matthew’s message: for him Christ’s death is not a failure, it is a victory.

 

If Matthew accentuates the contrast between the weakness of the condemned man and the greatness nevertheless ascribed to him by some pagans, it is to make us understand what at first sight is unthinkable: it is in his very weakness that Jesus manifests his true greatness, which is the greatness or glory of God, that is to say, the breadth of infinite love. It is not a glory that shines in spite of the cross, or a glory earned through the cross, as a sort of compensation; it is glory in and through the cross. It is the revelation of supreme love, the revelation of the God of Love. Jesus had already given the meaning of his death when he said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends"; this helps us better understand his words to the disciples of Emmaus three days later: "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" That is to say, to reveal God’s love?

 

Translated with permission by Simone Baryliuk, from: Dimanche 13 avril: commentaires de Marie Noëlle Thabut

http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/foi-et-vie-chretienne/commentaires-de-marie-noelle-thabut.html

 

 

 

RE: 04.10.14~Catholic Matters

SUNDAY READINGS -Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) FIRST READING: Isaiah 5O: 4-7. 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. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. I gave my back to those with the whips, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 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. EXPLANATION: The second-Isaiah describes in these verses how the suffering servant---the Messiah---accepts the role of suffering which the Father had designated for him. He is to preach the message of God's mercy to men. Many will reject him and torture him, but God is on his side and he will not be moved from his resolute purpose by their insults and injuries.
The lord has given me: It is God who has appointed him teacher of the people and has given him "a well---trained tongue," the gift necessary for his task.
how . . . word: His preaching will touch both friend and foe. The former will be moved to listen and obey---the latter will grow stronger in their opposition.
morning by morning His was a daily task, a difficult task, but:
I . . . rebellious: He continued notwithstanding the difficulties.
I gave my back . . . my cheeks: Literally fulfilled in the scourging at the pillar, the mocking of the Roman soldiers and the insults in presence of Caiphas (see Mt. 26: 67-68).
The Lord God . . . me: The source of his strength.
set my face like a flint: No insult or suffering would weaken his resolve (see Ez. 3:8, when God promises the same strength to Ezekiel).
I shall not be put to shame: All their insults and injuries (even crucifixion) will be in vain. He will triumph in the end. APPLICATION: The sufferings and crucifixion of our divine Lord in his humanity are the Christian's source of strength and encouragement in his daily struggles against the enemies of God and of his own spiritual progress. Because of our earthly bodies, and because of the close grip that this world of the senses has on us, to keep free from sin and to keep close to God on our journey to heaven is a daily struggle for even the best among us. But we have the example before our eyes, the example of our true brother. He was one of ourselves, the truly human Christ. He not only traveled the road before us and made the journey to heaven possible for us, but he is with us every day, close beside us, to encourage and help us on the way. We need to remind ourselves daily of this. We have the crucifix in our Christian homes, on our rosary beads, on our altars, on the very steeples of our churches. These crucifixes are not ornaments, but stark reminders that our Savior's path to heaven led through Calvary and through all that preceded Calvary. They are also stern reminders to us that the carrying of our crosses on the road to heaven is not an unbearable burden for us, but an essential aid to our progress. When you are tried by temptations, when you are tested by bodily pain or mental suffering, worried to death perhaps by the bodily needs of yourself or your family or by the disobedience and insults of ungrateful children, stop and think on the Leader and his humiliations and sufferings. He came to open the road to heaven for us, to make us all sons of God, to preach the message of divine forgiveness and mercy to mankind. What did he get in return? He was scourged, tied to a pillar, spat upon and insulted, jeered at and mocked. He was nailed to a cross on Calvary between two thieves! How light is my cross in comparison, how easy my Calvary. But he was sinless; his obedience, as man, to the Father was perfect. Can we or should we complain, we whose life up to now has often been far from perfect? Stop, listen to today's lesson.

---

SECOND READING: Philippians 2:6-11. Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 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. EXPLANATION: It is generally admitted that Paul is here quoting an earlier liturgical hymn in which the Judeo-Christian Church expressed its faith in the true humanity and the true divinity of Jesus Christ. He who was God, humbled himself to become a man like us, hiding his divine glory but receiving it back at his resurrection. Because of this, everyone must confess and adore his equality in divine glory with his Father.
in the form of God: He was divine and did not cease to be divine when he became man but:
emptied himself: He did not let the divine glory appear. Instead his humanity, the same as that possessed by all men, was what was evident. He was a truly obedient servant (slave) of God however, as all men should be, but were not. This true obedience led him to the humiliating death on a cross (see Isaiah in first reading).
God exalted him: By raising him from the dead on Easter morning God restored to him the glory of the divinity that he had hidden during his earthly life (see Eph. 1:21), and glorified his human nature.
name above every other name: Name stands for "person." He is exalted to the right hand of the Father in his humanity as well as in his divinity, the chief place in heaven after God the Father.
at Jesus name: The man who walked the roads and hills of Palestine, who ended his life on a cross, is none other than the Lord. Adonai is the name for God used by the Jews to avoid saying the sacred name Yahweh. It is God the Father who has proclaimed this, who "bestowed upon him the name" therefore:
every knee must bend: All men are bound to pay him reverence as God and:
every tongue confess: To proclaim their faith in the divinity of Christ the Savior. This is the basis of the Christian faith and the only hope of salvation for all.
to the glory of God the Father: His human nature also is sharing in the divine glory in heaven, the guarantee that our finite human nature can partake in some measure in this same divine glory if we have been his faithful brothers on earth. APPLICATION: As Christians we have no doubt as to the two natures of our Savior. He was the God-man. He humbled himself so low in order to represent us before his Father and by his perfect obedience ("even unto the death on a cross") earn for us not only God's forgiveness but a sharing in the divinity, through his being our brother but also the Son of God. These words of Paul, or rather of the early Christian hymn he is quoting, are for us today a consolation and an encouragement. Surely every sincere Christian must be consoled by the thought of God's infinite love for him, as shown in the Incarnation. We are not dealing with some distant, cold, legal God of justice who spends his time marking up our sins and failures against us. We are dealing with a loving Father who sent his own beloved Son to live among us and die for us in order to bring home to us the greatness of divine love. Could any human mind, even the minds of the greatest of this world's philosophers, have invented such a humanly incredible story of true love? No, it was only in the infinite mind of God that such a proof of love could have its source. What encouragement this should and does give to every sincere Christian. We know we are weak. We can and do sin often. We know we are mean and ungrateful and that we seldom stop to thank God for the love he has shown us. If we were dealing with a human, narrow-visioned God, we should have reason to despair, but when our Judge is the all- loving, all-merciful God how can even the worst sinner ever lose hope? No, there is no place for despair in the Christian faith. But there is room for gratitude and confidence. We can never thank God sufficiently for all that he has done for us. Eternity itself will not be long enough for this, but we must do the little we can. Let us face this coming Holy Week with hearts full of thanks to God and to his divine Son for all they have done for us. When meditating on the passion of Christ on Good Friday let us look with gratitude and confidence on the Son of God who died on the cross in order to earn eternal life for us. He did not die to lose us but to save us. He has done ninety per cent of the work of our salvation. And, even as regards the remaining ten per cent that he asks us to do, he is with us helping us to do it. Could we be so mean and so foolish as to refuse the little he asks of us?

---

GOSPEL: Matthew 26:14-27:66. EXPLANATION: Because of the length of this gospel (127 verses) the text is not printed here---it is easily available to any reader. Nor shall we give any detailed explanation, as the story of the passion is well known to all Christians; a brief summary must suffice. St. Matthew begins with the story of Judas,"one of the twelve," promising to betray Jesus to the chief priests, the arch-enemies of Christ, for thirty pieces of silver. Then comes the Passover meal on Thursday night, followed by the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. In the utterance: "I shall not drink wine until I drink the new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father," Jesus tells his disciples his next supper with them will be in the eschatological kingdom---the future life, where the new wine of that kingdom will be drunk (see 8:11; 22:1-14). Jesus foretells that they will all desert him in his hour of trial, and to Peter, who feels his faith would never waver, he foretells his threefold denial. Then comes the Agony in the Garden, where the human nature of Jesus shrinks from the sufferings he foresees, but yet he accepts the Father's will. He allows himself to be arrested by a gang of armed men, led by Judas who betrayed him with a kiss. The disciples scatter in fear. He is led before the Sanhedrin. Challenged on oath, he openly admits he is not only the Messiah, but is next to Yahweh, "the Power," in heaven. In this the Sanhedrin see that he is claiming a divine nature; hence he is condemned for blasphemy. On the morning of Friday he is brought, bound as a prisoner, before Pilate, the pagan Roman governor, to have the Sanhedrin's sentence of death officially confirmed. Pilate judges Jesus to be innocent and tries to convince his accusers of this, but fails. Fearing a riot, and anxious for his own position, he condemns Jesus to crucifixion, while washing his hands to show he is not responsible for his injustice. Having been scourged, a Roman prelude to crucifixion, Christ is then mocked by the soldiers. He is led out to Golgotha (Calvary) carrying his cross and is crucified between two thieves. While he is dying slowly on the cross his enemies jeer at him and challenge him to come down from it if he is king of Israel: "He saved others, now let him save himself." "He puts his trust in God, he said I am the Son of God, now let God rescue him if he wants him." Certain signs occurred: darkness suddenly covered the land, there was an earthquake, the veil of the temple (which separated the sanctuary from the Holy of Holies) was rent from top to bottom. Seeing these signs the pagan Roman centurion and the soldiers under him, were terrified and said: "In truth this was the Son of God." Joseph of Arimathaea, having asked Pilate for permission, had the dead body of Jesus buried in his own new tomb. The Jews, remembering Jesus prophecies that he would rise from the dead, got permission from Pilate to put a guard of soldiers around the tomb lest the disciples should steal him away and pretend he had risen. But the thought of Christ's resurrection was far from the disciples minds---they had forgotten or disbelieved these prophecies while his enemies remembered them! The stone at the door of the tomb was sealed and a guard mounted to prevent what was unpreventable. Christ rose the third day. APPLICATION: Is there any human being, not to mention any Christian, whose heart is so hard and so callous, that he could read or hear of the torments Christ endured during his last twelve hours on earth without being moved to pity and to tears? Even if the victim of this, the cruelest form of execution, crucifixion, were guilty of crimes against humanity, as were the two robbers crucified with him, our hearts should be filled with sympathy for him. But in the case of Christ we are dealing with a victim who not only had committed no crime, but was incapable of even a venial fault. He had come to save the whole human race---to make all men his brothers and thus co-heirs of an eternal life. To do this he had taken human nature in order to become our brother, and because of the sins of the world he had to die this excruciating death in order to save mankind from the effects of their sins, which would have been eternal death. Lest we might think that his being divine as well as human might have eased his sufferings in any way, we have proof of the opposite in his agony in the garden, and his pitiful call to his Father as he was dying painfully and slowly on the cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" His human nature had to bear the full effects of the torments inflicted on him. This was the will of his Father, which Christ willingly accepted as the prophet Isaiah had foretold centuries before, when he described the Messiah as the "suffering servant" of God. Looking back today, on that sorrow-laden first Good Friday, there is not one of us who would not gladly have done everything in his power to ease the pains and the sufferings of our loving Savior if he had been there. But, mindful of any past loyalty or lack of loyalty to this Jesus who suffered for us, are we honest with ourselves when we express this sentiment? Did we never imitate Judas and betray Christ and his commandments for the sake of some few unjustly gained pieces of silver? Did we never let our pride and prejudice condemn, offend and unjustly injure out neighbor, just as the pride and prejudice of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin condemned Christ unjustly? Did we never crown him with thorns, and mockingly call him our king when we posed as loyal subjects of his while living lives of sin? Did we never imitate Pilate, who condemned an innocent man---a man he declared innocent---because he feared for his own future comforts and honors? Was our position in politics and power, or possessions, ever more important to us than the true following of Christ and his teaching? We could go on with our examination of conscience, but surely each one of us can see that he played, in a greater or lesser degree, the part not of a comforter or consoler of Jesus in his torments, but the part of one or other of the wicked actors in the tragedy of Calvary. However, we have the great consolation of knowing that Christ prayed for his tormentors on the cross (Lk. 23:34). and that he included us in this solemn request to his Father. We can still repent of our past sins and turn with confidence to him, assured that he will forgive and forget, and give us a new start. Let each one of us return from Calvary today, beating our breasts in sorrow for the pains and sufferings we have caused our loving Savior. He died an excruciating death so that we might live an unending life of happiness. We shall live that eternal life if we die now to our sins, our passions, and our weaknesses.-a142 Click to return to our Home page

RE: 04.10.14~Palm Sunday

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April 13, 2014

 

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Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Lectionary: 35 and 38

At the Procession with palms - gospel mt 21:1-11

When Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem
and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them here to me.
And if anyone should say anything to you, reply,
‘The master has need of them.’
Then he will send them at once.”
This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Say to daughter Zion,
“Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.
They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them,
and he sat upon them.
The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees
and strewed them on the road.
The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
And when he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”
And the crowds replied,
“This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

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 2 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 mt 26:14-27:66

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity
to hand him over.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”’”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.

When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
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.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”

While they were eating,
Jesus took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and giving it to his disciples said,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink from it, all of you,
for this is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed on behalf of many
for the forgiveness of sins.
I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it with you new
in the kingdom of my Father.”
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Then Jesus said to them,
“This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken,
for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed;
but after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee.”
Peter said to him in reply,
“Though all may have their faith in you shaken,
mine will never be.”
Jesus said to him,
“Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows,
you will deny me three times.”
Peter said to him,
“Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you.”
And all the disciples spoke likewise.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
“Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
and began to feel sorrow and distress.
Then he said to them,
“My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch with me.”
He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying,
“My Father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me;
yet, not as I will, but as you will.”
When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep.
He said to Peter,
“So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again,
“My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass
without my drinking it, your will be done!”
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open.
He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time,
saying the same thing again.
Then he returned to his disciples and said to them,
“Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
Behold, the hour is at hand
when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
Look, my betrayer is at hand.”

While he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a large crowd, with swords and clubs,
who had come from the chief priests and the elders
of the people.
His betrayer had arranged a sign with them, saying,
“The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him.”
Immediately he went over to Jesus and said,
“Hail, Rabbi!” and he kissed him.
Jesus answered him,
“Friend, do what you have come for.”
Then stepping forward they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.
And behold, one of those who accompanied Jesus
put his hand to his sword, drew it,
and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear.
Then Jesus said to him,
“Put your sword back into its sheath,
for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father
and he will not provide me at this moment
with more than twelve legions of angels?
But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled
which say that it must come to pass in this way?”
At that hour Jesus said to the crowds,
“Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs to seize me?
Day after day I sat teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me.
But all this has come to pass
that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled.”
Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Those who had arrested Jesus led him away
to Caiaphas the high priest,
where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
Peter was following him at a distance
as far as the high priest’s courtyard,
and going inside he sat down with the servants
to see the outcome.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death,
but they found none,
though many false witnesses came forward.
Finally two came forward who stated,
“This man said, ‘I can destroy the temple of God
and within three days rebuild it.’”
The high priest rose and addressed him,
“Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?”
But Jesus was silent.
Then the high priest said to him,
“I order you to tell us under oath before the living God
whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“You have said so.
But I tell you:
From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power’
and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’”
Then the high priest tore his robes and said,
“He has blasphemed!
What further need have we of witnesses?
You have now heard the blasphemy;
what is your opinion?”
They said in reply,
“He deserves to die!”
Then they spat in his face and struck him,
while some slapped him, saying,
“Prophesy for us, Christ: who is it that struck you?”
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.
One of the maids came over to him and said,
“You too were with Jesus the Galilean.”
But he denied it in front of everyone, saying,
“I do not know what you are talking about!”
As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him
and said to those who were there,
“This man was with Jesus the Nazorean.”
Again he denied it with an oath,
“I do not know the man!”
A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter,
“Surely you too are one of them;
even your speech gives you away.”
At that he began to curse and to swear,
“I do not know the man.”
And immediately a cock crowed.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken:
“Before the cock crows you will deny me three times.”
He went out and began to weep bitterly.

When it was morning,
all the chief priests and the elders of the people
took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
They bound him, led him away,
and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned,
deeply regretted what he had done.
He returned the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders, saying,
“I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.”
They said,
“What is that to us?
Look to it yourself.”
Flinging the money into the temple,
he departed and went off and hanged himself.
The chief priests gathered up the money, but said,
“It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury,
for it is the price of blood.”
After consultation, they used it to buy the potter’s field
as a burial place for foreigners.
That is why that field even today is called the Field of Blood.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah
the prophet,
And they took the thirty pieces of silver,
the value of a man with a price on his head,
a price set by some of the Israelites,
and they paid it out for the potter’s field
just as the Lord had commanded me.

Now Jesus stood before the governor, and he questioned him,
“Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus said, “You say so.”
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
“Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?”
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
“Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?”
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
“Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him.”
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
They answered, “Barabbas!”
Pilate said to them,
“Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”
They all said,
“Let him be crucified!”
But he said,
“Why? What evil has he done?”
They only shouted the louder,
“Let him be crucified!”
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.
Look to it yourselves.”
And the whole people said in reply,
“His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.

As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.

And when they came to a place called Golgotha
¬—which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!”
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.

From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
“This one is calling for Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
“Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.”
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
“Truly, this was the Son of God!”
There were many women there, looking on from a distance,
who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.
Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph,
and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

When it was evening,
there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph,
who was himself a disciple of Jesus.
He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;
then Pilate ordered it to be handed over.
Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen
and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock.
Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb
and departed.
But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
remained sitting there, facing the tomb.

The next day, the one following the day of preparation,
the chief priests and the Pharisees
gathered before Pilate and said,
“Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said,
‘After three days I will be raised up.’
Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day,
lest his disciples come and steal him and say to the people,
‘He has been raised from the dead.’
This last imposture would be worse than the first.”
Pilate said to them,
“The guard is yours;
go, secure it as best you can.”
So they went and secured the tomb
by fixing a seal to the stone and setting the guard.

or mt 27:11-54

Jesus stood before the governor, Pontius Pilate, who questioned him,
“Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus said, “You say so.”
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
“Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?”
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
“Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?”
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
“Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him.”
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
They answered, “Barabbas!”
Pilate said to them,
“Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”
They all said,
“Let him be crucified!”
But he said,
“Why? What evil has he done?”
They only shouted the louder,
“Let him be crucified!”
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.
Look to it yourselves.”
And the whole people said in reply,
“His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.

As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.

And when they came to a place called Golgotha
— which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!”
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.

From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
“This one is calling for Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
‘Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.”
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
“Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Catholic Matters

SUNDAY READINGS - 5th Sunday of Lent 

FIRST READING: Ezekiel 37:12-14. Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, 0 my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, 0 my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, says the Lord.

EXPLANATION: Ezekiel was a priest of the temple of Jerusalem up to 597 B.C., when he was deported to Babylon with the king Joachim and the first deportees. Among the exiles in Babylon he denounced the sins of the people which brought about the exile, and foretold greater misfortunes still for Judah. Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed by the Babylonians, and the remainder of the people taken into captivity. They had deserted Yahweh; he would now desert them for a while. But Ezekiel, like Jeremiah and second-Isaiah his contemporaries, had words of encouragement also. Better days were to come, when Yahweh would take back his people once more and dwell in their midst forever (37 : 25). The verses taken from Ezekiel today are part of this encouragement.
Thus . . . God: The prophet is speakinhg for the Lord.
I will . . . graves: In the eleven verses preceding this passage the prophet has described how God through him, spoke to the dry bones of the Israelites and raised them up and gave them life once more. As is clear from verse 11, there is no question of resurrection of the body here: the dry bones are the exiled Israelites who say "our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, we are clean cut off." Now God tells these despairing Israelites that all is not lost. He will give them a real life, not that of slavery, once more.
O my people: They are still his chosen people in spite of their neglect of him. He will give them a new spirit, a spirit of obedience once more.
and you shall live: Living in slavery in a foreign land was not life.
place . . . land: He will bring them back from exile and establish them in Judah again.
then . . . shall know: They will then realize that nothing short of the power of Yahweh could have done this for them.

APPLICATION: God revealed himself and his true nature to his Chosen People in the Old Testament by his actions more than by his words. They were a stubborn, stiff-necked people---they were so often ungrateful for all the benefits he conferred on them. They forgot him in material prosperity and only turned to him in need. The idolatry and misconduct of their kings ever since Solomon (with a few notable exceptions), and the no-less-pagan outlook of the majority of the people, brought on them the destruction of Jerusalem with its temple, the center of their life and religion, in the year 587. They had been warned by God's prophets but they turned a deaf ear to all remonstrances and warnings. When the foretold calamity fell they turned to Yahweh, but too late.

However, when they had done their penance in Babylon, Yahweh came to their aid once more and brought them back to Judah and Jerusalem, where they eventually rebuilt the city and their temple and where they remained until the promised Messiah came.

In all of this we have the merciful, forgiving God, revealing himself, while using this very ungrateful people to carry out his plan for raising the whole human race to adopted divine sonship through the loving mystery of the Incarnation.

We Christians have seen that plan fulfilled. We know we have been adopted by God and made heirs of heaven because Christ made himself our brother. We know too that we shall rise again from the dead and be brought back not to Judah or Jerusalem, but to the land of eternal happiness---to "the Jerusalem that is above." God revealed much of his divine qualities to the Jews, but how incomparably greater is the revelation we have received from him through the coming of Christ among us!

The Jews of that day had but a very vague idea of life after death; we are certain that our physical death is not the end for us but rather the beginning of our true life. The Jews called God their "father" but because of their infidelity the father-son relationship was a cold one, built more on fear than on love. We call God our Father, but we use the term with sincerity and love for we have become his children through the brotherhood of Christ, his real, divine Son.

God helped the Jews often in their temporal needs, they seldom sought spiritual aid from him. We have in the mystical body of Christ, his Church, all the spiritual helps we need for our journey to heaven, and temporal favors on innumerable occasions, during our stay on earth. God said of his Chosen People: "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done for it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, what did it yield---wild grapes?"

Unfortunately, he has to make the same complaint of many in his Christian vineyard, and how much more has he done for them than he ever did for the Jews? God forbid that any one of us should be deserving of this complaint. When we meet him on the day of judgment let us hope and pray that we will have the true grapes of a virtuous life to offer him.

---

SECOND READING: Romans 8: 8-11. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.

EXPLANATION: On the Epistle to the Romans, see First Sunday of Advent.
in the flesh . . . God: St. Paul nearly always uses the word "flesh" for those tendencies in man which incline him to sin and to the things of this earth in opposition to things spiritual. The man who follows these inclinations (who lives according to the flesh) cannot please God, but rather offends him.
You are . . . flesh: He is addressing Christians who have died (to all their evil inclinations) with Christ in baptism. "Do you not know," Paul says (in Rom. 6:3-4), "that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death..."
you are . . . Spirit: The Holy Spirit has been given to the baptized. Through their union with Christ the Spirit is within believers, transforming their rational faculties; they live a new life.
Anyone . . . Christ: Paul uses the terms "Spirit of God," the "Spirit," the "Spirit of Christ" and "Christ" as interchange able terms to express the indwelling of God in the baptized. The man who has not this indwelling Spirit does not belong to Christ. He is not a Christian.
bodies . . . sin: Because the Christian has Christ dwelling in him (even though the Christian lives in a body which can be called "dead" because of its inclination to sin), he is alive with a true spiritual life because of the uprightness and divine grace which Christ brings to him.
spirit . . . Jesus: It was God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead. The Christian who has the Spirit of God dwelling in him will be raised from the dead by the same Spirit. His body doomed to die will be given a new mode of life---the risen Christian, like the risen Christ, will be given a new mode of existence, an unending life.

APPLICATION: The three readings for today, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, have a common theme---resurrection. In Ezekiel the release of the Jews from the captivity and slavery of Babylon is described as a rising from their graves to return to a new life in their own homeland. This is a metaphor, a type of the true resurrection which will come later. In the third reading---the gospel---we have the story of the raising of Lazarus from the tomb, which proves the power Jesus had of raising the dead.

In this second reading, in St. Paul's instruction to the Roman Christians, we have a direct reference to the future resurrection to a life of unending glory for all those who during their time on earth, were loyal to God and Christ. This resurrection in a new body, which will never again be subject to death or pain or suffering, has been won for us by Christ who, having died for our sins, was raised by the Father on Easter morning.

Only the kindness of an infinitely loving God could plan and provide such a marvelous future for us. "What is man that you are mindful of him?", the Psalmist says to God. What are we indeed---mere creatures, finite, limited beings, in comparison with the infinite Godhead! Yet, when creating us he gave us the spiritual faculties which enable us to appreciate the good, the beautiful and the perfect. He knew that in this life these powers could never be satisfied, and so he ordained that after "working our passage" through this valley of tears, a new life would await us, an unending life in which, in company with the Blessed Trinity, our blessed Mother and the millions of fellow-saints, we would have eternal contentment and happiness.

The thought of this glorious future should never be far from our minds. It was this thought that enabled the martyrs to face their executioners with joy in their hearts. It was this thought that made the saints rejoice in their bodily sufferings and mortifications. It was this hope of eternal happiness which spurred on the millions of ordinary men and women like ourselves, whose life on earth was a monotonous sequence of one drudgery after another, one misfortune following on the heels of the previous one.

It is by imitating these people that we too will join them when our call will come. It is by bearing the burdens of each day, by welcoming, and seeing God's will in all the ups and downs of our very ordinary lives, that we can join them. Listen again to these solemn words of St. Paul: "Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him." You have the Spirit of Christ in you, if you are striving to live a Christian life. This means taking each day as it comes, offering to God its joys and its sorrows, its honest pleasures and its pains, its sunshine and its showers. All this means: living in peace with God and with your neighbor. This may sound easy but it is not so; it will mean much self-denial, but then think of what awaits us at the end of our road---a resurrection to a new life, an unending life of happiness. God grant that we may all have this happy ending to our earthly journey.

---

GOSPEL: John 11: 3-7; 17; 20-27; 33-45. (Shorter Form) The sisters of Lazarus sent to Jesus, saying "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go into Judea again."

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and troubled, and he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.

EXPLANATION: St. John gives us here the last and the greatest of the miracles worked by our Lord. It had two purposes: first, to prove that Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God to whom the Father was now testifying publicly by this miracle and secondly, to move the chief priests and Pharisees to carry out the plan they long since contemplated. This miracle took place a few miles from Jerusalem---within a few hours the Pharisees had news of it (11:46); they called a meeting and decided that Christ must be put to death. It was his Father's will that he should die at the Passover feast which was drawing near: he had completed his work; his "hour" had come and so in working this miracle, he gave them the extra motive and excuse for carrying out their wicked designs. Christ's death, like the illness of Lazarus, would be for the glory of God, manifested in him. His raising of Lazarus was but for a short extra period of earthly life; his own resurrection would be the first fruits of the eternal resurrection which he would win for all those who would follow him.
this illness . . . death: Its result was death, but the illness and death were intended in order that Christ's messiahship would be finally and convincingly proved by means of it.
already . . . days: Lazarius is truly dead, but his illness and death were intended in order that Christ's messiahship would be finally and convincingly proved by means of it. Lazarus must have died the day the messengers came from Martha and Mary. Jesus stayed two days more, east of the Jordan; the return journey to Bethany took a full day and as burial took place on the day of death, Lazarus was already four days buried.
if you . . . here: Both sisters believed Christ could have cured their brother had he been present; they did not think he could do so from a distance. Nor did they think he could now raise him from the dead. Yet, Martha still shows her strong faith in Jesus' influence when she says: "Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you," but this evidently did not include the possibility of his calling Lazarus from the tomb, as her objection to removing the stone later shows.
Your brother . . . again: Martha believed in the future resurrection of the dead as did many, but not all, of her contemporaries, and she understands Jesus' words to refer to this general resurrection.
I am . . . life: Jesus confirms this belief and adds that it is he himself who is the cause of the resurrection and the eternal life which will follow it.
whoever . . . never die: All who believe in Christ and live according to that faith will live forever. While they must pass through the gates of physical death---the lot of all mankind---they only pass into eternal life.
Christ . . . God: Martha answers that she believes he is the Messiah so long expected. "Son of God" in opposition to "the Christ," that is, the Messiah, is not used in its strict sense.
deeply . . . troubled: Christ in his human nature suffered anguish and pain to a greater degree than any mere human being. His agony in the garden as his passion approached is evidence of this (see Heb. 5:7). He knew that this present miracle was to precipitate his passion and death, as the sequel shows.
Take . . . stone: Martha, thinking he wanted to see his dead friend, objected as corruption would already have set in.
You . . . God: Jesus tells her that had she believed, trusted in him she would see a miracle---"the glory of God." God would glorify himself and his Son.
crowd . . . sent one: He had thanked his Father aloud for having heard his request---to raise Lazarus. He was the Son of God and his, and the Father's, power were one, but the people could not grasp the truth of his divinity yet---what he wants is that they will accept him as the promised Messiah.
Lazarus, come out: The miracle takes place, the dead man rose and:
many of the Jews: Not all of them believed his claim that he was the Messiah whom God had sent, notwithstanding this extraordinary miracle.

APPLICATION: On hearing this story of the resurrection of Lazarus, the question which will arise in the minds of most people is this: why did Jesus allow his best and most faithful friends to suffer anguish for four days? He could have cured Lazarus of his illness the moment he heard of it. Yet he delayed and allowed the sisters to suffer the death of their beloved brother. We have already given the answer above. He wanted to make this, his last recorded miracle, a convincing proof of his claim to be what he was---the Messiah, sent by God to give a new life, an eternal life, to mankind. He also wanted to give his enemies a great impulse and motive to carry out his condemnation and crucifixion, which was the debt he "the suffering servant" of God, was to pay for the sins of mankind.

That his closest friends had to suffer for a while, in order to cooperate with him in his plans was therefore an unavoidable necessity. Is there not here an answer to the questionings of divine providence which we hear so often from otherwise devout followers of Christ? Drowned in their own personal sorrow and grief they cannot see that this very sorrow and grief is part of Christ's plan for the salvation of men. And the fact that they are loyal, true friends of Christ is the very reason they are chosen to carry this particularly heavy cross. Less faithful friends would not help him, so in his mercy he does not put that extra load on their unwilling shoulders.

Martha and Mary had to live through four sad days, while their friend seemed to forget them. But how great was the reward for their sufferings, when their beloved brother returned to the family circle---a brother they thought they had lost forever! We can well imagine the rejoicing that took place in that home in Bethany (not only that night but for years to follow).

We all have our sorrows and separations from our loved ones. But as in the case of the Bethany family, they are temporary separations. Our dear ones who are taken from us are not lost to us---they are perhaps closer to us and more helpful to us than they ever could have been in this life. And our faith convinces us that we will be reunited soon with them. Christ by his death, has conquered death. He has won eternal life for all men. His resurrection was the prelude ("the first-fruits," as St. Paul calls it) to the resurrection of all mankind---a resurrection to an eternal life of happiness where families, friends and neighbors will rejoice together in the presence of God for all eternity. The years of sorrow we have to endure here below will look small and trifling indeed when viewed from eternity.

But---and this is a capital but---though Christ has won a new, eternal life of adopted sonship with God for all men, each man must do his part to earn that sonship, to merit the eternal happiness which Christ came to win for us. "God created us without our consent," says St. Augustine, "but he cannot save us without our cooperation." We must live our lives then as Christ has taught us.

For every thought we give to death, and we are reminded of it hourly and daily, let us think three times on what will follow after it. If we do, we will never die unprepared. We will have made sure of a happy eternity.-a135

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RE: 04.03.14~Readings for Sunday, April 6th-2014

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April 6, 2014

 

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Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 34

Reading 1EZ 37:12-14

Thus says the Lord GOD: 
O my people, I will open your graves 
and have you rise from them, 
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD, 
when I open your graves and have you rise from them, 
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live, 
and I will settle you upon your land; 
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm PS 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

R/ (7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication. 
R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered. 
R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Reading 2 ROM 8:8-11

Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; 
on the contrary, you are in the spirit, 
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, 
although the body is dead because of sin, 
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, 
the one who raised Christ from the dead 
will give life to your mortal bodies also, 
through his Spirit dwelling in you.

Gospel JN 11:1-45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, 
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil 
and dried his feet with her hair; 
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying, 
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death, 
but is for the glory of God, 
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill, 
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples, 
“Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him, 
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, 
and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, 
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles, 
because the light is not in him.” 
He said this, and then told them,
“Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him.”
So the disciples said to him,
“Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.”
But Jesus was talking about his death, 
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. 
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
“Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe. 
Let us go to him.”
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, 
“Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus 
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary 
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus, 
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life; 
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this, 
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, 
“The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village, 
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her 
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her, 
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, 
she fell at his feet and said to him, 
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, 
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said, 
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man 
have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, 
“Lord, by now there will be a stench; 
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe 
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; 
but because of the crowd here I have said this, 
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice, 
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands, 
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

Or JN 11:3-7, 20-27, 33B-45

The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, 
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death, 
but is for the glory of God, 
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill, 
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples, 
“Let us go back to Judea.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus 
had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him; 
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus, 
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life; 
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”

He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said, 
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man 
have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, 
“Lord, by now there will be a stench; 
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe 
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said, 
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; 
but because of the crowd here I have said this, 
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice, 
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands, 
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.