PASSION SUNDAY – YEAR A

HIS CRIME: TO HAVE LOVED AND TAUGHT TO LOVE

 Introduction

Jesus is at the table with the Twelve and, while they are having dinner, he turns to them, saying, “One of you will betray me.” Then they, deeply saddened, begin to ask him, one by one, “Surely not I, Lord?” Judas, the traitor, says, “Is it I, Rabbi?” Jesus replied, “You have said it” (Mt 26:20-25).

People should know if they are a traitor or not; what need is there to ask Christ? Judas is hypocritical until the end, but why do the others ask, ‘Is it I?’ If things had gone just in this way, the response of Jesus that unmasks the traitor would have been followed by the immediate reaction of the Eleven and the settling of accounts with the culprit. Instead, dinner quietly resumes.

One pastoral concern moves Matthew to place the question on the lips of everyone present. He wants every Christian to continue to ask the question: Am I a traitor? Judas is the symbol of the anti-disciple, one who cultivates projects contrary to those of Jesus. He is willing to betray his faith for the sake of money. He is ready to place himself at the head of those who struggle against the forces of good. The true disciple is not under the illusion of being immune to this danger. He knows his frailty; he knows that can quickly become self-delusion and, perhaps in good faith, transforms into a traitor, siding against the Master, playing the game of the enemies of life.

Only the constant comparison with the Word of God and the supreme gesture of his love can prevent naive, arrogant certainties and tragic illusions.

To internalize the message, we repeat:“Only those who respond to hatred with love introduces in the world a novelty and a principle of life.”

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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.

In the first reading of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we met a mysterious character who enters the scene in the second part of the book of Isaiah. He is the ‘Servant of the Lord.’ In today's passage, he introduces himself and speaks. First, he describes the mission that has been entrusted to him: he is sent to proclaim a message of consolation to those who are sad and without hope (v. 4).

Those who have gone astray on paths that are not good and cannot find their way back to the right direction, those shrouded in darkness and groping in the dark need not fear: from him, they will not hear reproaches and threats, but only words of comfort. Then he clarifies how he will carry out his mission (vv. 4-5). The Lord has given him an ear that can hear and a mouth that can communicate. What he heard was not pleasant, but he did not compromise, he did not back down, he was able to endure (v. 5).

Finally, he tells what happened to him, what the consequences of his consistency were. He faithfully communicated the message entrusted to him and was beaten, insulted, slapped; they spat in his face, but he did not react and continued to trust in the Lord (v. 7).

If one reflects, especially on the last part of the reading, one is spontaneously led to liken this Servant to Jesus. Immediately after the Passover, Christians made this connection. As the ‘Servant of the Lord,’ Christ listened to the Father, spoke words of consolation and hope, gave comfort to the disheartened and marginalized, and his life came to a dramatic end (cf. Mt 27:27-31).

It is not enough to contemplate and admire Jesus' fidelity, to be moved by what he suffered, to feel outraged at the injustices he endured, and to bow before some hero who, even today, dares to face the same painful experience as the Lord's Servant. Not a few heroes, but every believer is called to reproduce in himself the figure of this ‘Servant’: to keep listening to the word of God, to translate into action what he has heard, and to be willing to bear the consequences.

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.

The community in Philippi was outstanding, and Paul was proud of it, but, as is often the case, there was also a bit of envy among Christians. Some tried to draw attention to themselves, wanted to lord it over others and impose their will. Because of this situation Paul, in the first part of his letter, makes a heartfelt recommendation: “I beg of you, make me very happy; have one love, one spirit, one feeling, do nothing through rivalry or vain conceit. Do not seek your own interest, but rather that of others” (Phil 2:2-4).

To better imprint this teaching on the minds and hearts of the Philippians, Paul presents the example of Christ. He does so by quoting a wonderful hymn known in many of the Christian communities of the first century.

In two stanzas, the hymn tells the story of Jesus. He already existed before becoming man; he ‘emptied himself’ of his divine greatness and accepted entering an existence enslaved to death by becoming incarnate. He became forever like us: he took on our weakness, our ignorance, our frailty, our passions, our feelings, and our human condition. He appeared before our eyes in the humility of the most despised of men, the slave, the one to whom the Romans reserved the ignominious torment of the cross (vv. 6-8). But the path he walked did not end with humiliation and death on the cross.

The second part of the hymn (vv. 9-11) sings of the glory to which he was elevated: the Father raised him up, pointed him out as a model for every person, gave him power and dominion over every creature. All humanity will eventually be united to him, and at that moment, God's plan will be fulfilled.

Gospel: Matthew 26:14–27:66

All the evangelists devote much space to the story of the passion and death of Jesus. The facts are basically the same, though narrated in different ways and with different perspectives. Each evangelist presents their own episodes and details of choice, underscoring various aspects. These reveal their particular interest in certain aspects of catechesis, considered significant and urgent for their particular community.

Today’s version of the passion is that of Matthew. In our comment, we will highlight only the distinctive aspects. The first and most important is that Matthew punctuates the whole story with repeated references to the fulfillment of the Scriptures. When it was evening, Jesus sat at table with the Twelve. While they were eating, Jesus utters a phrase, the key to understanding everything that will happen as a result: “The Son of man is going as it is written of him” (Mt 26:24).

Later, in the garden of Olives, when the guards approach to arrest him as if he were a bandit, he reacts by saying, “But all this has happened to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets” (Mt 26:56). Matthew notes that even the most marginal details of the passion—for instance, Judas' betrayal for thirty pieces of silver—were announced by the prophets (Mt 27:9-10).

We especially have a parallel, wanted by this evangelist, between the passion of Jesus and the drama lived out in Psalm 22:

• Like Jesus on the cross (Mt 27:46), this man also turns to the Lord the cry: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:2).

• He is the object of the same derision: “All who see me make a jest of me; they sneer and shake their heads: He put his trust in the Lord, let the Lord rescue him. If the Lord is his friend, let him help him” (Ps 22:8-9). It is precisely what happened at the foot of the cross, and the insults addressed to Jesus were identical (Mt 27:39,41-43).

• Like Jesus (Mt 27:34,48), he thirsts: “My throat is dried up like a potsherd” (Ps 22:16).

• He is surrounded by evildoers and says, “They have pierced my hands and feet” (Ps 22:17). He continues: “They divide my garments among them, casting lots for my raiment” (Ps 22:19). At the foot of the cross, the soldiers that crucified him divided his clothing among themselves (Mt 27:35).

• Finally, like Jesus (Mt 27:50), he also emits a cry (Ps 22:25).

Such corresponding incidents are numerous. We tend to suppose that the author of the psalm intended an accurate prediction, right down to the detail of what, one day, would happen to the Messiah. It is not like that. The striking similarities are due to the evangelist’s theological choice. He wanted to tell about the passion and death of Jesus, bearing in mind the schema set out in this psalm. He did it to assist his readership in going beyond mere record and grasping the deeper meaning of what was happening.

The other evangelists also quote the scriptures, but none with so much insistence. The reason is that Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Jews who had been educated in the catechesis of the rabbis to wait for a victorious, dominating, great and powerful messiah. Given the failure with which Jesus’ life ended, who could have the courage to present him as the messiah?

At the foot of the cross, the priests, scribes and elders challenge Jesus: “Save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mt 27:40) is to be understood in this light. I am prone to believe in a winner, not a loser. To the Jews and all those who, even today, are shocked by a defeated Messiah, Matthew responds: the Old Testament’s prophecies announce a humiliated, persecuted Messiah that would be put to death. They present him as the companion of every suffering and oppressed person.

God has not miraculously saved Christ from a difficult situation. He has not obstructed the injustice and the death of his Son. He, instead, transformed his defeat into victory, his death into birth, his tomb into a womb from which he was taken to a life without end.

In him, God has made it known that he does not overcome evil by hindering it with miraculous intervention, but by taking away its power to harm, even making it a time of growth for the man. Letting him be guided and enlightened by the Scriptures—as Matthew tells us to do—it is difficult to assimilate this logic of God. It is difficult to accept that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24).

A second lesson on which Matthew particularly insists is the repudiation of violence and all use of weapons. Only he reports the words of Jesus to Peter, who tried to defend him with a sword: “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword” (Mt 26:52). Tertullian, the famous apologist of the first to the second century, commented: ‘Disarming Peter, Jesus took away the weapons from the hands of every soldier.’ A few decades later, the biblical scholar Origin echoed, ‘We Christians no longer grip the sword; we don’t anymore learn the art of war because through Jesus we have become children of peace.’

The early Christians had no doubt: the disciple of Christ must be willing, like the Master, to give his life for his brothers and sisters, never and not for any reason to kill them. One of the issues close to Matthew’s heart is the universality of salvation. Israel cannot consider herself the only and jealous depositary of the promises. He played the role that the Lord has entrusted to her: to prepare the coming of God’s Kingdom. Now she is expected to be first among the guests in the banquet hall (Mt 22:1-6). Unfortunately, Israel has rejected the invitation. In the early Christian community, it is experienced as a painful laceration, like “a sword that pierces the soul” (Lk 2:35), as “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7).

There are two facts in the passion narrative that only Matthew refers to the dream of Pilate’s wife and the procurator’s gesture of washing his hands, thus unloading all the blame of Jesus’ death sentence on the Jews (Mt 27:19,24). They symbolically express the drama of these people and the responsibility she has taken in not accepting the Messiah sent to her by God. The maximum expression of this refusal is the cry: “His blood be on us and on our children” (Mt 27:25). The nonsensical interpretation of this phrase has had tragic consequences: hatred, absurd accusations, violence and Christian persecution of the Jews.

The meaning attributed to it by Matthew is totally different. Upset by the misfortunes that had struck the people in the second half of the first century AD. and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem, he had isolated the cause of all evil: The Jews had chosen violence and rejected the reign of peace announced by Jesus.

The evangelist wants to warn of the danger of repeating the same mistake. Whoever walks away from Christ to pursue another messiah, trusts in violence, cultivates plans of domination that will always end up in disaster: He allows blood to fall on himself and his children. Only Matthew tells of the extraordinary events that occurred after the death of Jesus: “The earth quaked, rocks were split, the dead were raised to life ...” (Mt 27:51-56).

At that time, it was thought that the world was full of iniquity, and all awaited the birth of a new world. It was said that, during the transition between the two eras of humanity, the sun would be darkened; the trees would shed blood; the stones would break, uttering cries, and the dead would be resurrected.

Therefore, Matthew says that should not be understood as the accurate account of something that happened on April 7 year 30AD, but as the affirmation of a theologian who, at the time of Jesus’ death, is aware of the birth of a new world. His is a message of joy and hope, sent to all those in anguish and pain and feel enveloped in the darkness of death. The Kingdom of God began when, on the cross, the Lord revealed all his love and interest in humankind's fate.

Another incident reported only by Matthew is the death of Judas (Mt 27:3-10). This disciple is the symbol of all those who, for a time, follow Jesus. Then they become aware that he does not realize their dreams of glory and their thirst for power. They abandon him and even turn against him. The episode is narrated along the lines of the one actual suicide in the Old Testament, Ahithophel, a betrayer of David (2 S 17:23). It presents shadows and mysteries that will never be clarified from the historical point of view.

If we free ourselves from the stereotypes for a moment, we can experience respect and compassion for this man's plight. Peter and John and the other evangelists spoke about him in general terms. It seems that, within the group of the apostles, he had no friends. When he saw the only one who loved him go to his death, he must have felt terribly alone in carrying the weight of his mistake. Unfortunately, he is gone to vent his remorse, his inner torment to the wrong people, the temple priests who used him. If he had turned to Christ, his life would have ended in another way.

Finally, only Matthew speaks of the guards placed in the custody of the tomb (Mt 27:62-66): they are a sign of the triumph of evil. Their presence testifies that the righteous one is defeated, the deliverer silenced, locked forever in a tomb. It is our experience: evil always gives the impression of being assured of a final triumph, quickly becoming the dream of the poor, the weak, and the hope of the defenseless for justice.

God, however, ensures his unexpected intervention. His angel will roll back and sit on every stone preventing returning to life (Mt 28:2). The soldiers, placed to defend injustice and iniquity, will flee in terror from his light (Mt 28:4).

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READ: Jesus was brought before the civil authority of Jerusalem, Pilate, the governor of Jerusalem. Despite his effort to free Jesus, whom he sees as clearly innocent of the charge, he finally relented due to the religious authorities' pressures and had Jesus crucified. His death may have been that of a criminal, but it revealed His true identity to the captain supervising His crucifixion.

REFLECT: Today’s celebration may well remind us that triumph and defeat, joy and sadness, life and death are two inseparable concepts. One has little or hollow meaning without the other serving as a contrasting principle. But Jesus Christ, who bursts open everything he touches, has enriched our understanding of these dual concepts. He added a third: there is new life after death; not the same life that one had before dying but a renewed and transformed life afterward.

PRAY: Include in your prayers all those who do not recognize God in their lives. Pray that you may allow God room in your heart and your life. Let us allow God to illuminate the areas in our life that are difficult to accept so that we may see how they fit into his plan of salvation.

ACT: The passion of the Lord points to his passion for humanity. It might be a good day for us to reflect on what we have done on behalf of humankind. There are ways we can do to make the world a better place to live. We can start by scaling down our wants. Let us inventory what we truly need to live meaningfully and start giving to those with nothing, which are excesses of our legitimate needs.