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Greetings to all!
The liturgy presents today the story of the Passion and Death of Jesus according to Luke. All the Evangelists describe at length this event in the life of Jesus. It is important to remember that the Evangelists are not telling a detailed, impassioned chronicle of the events. They have another objective. They want to tell us about a passion of love. The love that Jesus showed during his whole life but especially at the most important moment: when he gave himself completely.
The Evangelists want the readers to participate in this love story. The descriptions of the facts are substantially the same in the four gospels. Each Evangelist has a special sensitivity when telling this passion of love. Each of them describes episodes or underline certain details important for catechetical themes. And as I mentioned, the version that today we shall talk about is the one narrated by Luke. And in our commentary today we will see where these details are shown that are of interest to Luke.
We begin with the first of these themes that happen during the institution of the Eucharist. There is one detail that only Luke has. "When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying... This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me". We know by heart the narration of the institution of the Eucharist that we have heard. But there is a detail that we only find in Luke. It is Jesus' sentence: "Do this in memory of me". What did Jesus wanted to say?
Certainly, that the gesture of sharing the bread be repeated liturgically through the centuries as it is the institution of the Eucharist, but not only that. "Do this". What did he wanted to say? When Jesus shared the bread with his disciples, he was saying... You need to know that all my life, my history, I give in a gesture: I made myself bread. I became food for life. Where there is a need I make myself available because of love. "Do this in memory of me." It means: You must repeat with your life what I have done. Become bread of life for the brothers and sisters. If we do not do this sign in our life that is brought alive in the Eucharistic banquet... the liturgical celebration could be reduced to an empty and hypocritical rite. Our life cannot ignore the Eucharistic sign that we celebrate.
"An argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest. He said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as "Benefactors"; but among you it shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant. For who is greater: the one seated at the table or the one who serves? It is not the one seated at table? I am among you as the one who serves.
Many times we find unpleasant episodes in the Gospels. We now look at the disciples and the episode when Jesus raises his voice. This time the disciples begin to argue about who is the most important, ...who should preside over the rest, who commands, who is superior to the others. This desire of being important, to do something that makes one fulfilled is in human nature placed by God. The question is how to answer to this need that we all have.
There are two answers. The first is the one suggested by people. You will feel fulfilled when you show your worth and claim up as high as possible... ...even if by doing so you have to step on others. To goal is to get to the first place and you will be happy and fulfilled. This is the first answer. The second is the one of Jesus. You are going to be great, fulfilled, with a meaningful life... ...not by going "up", but by going "down". Not by getting the first place, but by making yourself slave of all, giving an answer of love to anybody who needs your help and then you will be great. Go to the last place! It is hard for us to understand this. We may think that certain honorary titles, certain reverences, genuflections are insignificant signs of respect that we do not need to give importance to. No place for that in Jesus community.
What does Luke do? We have heard the story of the discussion that happened precisely during the Last Supper. Precisely after the institution of the Eucharist, when the disciples should have embraced their decision to follow the Teacher becoming 'bread' for the brethren. Nothing of that! They explode in a discussion about who should be first among them. The Greek word used here is FILONEiKIA: 'love being the first'.
The Evangelist places this discussion precisely after the institution of the Eucharist. These discussions happened several times during the public life of Jesus, but Luke is the only Evangelist that places it immediately after the institution of the Eucharist. What did he want to convey? He wanted us to understand that this 'command' to go to the last place to serve our brethren is the most important aspect of Jesus proposal about life.
Jesus words: "The one who wants to be first be the servant of all" -- placed in this context have the greatest value because they are the testament left to us by the Teacher. And as his last wish, these are sacred words, inviolable, never to be infringed. "Going out he went as it was his custom, to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, "Pray that you may not undergo the test." After withdrawing about a stone's throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still not my will but yours be done." And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him.
The third episode of the Passion of love according to Luke's version. We find two special elements brought only by this Evangelist. The first one is the insistence on prayer. We heard in the reading how Jesus tells his disciples: pray that you may not undergo the test. And he falls to his knees and prays: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me." No other Evangelist insists as Luke does about the prayer of Jesus at Gethsemane. Why? To overcome the temptation -- the proposal made by the devil. A moment ago we heard about the difficulty for the disciples to choose the last place because the impulse we all have to climb up; of making people serve us. This comes from the devil. Without prayer, the devil wins.
Because of this Jesus tells his disciples: Pray if you do not want to fall into temptation. And to pray is not to repeat formulas. It means to maintain the heart constantly united to Jesus' proposal. If we stop just for a moment from this prayer, from this union with the person and proposal of Jesus, the devil explots it. The second detail. An Angel that during the prayer strengthen Jesus because Jesus is fighting against the devil. He conquered temptation through prayer, in union with the Father. And he shows us how to overcome evil.
Who is this angel that appeared to give him strength? When the Bible speaks of "angels" we should not immediately think on spiritual beings that appear in human form or with wings. In the Bible "angel" indicates a mediator of salvation. "Angel" could also be an interior illumination, the revelation that comes in prayer from God to the one who prays. The angel is the effect of prayer. Prayer as a dialogue with the Father made Jesus understand the meaning of his death, of giving up his life. The devil suggested to Jesus that his death will be a failure. In prayer Jesus understood that giving up his life will be the beginning of a new world. This is the "angel" who appeared to Jesus giving him strength to overcome that what is diabolic in us. If we want to overcome our human fragility we should pray intensely as the Master; only then we will overcome the proposals of the devil.
"He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping with grief. He said to them, 'Why are you sleeping?' Get up and pray that you may not undergo the text." The fourth level of the Passion and Death of Jesus according to Luke. We find three elements that are characteristic of Luke. The first relates to the agony of Jesus.
When we mention "agony" we understand the last moments previous to the death of a person, but the meaning it has in this context and in the etymology of the word is the competition of the athletes, and it is in this sense that it is used by the Evangelist. After the angel strengthened Jesus, the battle begins: the "agony" begins. Since the beginning of his public life --as we heard in the first Sunday of Lent-- Jesus is battling with the devil, the temptation of taking a different pathway than the one expected from him.
These are the same temptations hat each one of us has to confront. There are moments in life when temptations present themselves as an "agony", as a dramatic battle because it deals with very painful matters. That effort means so much from us that it takes blood. We can all verify in our life (I think) the experience that Jesus made. Think, for example, of the interior battle when we are called to forgive those who offended us greatly... not the small offenses, a grave one, a violence that leaves its mark for the entire life. It is an interior battle and we tend to hate, to do harm to the person who offended us. This is the devil's plan. It is a true "agony" that we confront. A fight that cannot be conquered except by deep prayer--as Jesus did. Jesus entered the battle after understanding the real value of giving up his life. This is the first element in Luke's story.
The second element is the sweating of blood that only Luke mentions. This phenomenon is called EMATUIDROSI and it is well known in antiquity. Normal sweating could be at times blood sweating. The interpretation often given is that it was because of Jesus' discomfort at that moment. This is not the meaning that Luke gives. It has no meaning that after Jesus was strengthened by the angel he will fall into discomfort and despair.
What is, then, the meaning of his blood sweating? It points to the tension of the athlete at the proximity of a huge challenge. The athlete sweats because he knows that he must confront a very strong and dangerous adversary. The Evangelist says that it was not so much sweating, but blood sweating. Jesus is extremely concentrated. He is tense because the fight he must confront -- because he has to give up his life. But he also knows that he is much stronger than the devil. The third detail: The disciples sleeping, and the Evangelists adds that it is because of grief. The disciples do not look good during the Passion! Judas betrays him; Peter denies him, and all the rest run away from him. The other Evangelists called this behavior of the apostles vile.
What does Luke do? First of all, in his narration Luke does not tell about the fleeing of the disciples. And says that at Calvary all his acquaintances were present at a distance. Second detail: Luke does not mention Jesus' reproach to Peter: "You could not stay awake with me"... Luke does not mention it.
And a third significant detail of Luke: They were sleeping because of grief. What does Luke want to say? Luke is a shepherd of souls and tells how the shepherd of souls have to interpret the weakness of the apostles (sins). They have to do as Jesus did: regard it as ignorance, not knowing what they are doing, a weakness that is common to us all. Let us notice how Luke tries to excuse those who fail.
He is the only Evangelist that presents the disciples as saying: They are in love with Jesus but they are weak... as we all are. This is a very important message for the shepherds of souls. It is no good to come hard on those who make mistakes, to humiliate them, to blame them because the person who does not feel accepted, esteemed despite his weakness ends up closing the door of recovery.
Luke is saying to all shepherd of souls: know how to excuse, to understand all from those who made mistakes. "Judas, one of the Twelve, went up to Jesus to kiss him. Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? His disciples realized what was about to happen, and they asked, "Lord, shall we strike with a sword:" And one of them struck the high priest's servant and cut his right ear. But Jesus said in reply, "Stop, no more of this!" Then he touched the servant's ear and healed him". All the Evangelists mention that there was confusion at the time of Jesus' apprehension. And that the servant of the high priest was wounded.
When somebody hurts us, the instinctive reaction is self-defense. And if there is friction, one can say: "He looked for it!" The Evangelist says that in this situation the disciples were ready to fight, in fact, Luke is the most direct one regarding the proposal made by Jesus' disciples: "Lord, shall we strike with a sword?" The original text is even stronger. It says: "Lord, now we strike with the sword!" Not a question but a decision against which the Lord immediately intervenes. "Stop, no more of this!" A total refusal to the use of violence. This refusal against violence, even against the aggressor, is present in all four Evangelists. Jesus repudiates all resource to violence. From a wrong - another follows.
In the story of Luke there is a detail that is not present in the other Evangelists. Jesus cures immediately the wounded man. Jesus' disciples not only cannot attack the one attacking him but should be ready to repair the damage the other made. He heals even the one who continues doing harm. It is easy to distinguish the people who do not think like a disciple. If he is an enemy - he has to be destroyed, eliminated. A Christian cannot have enemies. He can have adversaries say a person who make a violent injustice or promotes a project about people and society that contradicts the values of the Gospel. We can call them "adversaries" but these people cannot be hurt or hated. People have to be loved. Arms are used by those who have enemies, not by the one who has as the only mission to change the adversary into a brother or sister.
The disciple of Jesus does not have enemies.... only adversaries. These are brothers that need to be loved even when they attack and want to take one's life. "After arresting him they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter was following at a distance; they lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat down with them. When a maid saw him seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said: "You too are one of them." But Peter answered, "My friend, I am not." About one hour later, still another insisted, "Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he is also a Galilean." But Peter said, "My friend, I do not know what you are talking about." Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." He went out and began to weep bitterly.
All the four Evangelists recall Peter's denials. The strongest ones are Matthew and Mark, using a very strong expression. They say that Peter after saying, "I do not know that man" to be more credible he started to curse; to say a curse against "that man". He cursed Jesus to clear himself that he had nothing to do with "that man". Very strong...Matthew and Mark. The three synoptics say that after denying the Master at the house of the high priest Peter went out and cried. But only Luke introduces a detail. Luke says that after Peter denied Jesus, the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
What is the meaning if this "look"? It will be completely wrong for us to interpret it as a reproach by the Master. This is not the meaning of that look. First of all let's say that Peter was the only one who had the courage of mingling with the high priest's servants knowing all the risks involved; but when he had the chance to declare himself a disciple, he did not do it. Peter had a deep love for the Master and Jesus understood the love of his disciple. This "look" in Greek does not mean just 'looking'. The word (EMBLEPO) means that he looked 'inside' Peter. Jesus understood how big Peter’s love for him was even if he was not ready to follow him offering his life. "Looked at Peter" means: I understand that you love me, in spite of what you said - I know that you love me.
Underlying this look of Jesus, Luke wants to tell all Christians how to be considered with the weaknesses of others and even our own weakness: not with reproach but with the Eyes of Jesus. Eyes that instill faith, that give hope. Eyes that know how to discover, even in great sins, a way to love. It is this “look" precisely, that one should share.
"Herod was very happy to see Jesus; he had been wanting to see him for a long time, for he had heard about him. and had been hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at length, but he gave him no answer. The chief priests and scribes meanwhile, stood by accusing him harshly. Even Herod and his soldiers treated him contemptuously and mocked at him, and after clothing him in resplendent garb, he sent him back to Pilate. Herod and Pilate became friends that very day, even though they had been enemies formerly." This seventh episode that we have just heard is present only in Luke.
This story of Pilate sending Jesus to Herod is told only by Luke. The Herod here during Jesus' passion, is Antipas, the son of Herod the Great the one who wanted to kill Jesus when he was born. What kind of a man was he? Jesus said that he was a fox; meaning a man without personality. He was evil, corrupt, null even from a patriotic standpoint and he governed the Galilee, Paerea. Jesus remained a subject of this king during his whole life. Jesus probably worked at Sephoris as an artisan for the palace of this Herod Antipas. At that time Jesus was not famous; he was just a carpenter, probably working with Joseph his father. But it was not there that Herod Antipas heard talking about Jesus but when Jesus started his public life and did extraordinary deeds.
The Gospel says that he even wanted to meet Jesus. Unrepentantly Herod was in Jerusalem, not in Galilee, during the paschal time. Later he changed his residence from Sephoris to Tiberias. Aware that there was no motive for Jesus' condemnation, Pilate heard that Jesus was a Galilean and he thought: Here is Herod Antipas and this man belongs to him; so he sent Jesus to Herod.
What happens when Jesus arrives at Herod's presence? There are three details that Luke mentions when Jesus arrives to Herod. It says, first, the Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus. Why? Because Herod was convinced that Jesus was a magician, a conjurer, an expert in the arts of the occult and we know that in the entire empire magicians were very successful. All emperors had in their courts some magicians that would foretell regarding a battle, to go to battle or to avoid it. So, Herod is very glad when he sees Jesus. Finally, it was his turn to meet this famous person doing extraordinary things.
Second moment: Disillusion. Jesus does not answer. Herod cannot get what he wanted: to witness some prodigies, something extraordinary... Nothing! Third reaction: He began to insult him. The Greek verb used is EXUTENEO meaning: he ignored Jesus. For him Jesus does not count. He made Jesus understand that he was a nobody... that he has been cheated. "I was convinced that you were an extraordinary person, but you are nothing... a nobody.!" Truly, for the values that are in the mentality of Herod Antipas, Jesus does not count because to the eyes of the world Jesus was not great - not of great value.
Herod ignores Jesus: It is the fourth reaction. The Greek expression means: He exploded with laugh. This was Herod's reaction. Jesus did not uttered a word; did not give any answer. Herod did not get what he expected. What is Luke's message? He wants us to be attentive to those who look for Jesus only as a miracle worker. This message is very opportune today, even for today's Christians who approach Jesus to receive help for life's sufferings - special graces or miracles. If they are looking for Jesus only for these favors... they will not get anything. Christianity consists of this: after listening to the Word, after accepting the light Jesus brought, we should know how to orient our life.
Christianity is the religion of love; of giving up our lives for the brethren. It is not a market for miracles. Jesus uses very strong words for these people: perverts... people without faith. Let's be on guard not to fall into the mistake of Herod Antipas: Looking at Jesus as a miracle worker. Jesus illumines us to orient our lives according to God's design.
"A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts. that never nursed.' At that time people will say to the mountains, "fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"
Luke is he Evangelist that, more than the others, mentions women; they accompanied Jesus during his public life as disciples and were at his service even with their means bringing help to him. Luke is the only Evangelist who mentions women on the road to Calvary, accompanying Jesus and mourning and lamenting. What is the message the Evangelist wants to convey? Who are these women? They are those who pay the price for the sins of others. Jesus tells them: Do not weep for me; weep instead for what will happen to you. Care for these women who have not nursed because it is going to be great misfortune falling on people. But these misfortunes are not caused by women.
Are the sins of men. Men are the ones who often times bring disasters, that provoke wars and violence. And women are the ones paying the price; price paid by the weakest, especially women. It is a message; an invitation that the Evangelist makes to all of us today... to listen more to the heart, to women's sensibility who perceive better than men, to avoid insane behaviors. If in this world we would listen more to the heart of women; if we could attune more with this sensibility, I believe that the number of wars and crimes would be substantially reduced. "
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." What we have just heard is narrated only by Luke. All the Evangelists say that Jesus died among two criminals. Matthew and Mark say that both insulted Jesus. Luke tells the story differently. He says that one of the criminals insulted Jesus, but the other reproached him and turned to Jesus asking him, "Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom." And Jesus answers him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise?" It is the only time in the Gospel that the word "paradise" appears.
At the beginning of his Gospel Luke presented Jesus surrounded by thieves. Of course, Joseph and Mary were there, but the first to arrive are the shepherds, the last of society, the leftovers, the impure. They are the ones with Jesus as soon as Jesus entered this world. Then, during his whole life, Jesus was surrounded by publicans, sinners, prostitutes, those who were excluded from the pure, from the "just ones". At the end of his life, with whom could Jesus be found if not with two criminals at his side!
The poor, the unhappy ones who lost everything in life: Jesus came precisely for them. When Jesus came to this world he was received by the last ones; and when he returns to the Father's house with whom is he going? Not with a petty thief, but with a criminal, saved by Jesus. And it is this man that Jesus presents as first-fruit to the Father.
"One of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, ""Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you not fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
In the text we just listened, there is a sentence pronounced by Jesus on the cross that only Luke has it: "Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing." To whom was Jesus referring to? Not to the soldiers who were dividing his clothes, but to the true responsible of his death: the religious leaders who did not accept his proposal about God and his proposal of a new man. They wanted to eliminate him. Jesus says that they do not know what they are doing. The answer that Jesus gave to the high priests, Annas, Caiaphas, to the scribes and pharisees who harassed him all his life: They do not know what they are doing.
The one who sins does not do it out of malice; it is because he does not know what he (or she) is doing. If he only knew the harm that he is doing; that is does not has the objective that he is looking for; that the joy, the realization of his own life is missing... then he will not do it. He does not know what he is doing! Jesus tells us how to take care of those who make mistakes in life. When we search the Old Testament, the books of Maccabees for example, where the death of seven brothers is told, martyred because of their faith, we also find that they despise those who are torturing them and the sixth brother even threaten them with punishment from heaven. He says to those who are killing him: "You are not going to be without punishment because of the crime you are committing." Jesus does not use this language and these feelings.
Therefore, the disciple of Jesus should not use this language. He cannot curse, he cannot threat with punishment those who act wrongly. Even at the most dramatic moments, when there is injustice and even death Jesus' disciple should only speak words of love. We have a very good example about a true disciple who behaves like the Master: Stephen, the first martyr. There was an ocular witness: Paul, who was guarding the clothes of those who were lapidating Stephen. Luke tells that Stephen fell on his knees because of the strikes of the stones they were throwing at him, and his last words were: "Lord, do not hold this sin againt them" - and when he said this, he fell asleep.
The disciple following the Master cannot have other feelings, other words for those who are hurting him. When we read the first letter of Peter, that was sent to those who were suffering persecutions in Asia Minor, Ponto, in Galatia, Capadonia, Vitinia... the author of this letter recalls the Master who, when insulted, did not respond with insult, and suffering did not threaten with vengeance. When suffering injustices, vexations, the disciple has to remember always how the Master behaved: to those who were killing him Jesus said: "Father, forgive them; they know not what they are doing." I wish for all of you a good week in preparation for Easter.
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Greetings to all, sisters and brothers.
The synoptic Gospels devote few verses to the telling of the Last Supper. The Evangelist John dedicates to the Last Supper 5 chapters, almost a quarter of his work. And these five chapters contain a long discourse that Jesus makes to his disciples. It is important to understand the literary genre of this discourse.
The Bible recalls the last pronounced speeches of famous personages --speeches that they utter at the end of their lives. For example, Jacob gathers all his children in Egypt and addresses each of them to recommend how they should behave in life and promise his blessing to each of them. Moses, too, at the end of his mission makes a long speech where he summarizes the work he has done and recommends to the people fidelity to the Lord. And the same other great characters: Joshua, Samuel.
Also in the Acts of the Apostles we find Paul who gathers the elders of Ephesus at Miletus and presents what he has done in his life, he recommends being faithful to the Gospel which he announced. These speeches are important because it is the testament that these characters leave the people.
The evangelist John uses this literary genre to give utmost importance to the last words that the Lord has left us. We take these words as his will. We know that the last words from a person who has loved are sacred when they leave their last words ... I remember when my father died I was not present. When I got home I asked what had been the last words of my father ... because these words are sacred. No child can forget what the father has left them as his last request.
The evangelist John wants to give these words the highest value and places them as the testament of Jesus. This testament does not begin immediately with the words of the Master. The reading opens with a scene, preserved only by John, which must have left the disciples baffled: the washing of the feet.
Let us pay attention to the solemn mode as the scene is introduced.
"Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot to hand him over. So during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God ..." (Jn 13: 1-3).
The scene of the washing of the feet that precedes the words of Jesus’ last will comprise five chapters of John's Gospel. It is a dinner narrated in a very solemn way by the evangelist First of all, there is the reference to "his hour"—the hour of Jesus. We had already heard of 'this hour' during the wedding at Cana, when responding to his mother, Jesus says: "My hour has not yet come."
The Gospel of John tells us that just a few days before the Passover, Philip and Andrew came to Jesus to tell him that there were some Greeks who wanted to see him. And Jesus responds to the disciples, "the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” The time has come for His glory. When we hear talk of 'glory' we immediately think in applause, triumph, but when Jesus speaks of the 'hour' of his glory he refers to the moment when he can finally make it reflect on his face the image of God, the Love that he came to present in this world.
The evangelist continues with this introduction to the scene of the washing of the feet saying: "After having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." The life of Jesus is summed up in a verb: the verb "to love". The whole life of Jesus has been 'love'. And the verb ‘agapàn’ is used here, a verb seldom used in classical Greece—only a dozen times, but it is used 143 times in the New Testament. It indicates the love of God that is unconditional; the love that does not expect something in return, but is done because it is necessary to be loved. And a love without conditions, loving even those who are evil, bad ... because he cannot do otherwise. It is what one makes to make another happy. They are happy seeing that others are happy. This is the love that Jesus came to witness and is what he did throughout his life. The life of Jesus is summed up in this verb: 'He loved his own.' And, therefore, the time has come to love them to the end, that is, to the maximum, beyond which it is impossible to go. One cannot go beyond a manifestation of love that is the donation of life.
And "during dinner, when the devil had already induced Judas to hand him over...". Before this dinner, in the washing of the feet, the evangelist brings to mind the figure of Judas --presenting him as a devil. Devil – dialbolus - is 'dia-balo' - a verb that means 'to place an obstacle'. 'Devil' is everyone who meddles in a message of love between God and humanity. There may be no acceptance - those who do not accept this message of love = these are the 'devil'. Judas did not want to understand the newness of the face of God ... he understood it, but he would not accept it and handed over Jesus to the religious authorities because he wanted to perpetuate the old image of the catechesis of the scribes and Pharisees.
And John purposely brings the presence of Judas because in the scene of the washing of the feet the Master will go on his knees before him who has not accepted this new face of God, this new relationship with God; he has not accepted the proposal of the new man. Before entering into a detailed description that the evangelist makes of the scene of the washing of the feet, I want to make an observation about the position of the Hebrews on the table during the celebration of the Passover dinner.
They were not seated at the table, as we are accustomed to see in the paintings and pictures, but they were lying down. The verb used by all the evangelists is 'anakeimái' which means lying on the table. What did this gesture mean? It meant that those who were at the table during the celebration of the Passover meal considered themselves free men. The Hebrews took this gesture from the Greeks who in turn took it from the Persians, who already in the sixth century B.C., when celebrating a great victory, a great party, they did not sit at table, but they lie down. After the battle of Platea, therefore in the fifth century, at the time of the Persian wars, the Greeks also began to behave like the Persians--laying down at the table. Then the Romans used these gestures and, later, when the customs were corrupted, not only the men but also the women lay on the table. Among the Hebrews only men lay on the table during this celebration of the Passover supper.
We must therefore imagine the gesture of the washing of the feet keeping in mind the way they were on the table. Therefore, we understand that for Jesus it was easy enough to go around his disciples because the feet were in the right position to be washed comfortably. Jesus could go around all his disciples easily.
And we can also imagine Jesus on the table, not sitting in the middle of the table but probably in the last position, in the angle of the triclinium. We will also see what Jesus does in this introduction to the scene. At some point he will stand on the table and make this gesture on which we are going to reflect. And the evangelist continues this solemn introduction saying: "Fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God ..." Jesus is fully aware of having accomplished His mission. He has come from God and is about to return to the Father.
Sometimes we hear at funerals: ‘Our brother, our sister, returned to the Father.’ It is not very correct. Jesus returns to the Father because he has come from the Father. We 'go' to the father, because it's the first time we go and our situation is different from that of Jesus. He came from God and goes back to God. We, at the end of this earthly life, will go to the Father. We have, therefore, heard this solemn introduction to this Supper which we are invited to contemplate.
Let's listen to the reading together:
"He rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple’s feet and dry them with the towel around his waist" (Jn 13:4-5).
We have noticed that the evangelist describes very slowly the scene of the washing of the feet. It seems that he wants to highlight all the particulars about what has happened. He describes the scene with all the details because he wants the gesture made by Jesus to last forever imprinted in the minds of the disciples.
The introduction to this scene concluded by saying that Jesus, knowing that He had come from God and that he was returning to God ... How could we imagine that the story would continue? I think what seems spontaneous to us is to imagine Jesus taking bread, instituting the Eucharist, inviting the disciples to eat of that bread and to drink that chalice. Instead, the evangelist John, unlike the other evangelists, does not narrate the institution of the Eucharist.
And this is very strange because this evangelist has dedicated a chapter, the sixth of his Gospel, to the bread of life, to the Eucharistic bread. Instead of speaking about the institution of the Eucharist, he continues his text, saying that during the supper Jesus got up from the table. And when Jesus makes this gesture to get up from the table there must have been silence in the room because in telling the gesture made by Jesus the gestures happen among the greatest of the surprises of the apostles who do not understand what the Master is doing.
At a certain moment Jesus gets up from the table, then removes his robes. This gesture made by Jesus is represented in the pictures and also in the explanations that are given on this scene of the washing of the feet. But this gesture that the evangelist brings is very important. We know how the Hebrews dressed in the time of Jesus. They wore a loincloth, then a tunic, a belt and then a cloak.
It is important to see how these dresses were called in Greek. The cloak was 'to imateon', the tunic 'ta imatia' and then the 'loincloth'. What is the evangelist saying? He says that Jesus took off 'ta imatia'. Not 'to imateon' the garment that could hindrance him when he washed the feet of the disciples. There is no mention of the 'cloak'. He had already taken it off. He says he took off 'ta imatia' - the tunic and what does this mean? He just kept the loincloth. Except for modesty ... this gesture is extremely significant and it must have surprised the disciples, who did not understand what the Master was doing, but Jesus was left with only the loincloth. With the clothes of the slaves.
You can see in the background, this sculpture showing the true God. It is not easy to understand that the one who stays in underwear, in the clothes of the slaves, is our God. We continue to imagine God being served, before whom we should bow ... instead here, we are seeing the new face of God that becomes man's slave.
It is not easy to be converted to this image of God, because that is our God ... Let us remain a little silent to look at this God who surprised the minds of the disciples during the Last Supper. In that nakedness the face of God is revealed; on that nudity Jesus will put on the apron—the apron that will not be removed later when he puts on his clothes again, because it is the clothes of the slave which makes him the servant of man. It is the image of our God.
Nakedness dressed as service. This is the spouse's dress. Remember that when Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast, at one point one enters this wedding party without the nuptial dress. We are wondering: What is the nuptial garment for the Eucharistic banquet?
When we participate in the Eucharist it is the Spouse who asks us if we want to join our life to his. Therefore, we must present ourselves to the wedding feast with the spousal dress and this is what he has dressed. It is the dress of the husband and wife; we should wear the clothing of the slave. If we do not have the habit of the servant, the willingness to give up life at the service of the brethren - our nuptial encounter with Christ is not authentic, it is not true. And we understand that when one does not have this nuptial garment, one does not enter the wedding banquet - we are not part of this proposal of reciprocal love, the exchanging of love is competition, envy… and this is the world where there is 'gnashing of teeth', the old world, not the new world introduced by the Son of God, of the Son who reproduces in himself the image of the Father of heaven, who becomes a servant of man.
After having removed the garment, Jesus is dressed in the servant's clothes—the apron. ‘He tied it around his waist’.... Notice the slowness of the description that must have left the disciples surprised and in silence, who did not understand what Jesus was doing. "Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet..." - without distinction for anyone, who is bigger or smaller. The service of love is the same - all are loved equally by God. "And dried them with the towel around his waist".
This gesture of washing the feet: what was the meaning for the Hebrews? Overall, it was a traditional gesture of welcome to the visitors. We know, for example, and it is recalled in the New Testament, in the first letter to Timothy: the widows entered into this institution which had the early Church which had several characteristics, and one of them was 'washing the feet of the saints', that is, to make themselves available to those in need, including washing their feet.
It was a gesture of humility and servile. In fact, let us remember the rabbinic commentary in the book of Exodus where it was said that the Hebrew slave should not wash his feet of his employer. The Hebrew is not a slave and therefore must refuse to wash his feet. Not that it was necessarily a servile gesture, it was also a gesture that manifested love to the person. For example, the wife should manifest her love by washing her husband's feet; also the children, as a sign of reverence for the father, they could wash their feet.
All these aspects are present in the gesture of Jesus. Jesus is God who shows all his love, also making a humiliating gesture - he does so because he wants to reveal the face of the Father in heaven. After this scene that is described so slowly by the evangelist, we are presented with the reaction of Peter.
Let us listen to the narrative of the evangelist:
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean” (Jn 13,6-10).
We have noticed that the scene of the washing of the feet takes place in silence. A silence of surprise. The disciples do not understand what Jesus is doing. At a certain moment, this silence is broken by Peter. When Jesus comes to wash his feet, he addresses the Lord first of all with a question: “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Peter realizes that Jesus is turning the order of values accepted as logical and normal by all. What is the logical and normal order? That the Master, the Rabbi, be served by the disciples who must be proud to wash his feet.
Here, on the contrary, Jesus is turning everything around and Peter does not accept this gesture of Jesus. He does not accept it because he has begun to understand that Jesus is reproducing the face of the Lord - the Son of God reproduces the face of the Father in heaven. And Peter feels that all the catechesis that he has assimilated from the rabbis is falling apart, because the God he has always imagined and in whom he has always believed was God served by man, and we saw in the preceding scene how the Son of God presents himself, the one who reproduces the face of the Father in heaven. He presents himself in a disconcerting way, with the dress of the slave.
There is a 'Peter' present in each one of us. It is he who, facing the mystery of God who loves, to the point of kneeling before man, rebels and does not accept that God is a servant, that He become a slave of man, because we are always convinced that man must serve God. Instead, in the face of Jesus, we see a God who is love and who is the servant of man.
I believe that this 'Peter' within each of us wants to preserve an image of God which is not that of the true God. It is the God that the Evil One wants to present, because if we do not cancel this image of God, we will not be in a position to accept this love of the Father in heaven What is the image that Peter had in mind? It is the one that is presented by Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy; Moses says to the people of Israel in a speech to the Israelites: “The Lord your God is the God of gods - the Lord of lords. He is a great, strong, terrible God” (Deut 10,17).
Taken to the letter these words are difficult to compare with this image of God presented by Jesus - who washes the feet of the disciples. Also what the book of Esther says: God is great, magnificent... Or in the book of Judith: The Lord is great, glorious, admirable with his power, invincible ... This is the face of God that Peter has in mind and I think also in the 'Peter' that is present in each of us; that we are trapped by this image of God and we resist to put it in question by the gesture made by Jesus.
Jesus understands this difficulty of changing the image of God and in fact says to Peter: “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand” when you see the love of which I came to bear witness to—the love of the Father in heaven. It will be at Calvary, when Jesus gives his life. Jesus does not intend Peter to understand right away.
We too can find this difficulty to allow ourselves to be converted to this authentic image of God. Jesus understands this difficulty. And Peter reacts and says to Jesus: "You will never wash my feet.” Jesus replied, "If I do not wash your feet, you will have no part with me." Notice: Jesus does not say to Peter: 'If you do not accept washing the feet of the brothers' ... this Jesus will say later.
Here he is saying: I need to wash your feet, because if I do not go down to this last step, you have nothing to do with me. Salvation, the new world, can only begin if I descend to the last place of service—which will then be the gift of his life on Calvary.
If Jesus does not come to this hour when he can manifest all the glory, all the love of the Father in heaven, the new world does not begin. Jesus is saying to Peter: let me go down to the last place, the servant who washes the feet of the disciples. It is difficult for us to serve others, and also gives us fatigue to allow others to serve us because letting ourselves be served makes us feel that we are not self-sufficient and this humiliates us a little.
We are proud—we want to be self-sufficient. But God did not make us like that. He has done well. He has made us need the gift of the others. Without the encounter with the others and with the gifts that the others can offer we will not fully realize ourselves. And the logic in which God wants us to enter is the free gift, unconditional love - even to the enemy, even to the one who has done us some harm.
It is difficult for us to give for free, and also to let ourselves be loved for free because our logic is that of exchange. And, in fact, when we accept a gift, we ask, 'how can I repay you’ for the gift you have given me? 'Because we want to match the account right away.
This is our logic. Instead, the gift was made to create this imbalance that must remain. If one has made a gift that costs 100 Euros and I pay for it, all the logic of the gift is lost. Instead, this imbalance calls for a response of love. We know it. Let's take the example of the family where we find the logic of the free gift. Among siblings, as a family, services are made without demanding that they be paid back, because there is the logic of love, which regulates relationships.
And notice that when one offers one's own service of love, one does not necessarily receive an exchange of immediate love. This love, many times, manifests itself with others. For example, the gift that parents make to their children, the gift of life, the gift of service they make so that children can grow. It is not necessarily compensated by the children toward the parents, but this logic of love is manifested on the part of the children in a gift of love that they in turn do, educating, growing their own children.
This logic and dynamics of love we see it in a very simple example: If you give me the right of way when I'm driving I feel grateful because I was waiting for some time for somebody to let me in on the route and I am grateful for this gesture that the other made me ... what happens: We are well done it.... We also feel the need to do something for free, not for the one who has given us the right of way, but for any other.
This is the new logic that God wanted to introduce into the world. Not the logic of exchange, but the logic of free love. The one who accepts this logic enters into the dynamic of the love of God that has been revealed in Jesus. In Jesus, this love has been total, unconditional. If we want to enter into this relationship of love with Christ, we too must enter into the logic of love without conditions.
Jesus said to Peter, "If you do not let your feet washed." Peter would want to be the one to give his life for Jesus. But here comes the opposite: it is Jesus who needs to donate his life, otherwise the new kingdom cannot begin, the ancient kingdoms continue, the kingdom of the beasts. Peter reacts by saying, "Lord, if it is so, not only the feet, but the hands and the head." Peter has not understood what Jesus is saying. He is still thinking of ritual purifications and Jesus says to him, "He who has bathed"—meaning: he who has entered the new water, the water of life that I have come to bring into the world, no longer needs any purification.
And you are clean—you are already purified by the Word that I have announced to you, even though one of you has not been purified. Again, the mention of Judas who was about to hand him over. This is the gesture which we have meditated. After this reaction of Peter, comes the life lesson that Jesus wants to give. Jesus wants to make them understand very well what He has done.
Let us listen together and Jesus then tells the disciples:
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (Jn 13:12-15).
After the description of the gesture made by Jesus of the washing of the feet, with the reaction of Peter, the evangelist continues with the description of what Jesus did. He put on the robe, the tunic and then returns to the table. And he addresses the disciples and asks: “Do you understand what I just did?” It is not a traditional gesture made at the beginning of the meal as it was the custom to do: to wash the guest’s feet. It was 'during' the supper when Jesus made this prophetic gesture on which He wants the disciples to reflect and understand the meaning.
A meaning that is decisive because it turns the image of God upside down and also the image of who the great man is, the redeemed man. This is why Jesus asks the disciples: Do you understand what I have just done? When Jesus puts on his clothes, he does not take off his towel.
The evangelist has noted all the details and the fact that he does not say that Jesus took off the towel is significant. The towel is the symbol of the service of his humanity—Jesus will continue to serve forever. Service is the currency, the currency of God.
And then he begins to teach the lesson. "You call me master and lord, and rightly so. But if I, who am master and lord, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." It is the moral interpretation. Peter is the first among the disciples and is the one who has reacted most openly before this new image of God, transforming. What still concerns him is the image of man.
If man should humble himself to God to be great, he must be like Jesus the servant, the one who is always willing to love unconditionally. The washing of the feet is not a gesture of humility made by Jesus.
We must be careful not to minimize this gesture as if Jesus had done an action, only once and is now over ... NO! It is the presentation of his identity. It is the presentation of the identity of God which will not change any more. This is the nature of God. The true dignity of man will be to reproduce this face of the Father of heaven, which shines in the face of Jesus.
And when we read about—not in the Gospel of John, but in the Synoptics– about the institution of the Eucharist, when Jesus says: “Do this in memory of me...” for me to be ready for the Eucharist refers to this gesture of total love where those who are involved in a spousal relationship that is celebrated in the Eucharistic banquet must enter. Jesus concludes his lesson by saying that by doing this they will be blessed if they put it into practice. To be blessed— God congratulates only those who have had a life for others: You are truly my son, you are happy because you have manifested my love to your brothers and sisters. You are blessed.
It is not a matter of conquering merits for paradise in which we enter by this dynamic of love, to be enfolded in the love of the Father of heaven, that love that has been fully manifested in Jesus of Nazareth.
I wish you all a good preparation for the Easter holiday.
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Greetings to all, sisters and brothers.
On this Good Friday, the liturgy brings us to reflect on the passion of Jesus, as narrated by the evangelist John. We are going to comment on an episode that only this evangelist narrates. The dialogue between Jesus and Pilate on royalty. Who was Pilate? A character that today nobody remembers but the name, were it not for that Friday, April 7, year 30, On the vigil of the Passover, he met Jesus and had to pronounce a sentence, that was his condemnation to death.
Pilate did not reside in Jerusalem but in Cesarea and was in Jerusalem because during the Passover order had to be maintained in the city. He was with his court: about 500 soldiers in the holy city. Where did he reside? We will try to locate the episode on which we will seek to reflect. We located the Praetorium of Pilate. Traditionally it was thought that Pilate resided in the Antonia Tower - the fortress shown in the background, built by King Herod the Great and named after his great friend and protector, Antonius, one of the triumvirate. The location of the Praetorium was confirmed when the archaeologists discovered a ‘lithostrotos’, a Roman pavement, precisely in that place. And as the evangelist John says the place where Jesus was condemned Since there was a ‘lithostrotos’ (a paving with stone ballast), it was thought, therefore, that Jesus had been condemned there, in this tower Antonia.
Archaeologists have clarified this question because the 'lithostrotos' is not from the time of Jesus, but from 100 years later, placed in the time of Hadrian, when they built the Roman Forum. Where was the Praetorium of Pilate, where he resided during those days? When one speaks of Praetorium, one always understands the residence of the governor. In the city of Jerusalem, the residence of the governor was not the Antonia tower, where the soldiers were. His residence was where the palace of Herod the Great was located. Herod had built the palace on the highest part of the city. From the top of those three towers he controlled the whole city. It was the highest part. The rich of Jerusalem lived there.
From this palace of Herod, we know practically everything, up to the details, because as described by the well-known historian, Flavius Josephus, it consisted of two great buildings and had the name of the two great friends of Herod the Great: Caesar and Agrippa (Mark Agrippa, the builder of the Pantheon of Rome), who was the general of Caesar Augustus. The building to the north was called "Caesarion" (of Caesar), and the building to the south "Agripeion" - two great friends of Herod the Great. Pilate resided in these palaces in those days. Note some significant points of this palace. I have already indicated the "Caesarion" in the northern part; we can locate there the encounter of Jesus with Pilate, when they talked about royalty. Another important detail to keep in mind is the door that is now indicated, that serves as an entry from Herod’s palace to the ‘agora’, the square, which was the high market of the city of Jerusalem.
Let us keep in mind that we are in the wake of Easter and the setting of this place where we had this meeting of Jesus with Pilate, in the early morning. We can think that the market, at that hour, was preparing for the banquet with everything necessary for the Easter Dinner.
I have already spoken of these two great buildings and now we will locate, more specifically, the meeting place of these characters from these 7 scenes narrated by the evangelist John. Why 7 scenes? Because at the end of the reading we see that Pilate goes in and out the palace 7 times. Inside he meets and talks with Jesus, then, having spoken to Jesus, he finds the chief priests and the people who introduced him to this person that the leaders want him to sentence to death. And what do we notice? That in this coming and going of Pilate, 7 scenes are formed. We will examine them one by one because in each of these scenes the evangelist John places an important theological message. Let's return to this setting that is important. In the background you see ‘Caesario’. Who are the characters that are inside this palace? They are Pilate and Jesus. You can see the three towers that dominate the city of Jerusalem. Inside this ‘praetorio’ (headquarters) this meeting takes place and the theme is about royalty.
There are two royalties that face each other. The royalty that derives from the principles and values of this world, of the greatness of this world and the royalty that comes from heaven, values and principles that are of God. They are two royalties that are incompatible and that are faced inside the palace. Outside, meanwhile, we have the other scenes, when Pilate goes out to meet with the chief priests who were the ones who presented Jesus to him, and who could not enter the palace as it is occupied by pagans; would have been contaminated and could not have celebrated the Passover. Here it indicated the place where Pilate came out to meet with the chief priests. And in front of that door is the 'agora' that was the market; the salesmen there were not interested in this Jesus that was presented to Pilate.
And this is where two other powers are also faced. Inside was the meeting between two ‘kingdoms’—one that comes from the values and the greatness of this world, and the other kingdom coming from heaven, coming from God. In front of this door we have the meeting between two other powers: the political power of the representative of Tiberius and the religious power. These two powers are enemies, but we will see that these two powers unite since neither supports a new kingdom, a new world. They want to keep the ancient world; therefore, political power and religious power want to prevent and, therefore, want to end this provocation coming from heaven, the birth of a completely different world, with principles and values that are not of the greatness of this world, but of authentic greatness which are from God.
After setting the places where we placed the 7 scenes that make up this text, let us now listen to the introduction of the first scene, the dialogue between the chief priests and Pilate.
"Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover" (Jn 18,28).
The first indication is the time given by the evangelist for the meeting between the chief priests and Pilate. It was morning—in Greek 'proi', indicating the beginning of the morning and this is in accordance with the regulations of the Roman magistrates who began their activity early in the morning. There will be two other indications in the text that we will examine - indications of time: noon and then the conclusion of this day which is the beginning of the feast of Easter.
The indication has a theological meaning, it is the dawning of a new day after a very long, dark night, where so many things have happened: The delivery of Jesus by Judas, the capture, the condemnation of Jesus by the Sanhedrin which decided that this man should be removed from the middle because he puts in crisis the entire religious structure, the theology of the spiritual guides of the people of Israel. Also, that night we had the denials of Peter. It is the darkness that begins to dissolve on this new day. It was early morning. On this night there is a very sinister figure: that of Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest. This Annas is the darkest figure, the real responsible for the death of Jesus. He controlled all religious activity, Involved in the economic traffic of the Jerusalem temple. He had been high priest for many years, from the 6th year after Christ to the 15th. And after him, his son-in-law Caiaphas was appointed high priest until the year 36. It is in 36 that Caiaphas is deposed as high priest, the year as Pilate.
We get the impression that both were allies because the real skillful political leader approaches the religious power, and the agreement between Caiaphas and Pilate made it possible for the high priest to obtain the condemnation of Jesus to death. This condemnation to death was already decided during the night by the Sanhedrin, but could not be carried out because the power of condemning to death was reserved for the Roman procurator. The chief priests and their servants went to the palace of Herod. They stood outside not to defile themselves and asked to speak with Pilate.
Let us listen to the account of this dialogue:
"Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up to you. ‘Then,’ said Pilate unto them, ‘Take him, and judge him according to your law.” The Jews, therefore, said to him, ‘It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.’ That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying what kind of death he should die" (Jn 18,29-32).
Pilate was called outside the praetorium to address this group of people led by the high priest. Pilate is the representative of the political power. He is a protégé of the famous 'Sejanus' that dominates Rome. Tiberius is in Capri - half insane, and the one who manages power in the capital is Sejanus. And Pilate will endure until his protector falls into disgrace. The representative of the political power is confronted by the religious power.
It is the first scene that takes place outside the praetorium of Pilate. He addresses the chief of the high priests and asks him, "What is this man accused of?" The answer is: he is an evildoer. You must rely on our judgment and you must pronounce the sentence immediately.
Pilate's response is also immediate: "Take him and judge him according to your laws." But the leaders of the priests answer: We have condemned him, but we need you to confirm the death sentence because we cannot carry it out.
I want to point out this signal made by the chief priests. The evangelist notes who say to the Roman procurator: we have delivered him to you because he is an evildoer. This verb 'delivered' is very important. John mentions it 15 times. Who are these people who 'deliver'? It is very significant: Judas 'delivers' Jesus; then the chief priests deliver Jesus to Pilate; Pilate will deliver him to die. All the bad deliveries against the design of God's plan. They seek to eliminate Jesus through these deliveries.
What will be the answer of heaven to all these 'deliveries' from men? On the cross, Jesus will give the gift of life, give his Spirit. This verb: 'paradídomi' in Greek, is like God's response to all these deliveries of men who deliver to death. And God responds to this delivery made by people surrendering His Spirit: the divine life to humanity.
The evangelist notes that this has happened to fulfill what Jesus had said. What had Jesus said? A theologically important sentence. "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to me." This material lifting of Jesus, rising from the cross, is chosen by the evangelist as the glorious moment. Glorious and an abomination to people. Glorious in the eyes of God because it is the moment when the fullness of his love finally arrives. It is an interpretation of this verb "uplift" - raised materially on the cross and elevation in glory.
This would not have happened if Jesus had not been condemned by the Roman procurator because the Jews would have wanted death sentence by stoning. Instead, what Jesus had promised was done. "He will be exalted" because it will be Pilate who pronounces the sentence to death. The death sentence will be the crucifixion.
After this dialogue with the Jews, Pilate re-enters and we have the first dialogue between the procurator and Jesus.
Let's listen:
"So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (Jn 18,33-38).
In this scene begins the dialogue about royalty in the interior of the praetorium between Pilate and Jesus. The procurator asks Jesus, "But are you the King of the Jews?" Pilate heard talks about this royalty. And Jesus responds: "Do you ask that on your own or because others have told you about me?" Why does Jesus ask this question? Because he cannot answer the question Pilate asked him - if he was king of the Jews. Why cannot Jesus respond? For if Pilate speaks for himself, he understands kingdom according to the criteria of this world.
If he speaks for himself, Jesus would certainly have answered: NO - I do not understand kingdom as you understand it; that is, the kingdom of Tiberius. I do not want that kind of kingdom. But if it is others who have told you about me, that is to say the Jews, then it is another kind of kingdom; one that was announced in the Old Testament when God would finally take power to establish a new kingdom. Jesus Himself has spoken much of the kingdom of God, of the kingdom of heaven, that the Lord would establish in this world.
This is why Jesus asks Pilate: Do you ask that on your own or because others have told you about me? ... so that I can answer you. And Pilate, surprised, answers: I know nothing of your affairs ... I am only interested in my kingship - I'm not Jewish. And now Jesus can answer about the kingdom Pilate asked about. And he says: “My kingdom is not of this world.”
It is important to have the correct translation of the original text because in general it is translated: My kingdom is not of this world. It is not like this. The kingdom of Jesus is of this world and about the other world we are going to talk at another time. Jesus wants to establish the kingdom of God in this world. The correct translation is: My kingdom does not come from this world, from the criteria, from the values of this world. The Greek text says: Ἡ βασιλεία ἐ ὴμὴ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου - 'does not come from' this world. It is a kingdom that comes from above, from the criteria of God, from the values of heaven. If my kingdom were 'of' this world, the world in which you believe, Pilate - which is the kingdom of Tiberius, of Caesar Augustus ... This kingdom comes from the criteria and values of this world. If my kingdom were thus, my servants would have noticed it, because the first criterion governing the kingdom that comes from the criteria of this world is force, violence. My kingdom is not from here; it comes from other criteria and from other values.
To understand this difference between the two realms, let's say that the kingdom of this world can be understood according to what St. Augustine says in "The City of God": it is a legendary dialogue between a pirate and Alexander the Great. The pirate fell into the hands of Alexander the Great who said: you are a delinquent - why do you infest the sea? With bold freedom the pirate replied: I am a delinquent, a swindler, a pirate, but I have a small ship and they call me delinquent because I do the robbery in the sea. But you, Alexander the Great, who have a great fleet and with your fleet devastates the sea and the earth with your armies, making disasters much greater than mine, you are called great, emperor, because you conquered, you win (De civitate, IV, 4). I am a poor pirate, a little criminal, but you, as you win, you are great.
The great ones of this world are those who establish their power first of all with force, with dominance and when they win they are held to by great, successful people - the kingdom of this world. This is the kingdom that comes from worldliness and is the kingdom over which Jesus was also tempted to build. The Devil had suggested: If you want to succeed—I tell you how to do it. You must impose yourself and with force and with lies if necessary, also with injustice, with violence, with oppression because only in these ways can you establish a kingdom born of the principles of this world. And notice that the temptation, to form little kingdoms which each of us tries to create, can derive from these values and proposals of the Evil One.
Becoming great by oppressing others. It is what we have seen happening throughout the centuries. The same thing. Seeking to dominate, to prevail over others and then this kingdom falls when a stronger power comes in. Inside the palace, between Jesus and Pilate, these two kingdoms face each other. Jesus explains the difference between the two. The first difference is that of the domain. The kingdoms that are installed and that come from the logic of this world are based, above all, on force. The kingdom that comes from God is not based on dominion but on the contrary, on service. The great person, who is exalted, who is on the throne, is the one who serves, who gets on his knees before the one who needs it. Pilate is troubled, disconcerted, does not understand, and says: are you a king? And Jesus responds: “It is true. You said it. I am king.
And here Jesus points the second difference between the royalty that comes from this world and the royalty that comes from heaven. He says: For that I was born, for that, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. He who is on the side of truth listens to my voice.” What is meant by truth? Truth in the Bible does not indicate telling lies or not.
Truth is a conception which we also have. When we say 'true' - 'he is a true man' —a 'true priest' or a 'true baptized' it means a person who lives the identity of the disciple of Christ, who is faithful to the proposal of man made by Jesus in the Gospel. This is the concept of truth. Jesus has come into the world to bear witness to the truth about God and cancels all the lies which were told about God. He presents the truth about the face of God with his person. The one who sees Jesus sees the true face of God, and the one who sees Jesus sees also the true face of man, of true man. The dominator is not a real man; he is still a beast. Jesus testifies to the truth about God and about man.
This is the second difference between the royalty of this world and the new royalty, that of the greatness of service and that of the realization, the reproduction of the face of the Father in heaven on the face of each person. And at this point Pilate understands nothing, and mentions that famous expression: What is truth? And then he goes outside to speak with the heads of the high priests. He does not understand anything because kingdom for him is only that of Tiberius, of dominators, and then that 'truth' talked by the philosophers Pilate is not interested. He is not in erected in the discourse that Jesus is doing.
If Pilate had understood what kind of kingdom Jesus spoke about, he would have become a free man, he had freed himself from that dehumanizing image of royalty. The portrait that Philo of Alexandria does of Pilate is very hard ... He did not let himself be freed, he fled ... he could have asked Jesus or expect Jesus’ answer when he asked what is the truth. And Jesus would have explained it to him, he would have understood that being a great man does not have to be like Tiberius, but people who love, who put themselves to the service, not to be served by others.
And Jesus is unable to make Pilate understand. It is very complicated because Jesus was turning around all conceptions of greatness of this world. Jesus was not successful either with Peter, when Peter wanted Jesus to be great, when Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet. He wanted to be the first, but Jesus makes them understand that true greatness refers to the royalty that comes from above and it is the opposite of the royalty, of the greatness of this world. Pilate goes out again to the Jews who are waiting outside, in front of the door in the courtyard.
Let us listen together to the reading of the third scene - Pilate's meeting with the chief priests:
"After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.” (Jn 18,38-40).
Pilate, a little confused, talks to the chiefs of the Jews and says simply: I spoke with Jesus and I find no fault in him for what you are accusing him of. Trying to find a way out, he proposes to free Jesus for what was called the “paschal privilege”. There are not many details about what the evangelist says was the custom on the occasion of the Passover: to release a prisoner whom the people asked for.
It is unimaginable that the Roman procurator would release a delinquent on the occasion of the Passover What could have happened? Let us try to reconstruct the facts as they can be understood and then the rereading that the evangelist speaks of a certain 'Barabbas'. Who could this character be: Barabbas = Bar-Abba. It means 'son of his father'. This was the name given to no one's children.
We know that these people are present in all societies, those who live a little abandoned, who are then accused of all because they are the marginalized—this son of nobody-Barabbas. The Evangelist Mark mentions that there was a brawl in a city and in this revolt was a homicide. They looked for the perpetrators of this crime and who were taken out of the way? 'Barabbas'! It must have been him! He had been put in prison with others responsible for the quarrel.
On the occasion of the Passover, this man was released, probably because it was known that he was not guilty of the crime and of the revolt that had taken place in the city. This episode is narrated contemporaneously with the condemnation of Jesus ... and how the Roman procurator has pronounced the death sentence for the author of life and the people, instead of releasing the author of life, the beginning of a world of love, the new coming from heaven, the people have preferred this 'Barabbas', considered a criminal, therefore, one who represents death.
The evangelists have put these two characters to tell us to be attentive, that the choice that was made by the Jews is repeated continually because each one is placed in front of this option: by the author of life or by the father whose children choose 'no life'.
This is the theological reason why the evangelists have put these two figures. I have tried to explain what could have happened, actually not of much interest to us. We are more interested in the theological meaning that the evangelist wants to give. I want to clarify something very important.
The evangelist John does not speak of the 'people of Israel'. He mentions, with very precise terms, the Jews, and understands with this term those who refute the new world proposal introduced by Jesus.
Therefore, the Jews are not the people of Israel, they are all those who oppose with all their strength and they want to remove from the middle the one who presents a new world. Therefore, the 'Jews' are not the Hebrews at the time of Jesus. They are the usual Jews - it can be ourselves if we try to remove Jesus from the middle, to prevent the realization of that new world that He came to establish in this world. And now comes the fourth scene, the central, the most important, which is the parody of royalty according to the criteria of this world.
Let us listen to it.
"Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands” (Jn 19:1-3).
There are two events in this fourth scene—which is the central one: the scourging of Jesus and then the parody of the royalty that culminates with the coronation of thorns and then with the purple robe that they put on Jesus. The evangelist does not speak much about the flogging; he does not want to insist on this cruelty. It is not about this cruelty that the evangelists want to insist. They are presenting the passion of Jesus that is not to be understood as the passion that Jesus has suffered -which is true-but they want us to focus on the passion of love of Christ which reveals God's passion of love for humanity - that humanity that rejects him, but that God loves hopelessly.
This is what the evangelists want us to understand. Let's talk about this parody of royalty now. The evangelist uses a fine irony. He wants to show how the greatness of this world—the royalty which is derived from the criteria of this world is ridiculous. First the crown of thorns. The crown of gold that the kings wear to reign was the sign of their glory, of their success. It indicated the irradiation of the god sun. It is not this crown that they put on Jesus, but a crown of thorns. The reality of the royalty of this world was celebrated with the radiant crown of the sun; the royalty that comes from heaven is the one who loves even those who do evil, who respond with hatred to this love. What does the evangelist mean? That the kingdoms of this world are palliative, are theaters of this world, actors are masked.
This was what St. John Chrysostom said: the greatness of this world is like theatrical performances where everyone puts on a mask, but then at night, they remove this mask and the truth appears. When you remove these masks, what is left? John Chrysostom says that he who in the theater was a king, you find him in the square as a simple man; another who presented himself as a philosopher, because he had the beard of the philosophers, you find him on the street and is not even able to write his own name. Then comes the night, when these crowns, which shine in the eyes of the world like the sun, are then revealed in their emptiness. Jesus presents a completely different royalty. To the world is a mocking royalty, makes people laugh, because the world count the crowns like the ones that Tiberius can put on his head.
Let us reflect: many times what appears in this world is a farce. Let's look for some lessons about the characters in question. What's left? Let us try to remove the decorations, the honorific titles ... what kind of person remains? Especially if we remove money, power to certain people-what is left? Let's remove the trick to certain things, remove the reflectors to the theaters of this world ... What kind of man-what kind of woman is left? What are the values of these people? Authentic value, not appearances. Thus, in this scene the evangelist wants to make a parody of the royalty of this world.
The second sign of royalty is the mantle of purple that they put on Jesus. The color remembers the color of the blood that the royalty of this world must pour to be able to dominate. They do not keep it in the open, they hide it; if they should crush someone they do it.
In this fourth scene the parody of the royalty of this world is presented. The king of derision was prepared inside the praetorium of Pilate. According to the people it is a ridiculous royalty: He who dedicates his life to the service of others, who does not become great, rich, powerful ... does not count for anything.
This is what the evangelist means. Let us pay attention, because these royalties which are the greatness of this world—these are precisely the mocking ones. This is the irony that the Gospel of John wants to present. What appears large is insignificant. And, instead, what people consider ridiculous is truly great. The two royalties are confronted. And in fact, Pilate will go out with this king of mockery and present him to the people.
Let us listen together what will be the reaction of those who must make the choice between the royalty of this world and the new royalty that comes from heaven.
"Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews1 answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God” (Jn 19:4-7).
Up to this point Jesus has not spoken directly to the Jews. Pilate has always been the interlocutor. The dialogue between Jesus and Pilate took place in the interior in the palace. Now, after the scene of the parody of royalty, Pilate takes Jesus out and presents him before his people. He is dressed as a clown - a mocking king. And Pilate does not say: here you have your king, but "here is the man". Pilate does not know what the expression he has just used means: "Here is the man."
The evangelist wants to make us understand the real meaning of that word: 'man'. He is the real man. The authentic man according to God, the servant, who offers himself totally. And what is important is the reaction of the people to this man. When the chief priests and their servants see him—let us remember that they are before that door of the praetorium, in the agorá, that was in front of the praetorium— ... what do they scream? Crucify him, crucify him! As we know, crucifixion was the penalty of slaves. A Roman citizen, a real man could not be crucified. The chief priests and their servants are saying, “This is not a man.”
The true man is the one you saw dressed in purple, the big man, the man who is rich - this is a slave, crucify him! Here are the two proposals of man: the man who dominates and the man who serves. The powerful man according to the criterion of the chiefs of the priests and of the people is the one who is great, the one who dresses well. The real man ("Behold the Man!”), is the man whom God presents by the mouth of the ignorant Pilate. The Servant. This reaction was to be expected. They do not support this proposal of man that is the opposite of those who detect the power, both political and religious power because it is an earthquake of logic according to human criteria.
I want to make a point. It is not the people of Israel who reject this man. They are those who detect religious power and those of their entourage. In John, the Hebrew people no longer appear, but only the chiefs, who are the true culprits of this rejection of man according to God. They want to protect their own interests, to perpetuate their power and Jesus is sending an earthquake to this dehumanizing religious institution to which the high priests have bequeathed all their interest. Pilate answers: "Crucify him" and the condemnation follows... I find no fault in him – says Pilate. No fault can be found in him who puts his whole life for service.
But this image of man cannot be accepted by those who have another type of successful people in mind. And the chief priests answered him: We have a law, and he must die. Because he presents himself as Son of God. Son of God means the one who reproduces the face of the Father in heaven. And they have in mind another image of God—the dominating God, the righteous God ... and here we do not have this image of God in the face of Jesus. They are the religious leaders - beware of contradicting their catechesis.
They are prepared to commit murder, but not to review their own convictions. And at this point they reveal the true motive: Not that Jesus is an evildoer, a rebel, but one who questions their religious conceptions, their traditions. They do not accept the new man. And even Pilate begins to be afraid. Here, it is not only that Jesus calls into question the religious conceptions of the high priests, but Jesus also makes the political power crumble, the great man according to the powers of this world crumbles. And Pilate is afraid, because he knows that religious power has already put him in crisis from the beginning, when Pilate had the problem of the banners that he had introduced into the holy city of Jerusalem and the reaction of the religious power was very strong and Pilate had to retreat.
That is why Pilate is now afraid. In front of this man—it seems incredible—he is a slave, a mocking king ... the religious and political powers are in difficulty now. They intuit that their power is about to be overthrown. Pilate is worried, he knows that Jesus is innocent, but if he wants to protect his own position, he must be willing to act against the truth. In fact, he enters the praetorium to find a way out.
Let us just listen to his last dialogue with Jesus:
“When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” (Jn 19,8-11).
Pilate has to face Jesus again. He is afraid. He did not want to be attracted to the new man, because he would give up all his positions as a powerful man. He does not know how to get out of the way. Then he asks Jesus a question: "Where are you from?" It does not mean where are you coming from ... He knows he's a Galilean. This question of Pilate means: "Who are you?". And Jesus does not respond. We would have expected that, immediately, Jesus gives an explanation, but Jesus is silent. Why is he silent? There has to be a reason.
A real dialogue presupposes moments in which one speaks and moments of silence. Before and after the word, silence is necessary, it is an indispensable moment in communication. There are words that interrupt communication and there are silences that create communication, because they are an invitation to reflection, to let a certain message penetrate, a message that perhaps produces questions, an inner restlessness and this is what Jesus wants to happen in Pilate.
Silence is necessary. Pilate is afraid of these silences and says to Jesus: "Don’t you want to talk to me? Do you not know that I have the power to release you and the power to crucify you?" Pilate is afraid of silence. He does not want his inner restlessness and his question to remain in the air, because his position is at stake, He wants to be the one who conducts the interrogation, the dialogue. And Jesus is silent on purpose. Because he wants Pilate to reconsider ... to see if he lets himself be involved by the new man.
And Jesus says to Pilate an enigmatic phrase: "You would not have power against me if heaven had not given it to you." Remember that you are guilty because you do not want to open your mind and your heart to my proposal of man, but there are people guiltier than you. But the enigmatic phrase is that "power you would not have if heaven had not given it to you." Now Pilate does not understand anything... He does not want to understand.
The words of Jesus are clear to us today. He wanted to say: you have power on earth, you are powerful, but it is heaven the one who is driving my story. It is a crime what the powers of this world are doing, but God is leading this crime to produce a miracle of salvation, for the lamb that shall be slain shall bring into crisis, and cause the wolves that have killed him to reflect.
It was the only way to introduce a new world. You are not aware but God is leading this event from above. Pilate has before him the possibility of making a definitive choice in his life: to renounce the goods of this world, take a stand before the new world, the new man ... but he does not.
Let us listen to the last dialogue between Pilate and the priests and their followers:
"From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, in Aramaic “Gabbatha”. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified” (Jn 19:12-16).
Pilate wanted to free Jesus, but the high priests said to him: If you do this to him, you are not Caesar's friend. Let's look at what the power is willing to do. The religious leaders are ready even to proclaim as their king a pagan: Tiberius, a quasi-demented one who is in Capri, far from Rome. The one who rules in Rome is Sejanus.
Jews hated foreign domination, but now they solemnly recognize the authority of Caesar to obtain the death sentence of the true man. How much annoyance has this proposal of a new man provoked! And Pilate takes Jesus out and sits on the bench. Here is a different interpretation that the evangelist wants to give to this verb: 'ekátisen' that can mean: Pilate sat in court, but there may be another interpretation of this verb ... and it is what the evangelist means. It is clear that Pilate sat on the bench, but the evangelist uses this verb that can mean, and means in the intention of the evangelist: Pilate makes Jesus sit on the bench so that he can be seen by all.
In the place called "lithostrotos", in Hebrew 'gábbata'. It's a strange detail because 'gábbata' does not mean 'lithostrotos'. We know the meaning of 'lithostrotos' = the tiles placed on the pavement, or a paving typical of the time, and in fact, when the lithostrotos was found in the zone of the Antonia tower, it was thought that Jesus had been judged by Pilate in that place.
I have already mentioned before that this lithostrotos of the Antonia tower is not from the time of Jesus, it is 100 years later. Here 'lithostrotos' is not mentioned in reference to 'gábbata', but 'gábbata' means a high place, which is precisely the place where the praetorium of Pilate was.
The word 'lithostrotos' is found only twice in all Scripture. Here in the Gospel of John and if we look in the Old Testament we find this term mentioned once in Song of Songs and it is surely to this text that the evangelist wants to make reference. Imagine Jesus sitting on this throne, a royal throne that the evangelist wants us to contemplate right now. What does the Song of Songs say? It presents king Solomon seated in a seat of purple And to the center of this seat there is a lithostoton = a board of precious stones, symbol of the love the people had to this king that was on the throne. And the text of the Song of Songs continues: "Daughters of Jerusalem, go out and look upon King Solomon in the crown with which his mother has crowned him on the day of his marriage, on the day of the joy of his heart" (Sg 3:10-11).
Here it is a bit difficult, but we must understand what the evangelist wants to tell us, as far as he is concerned. We must remember that in the Gospel of John, from the beginning Jesus comes on the scene as the spouse who goes out to meet his wife.
In the Old Testament the wife is Israel, the people; for us it is the humanity towards which the spouse is directed for the nuptial encounter. This is the perspective from which we must read this Gospel of John. Remember that when Jesus comes on the scene, he is preceded by the Baptist, who says: I am not the bridegroom you wait for, that Israel expects. I hear the voice of the spouse, the voice of the one who is about to arrive.
And we remember, immediately after was the wedding of Cana and then, throughout the whole gospel, there is this golden thread of Jesus— the God who has come to meet the wife, humanity. It is precisely at this moment that the evangelist presents the Spouse and does so with the reference to this text of the Song of Songs. The invitation to Israel to contemplate the love of the Bridegroom, his God. And notice that he is presented with the crown "which his mother has crowned him".
The mother of Jesus is Israel, the people of Israel, from whom this Messiah was born. And it is not a glorious crown, a radiant crown of the sun god, but a crown of thorns. This husband appears as the one who loves his wife so much that he is able to donate all his life, to become a slave on the day of his wedding.
This is how the evangelist wants us to contemplate this last grandiose scene: It is the Spouse who is presented to the wife—wants to indicate how much he has loved her. And we have the indication of the hour that the evangelist gives us: it was the preparation of the Passover, towards noon. And Pilate said to the Jews, “Behold your king,” he who initiates a kingdom that transforms all, which disturbs the world because it is a royalty that is an earthquake for all other royalties. The king is the one who becomes a servant.
Notice the detail: the preparation for the Passover and the hour. It was noon. It was the time when in the temple the lambs that would later be eaten during the Passover meal began to be slaughtered. It is the presentation of the Lamb. The Lamb that shall be slain. The Lamb that will show the true man and it will put in crisis the beasts that have always dominated in the world. It is with him that the new world begins. The reaction of the high priests and their followers: "Out, out, crucify him!" They do not accept this royalty. Pilate did not want to go against the truth, did not want to commit this crime ... "Do you want to crucify your king?" And the response of the high priests: "We have no king but Caesar."
The high priests descend to this low level. They are willing to do everything, to go against all their conception, also religious beliefs, to eliminate the one who annoys them. "Then he handed him over to be crucified". The irony that John comes at this point! It is an irony that reaches its summit. Because we see where it has come—the high priests, the religious power and Pilate, the political power. Pilate did not want to condemn Jesus - does not want to commit a crime, but feels compelled to do so in the face of religious power which had assumed immense prestige after the construction of the temple by Herod.
Pilate is forced to do what he does not want. Even the Jews are forced to do what they do not want. They did not want to serve Caesar, they hated him, but they are forced to declare themselves faithful subjects and to proclaim him King, against the Jewish tradition that holds that there is only one king who is God, when the proposal of man is not accepted and the proposal of new royalty is forced to enter into contradiction with himself, with God, with the brothers and to commit crimes.
We too are today before this image of man and this principle of the new royalty. We must not commit the error that Pilate has done and the error that the high priests have made. Let us welcome the new man, the new world and the new royalty, that of those who are put at the service of the brothers and sisters, who do not want to be dominant, but those who are willing even to give their lives for love.
I wish you all a good preparation for the Easter Feast.
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A blessed Easter to all.
Christians who are committed today in the social field are highly esteemed and appreciated. Whenever there are situations of need, of hardships, we can find Christians moved by the proposal that Jesus has made in the gospel. This is a beautiful image that the Church is giving of herself, but it is not complete, it is partial. Priests and Christians are proud to be holders of the sublime life proposal made by their Master and they do not fear confrontation with any other humanism. Think of the teaching of the Beatitudes of Jesus, his commandment of unconditional love, even for the enemy. A love that is free.
Jesus has truly touched the apex of moral proposals. There is no other proposal made by wise people in history that goes beyond the horizon that Jesus has touched. Further than that you cannot go. And many, even Christians, may be tempted to reduce their faith to this very beautiful teaching given by Jesus with his word and with his life. In fact, we hear that many Christians adapt to this language, also used by non-believers: the important thing is to do good. Then, being baptized or not is indifferent. One religion is as good as another.
Here, we try to ask ourselves some questions. Is Christianity exhausted of its sublime moral proposal or is there something else? Does Christianity give no answer to the most profound questions that emerge? And when we carve out a few moments of silence, does Christianity give no answer to these questions? Is it limited only to that great message of unconditional love? And another question: Is the world in which we live is the only one that exists, the one in which our whole destiny ends, all our history? Then the consequence will be that in addition to the memory, there will be nothing left of the good we have done.
Then we ask ourselves, is the love that I have received and that I have given in this world, it destined to disappear along with me? If the Church does not answer these questions, I believe that even her entire moral proposal will not remain standing for a long time. In fact, if we reflect for a moment, when it occurs to us to do something good and then we think that all those good works will end without a trace, then the temptation to do nothing is very strong. We will easily content ourselves with what the present moment offers us; inclined not to lose the opportunity to enjoy life, even the immediate ones that life offers that give us satisfaction. But build something big knowing that in the end none of that will remain is a thought that discourages us.
If life is only biological life, we ask ourselves if it is worthwhile to make sacrifices, to be interested in others and we arrive to the question posed before and the whole meaning of our life depends on the answer. And the question is this: Is Jesus, the one who has left us those wonderful teachings, is he alive or is he dead? Is he alive or was he absorbed by this material world, leaving behind only the good memory of his passage through history? Because only if Jesus is alive the life given is not lost, but it has an eternal value. and our whole life following his proposal of life makes sense. And joys, sorrows, youth, old age, even death, acquire a completely different vision, another perspective, another meaning.
Then, at least in Easter, on the faces of the Christians who participate in the liturgy of the holy night should shine the joy of those who received the answer to this question. Jesus is alive. Death has been defeated and we are no longer afraid because the moment of death, that of our second birth is the definitive moment when we feel this light of Easter. At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. The text of the gospel begins with an indication of time. It was early morning. The sun and the light of a new day are appearing, illuminating the darkness of night.
It seems a description of the darkness that enveloped humanity and that never found an answer to this question: Is this world the only one? And when we finish our life, do we disappear forever? It was dense darkness in the mind of humanity, a very long one. Now a new day appears. And the women went to the tomb bringing the perfumes. We can ask ourselves: what did they expect to find on Easter morning? A corpse. And the goal was to embalm it, to mummify it. Are the desperate attempts to retain the beloved an attempt to conquer death?
Embalming or mummifying means building a monument to victory. Death was the destiny of man, according to the conception of the Israelites, was what these women who went to the tomb had in mind. What did they expect? To find a corpse When we read the Old Testament, we find that until two or three centuries before Christ, the Israelites’ conception was no different from the other peoples of the ancient Middle East, and of the entire Greco-Roman world.
The Egyptians were the exception who had always believed in the continuity of human life. For both the Israelites and the other peoples, dying was a natural necessity. What did it mean to die? It meant ending in the world of the dead that was called in various ways. The Hebrews called it 'sheol' which probably comes from the verb 'shaal' = to call. It gives the idea that the tomb, the grotto dug in the rock, where the corpse is then placed... When we observed it, it seems that it has a mouth that calls and waits for everyone.
The fate of humanity is to enter that grotto. They called it 'sheol'. The Greeks called it 'hades', the god Pluto who reigned in the afterlife, together with Persephone. And in Latin 'inferus', not 'hell'. 'Inferi' which means the place that is below, underground. This is the world of the dead for all peoples, except for the Egyptians. They imagined it characterized by darkness; the dead lived in the dust like the larva, like shadows, they roamed in silence like zombies.
This was life in the afterlife. The person did not disappear completely, but it was not life. It was a 'life not life'. You have to bear in mind that, according to the conception of all ancient peoples, we will all end up there: all the kings, the beggars, the lords, the slaves, the old and the young, the good and the bad, there was no judgment on the part of God on the life of everyone. There the 'life' was the same for everyone. No reward for the good and no punishment for the wicked after death. All in all, the death of the evil ones --and this is also found in the Bible—was seen with some complacency, not because then the evil one was punished, but because finally also for him, who thought himself a superman, because he had been a 'boss' in this world, he had come to experience disintegration like everyone else.
We also find in the Bible that the Israelites did not consider this step of our world to the world of the dead as something terrible. It was a natural condition. The only problem for the one who descended to Sheol was if he did not enter that grotto full of years. The old man who had lived his days to the full and was now going to meet his ancestors. Thus, the book of Genesis describes the death of Abraham: "Abraham died at a good old age, filled with years, and met with his own" (Gn 25:8).
Naturally, the Hebrews, like us, loved life and when danger threatened of a premature death, what did they do? (And I think we do too), they went to the Lord so he would not let him enter that grotto so soon ... let him live in fullness this existence. We have many texts, many psalms in the Bible where we find these prayers, which we can also do ours. So Ben Sirach, in chapter 51, this psalmist says: "When I was already to die and almost in the depths of the Abyss... (the door of the Abyss is the door of the sheol—that you see in the background)... I remembered the compassion of the Lord and his mercy ... I called on the Lord: You are my Father, you have the power to save me, do not leave me in danger" (Sir 51:6-10). Also, Psalm 30: "Lord, you have delivered me from the Abyss, You revived me when I came down to the pit ... (Ps 30:4). I was not only close to the mouth that wanted to eat me, but I had already entered, but you saved me.”
It is, clearly, a disease that had taken him almost inside the 'inferi', inside the sheol. Also: "Lord, my God, I asked for your help, and you healed me" (Ps 30:3), "you took my life from sheol." "When I was already inside ... you took me out." This was the conception of all peoples, what they had in mind, even those women who went to the tomb. There was only one important difference between Israel and the other peoples. For the pagans, in the 'hades' was the god Pluto who ruled the kingdom of the dead. And for the Egyptians, the god Ra, the sun god, at dusk, proceeded with his course towards the west and at night illuminated the world of the deceased. The God of Israel had nothing to do with the world of the dead.
The God of Israel is the God of life and did not set foot in the kingdom of shadows; there was no god there. So, we understand the prayer of many psalms, when the sick person says to the Lord: 'Do not let me enter the sheol because later I will not be able to praise you... you will not receive my praises anymore because you have nothing to do with this kingdom of death.' Man has never resigned himself to this destiny to a larval life and in the last centuries before Christ they began to develop the idea. We know that, for some centuries, the Greeks had begun to talk about the immortality of the soul. T
he distinction between the material, that remains here, and the soul that continues to live. This idea had no acceptance among the Hebrews and among them was spreading another conviction, not among all the Hebrews, only in a minority. Thus among the Pharisees: the idea of the resurrection. But how did they understand this resurrection? As a return to this life. Then there were different opinions. Some argued that only the just would be resurrected and not the evil ones. But always understood as a return to this life. Remember what Martha responds to Jesus. She says: "I know that my brother Lazarus will rise on the last day" ...because he was a good man.
But this 'resurrection' did not convince people very much. It does not make sense to return to this life after millions of years. Let's be careful because some, even among Christians, affirm this conception that was that of the Pharisees. One day our brother will resurge, will return with the body that we have left in the tomb. But then many questions arose... 'The Lord takes my body... to give it to me again.' It does not make much sense, and, of course, this is not the Easter message. It is not about the resurrection that the Pharisees believed. Listen to what kind of revelation takes place at Easter. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
When the women arrive at the tomb, they find the stone was moved. That stone separated the world of the living from the world of the dead and someone had moved it. The world of the living should not be separated from the world of the dead. And, the fact that the stone was moved, is an invitation for the women to enter and look inside. The victim of death is no longer there, it has disappeared. And, in fact, when the women enter they do not find the body of the Lord Jesus. This is the enigma. Note: the absence of the body is not a proof of the resurrection.
The surprise of the women is understandable. It has no explanation and so, the text says: "They were bewildered," they did not understand anything. They found themselves, literally, without a way out. And it is at this point that appears the response of God presented in a different way by the evangelists. Mark says that the women saw 'a young man'... it has a beautiful meaning. They expected a life 'no life', an old person, NO. Young. The evangelist John says that the Magdalene saw two angels. Matthew describes a terrifying scene that these women witnessed. A great earthquake... an angel of the Lord descends from heaven, rolls the stone, and sits on it. It's about victory over death. Rolling the stone and sit on it... like a victor.
These disagreements are beautiful because they show that the evangelists do not describe a chronicle, something that happened materially, something verifiable, but they narrate a revelation of heaven to the women. These women have made a living experience, but how to present it in human language this inner experience of a light that women have received from heaven: that Jesus lives. The evangelists had at their disposal only the biblical images: earthquake, the lights, the white color, the angel, the glare, two men, the guards. God has sent his light to illuminate in the minds and hearts of these women, the mystery of death. The literary language used by several of the evangelists is diverse, but the message is the same.
And to understand this diverse language with which the four evangelists presented their message, we must bear in mind an important observation, because even today there is an ambiguity that many Christians have in mind. They think that Jesus has come out of the grave and he has returned to this world with his physical, material body and, therefore, verifiable by the senses. The resurrection of Jesus is not a verifiable event with the senses because it is not a return to live in this world. He does not turn back from that sheol's mouth. Even Jesus has not returned from there. In fact, that scene of Jesus coming out victorious from the grave, opening the tomb and leaving with the banner of the cross ...
This scene was born from the fantasy of painters. No evangelist narrates it ... and they could not do it because it was not an event verifiable with the senses. If Jesus had returned to this world with his body, why did he not show up on the streets of Jerusalem to be seen? That is not ‘resurrection’. It would have been only a 'resuscitation' of a corpse. The resurrection is another reality. It is an event that belongs to the world of God, escapes the senses and that is why they narrate it with a different language. When we think of the resurrection, we must imagine three worlds: first this world, where we live; then the sheol, the world of the dead—and we have already talked about this above; in that world of the dead we must all enter because we are human. And it's not a bad thing. It is our destiny.
If someone returned from this sheol and returned to this world it is a 'reanimation.' This can be verified. But this is not the resurrection. If you go back to this world, it is not a victory over death but it is to delay the defeat when the monster of death comes back to take the victim. What is the true victory over death? What is the resurrection? It's not the coming back here again, it's entering the world of God—the third world which I referred to above.
This experience of the entrance to the world of God can only be revealed by a light from heaven. And this revelation was presented in a different language by the four evangelists. They are not chronicling. They would have chronicled it if Jesus had returned here. What language does Luke use? He speaks of two men in shining garments. It is a biblical image. The number ‘two', two men, means that their testimony is reliable because two men were needed for a testimony to be accepted.
Then, covered in white. And the white vestment means that those who bring this message come from God. They are the explanation given by God for this absence of the body. Let us now try to understand the message that is derived from this image of the evangelist Luke. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, "Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified and rise on the third day." And they remembered his words. The evangelist Luke notes the fear of the women, that in biblical language means the experience that these women make of entering the world of God, in a light that is not of this world. And what do they do? They look at the ground.
Represents the community. It is hard to let yourself be wrapped in this light. It is our experience. We have difficulty accepting this light that shows us the meaning of our existence in this world. We retreat over a reality that we can touch, verify. We must look up, but, instead, the women look at the ground. They misdirect the vision. Then, when Jesus entered the world of God, in the ascension they look at the sky and there are also two men who say: "Why do you look up at the sky? Look down."
You are given the mission of building the new world initiated by Jesus. Now you must bring it to fruition... look towards the earth. They always look in the wrong direction. First, you must look up to receive the light that dissolves the darkness that has always enveloped humanity regarding the mystery of death. Now we know what the fate of the people is. And the voice: the message of these two men, therefore, guaranteed the message from heaven: Why do you search the living among the dead? Not the reanimated one. If it had been a resuscitation, it could be looked for, because he would have returned to this world. But he did not. He has not returned here. He went to the third world, to the definitive one, which is the world of God.
This is the victory over death. He is alive, fully, definitely. Then the women begin to understand that the grave, Sheol has been transformed by the intervention of God into a bosom from which a new life is born. And God has been the leaven that has caused this birth. "He is not here". They look for him in the grave; he is not there. And not only is he not there but now nobody is in the sheol because the Son of God has entered there. Jesus made our own experience of being mortal... because man cannot be otherwise.
Man is mortal by his very nature. Therefore, we must enter this sheol, but this is the light: the sheol is a womb from which we are born to the world of God, to the true life, to the definitive life. When Jesus has entered into this sheol, the life of the Eternal has entered and the sheol has been emptied, they were all introduced to the house of the Father in heaven. And God's message continues: "Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee." The women wanted to see Jesus, just as we do today, but the Risen One can only be perceived with the eyes of faith. The material look, even for us, what do we see at funerals? A coffin with the corpse. This is the physical look; beyond our gaze we cannot go. And here comes the look of faith that makes you see the invisible, our destiny. And this revelation can only come from heaven.
And the message of these two men says: Remember what he told you. It begins with the look of faith that makes you see the invisible. It is the remembrance of what Jesus said. Remember his words, open your heart to his word because it is given to the pure in heart to see the invisible, to see God. The pure of heart are those who have not inclined their minds and hearts to the idols of this world, to hypocrisy, to duplicity. People with a pure heart are prepared to receive this light. And these two men remind them of what Jesus had said, 'that he should be delivered into the hands of sinners, be crucified and rise on the third day' and enter the house of the Father.
And the women remembered those words. From that moment, it was given to these women this vision of the destiny that Jesus had. That is, he had not remained in the grave but his destiny—which will later be the destiny of his disciples and of all people. The final destination is the house of the Father. And the women move away from the sepulcher. It is at this moment that their hearts were opened to the faith in the Risen One. It is the remembrance of the words of the Lord that have given birth to the events. Otherwise, they would be absurd events. And the one with the pure heart, the one who has seen with the look of faith to the Risen One, feels the need to go and announce it to the brothers and sisters. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others.
These women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb bent down and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened. The women move away from the tomb and run to announce to the disciples the experience they have had. They are named: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary of James. They are the ones that ratify this testimony, and they were the first to make this extraordinary experience.
What is the reaction of the disciples? They do not believe. A word used here: 'delirium'. They thought that these women were delirious. The 'eros' - delirium, appears only here. It is the only time in the New Testament. It gives the idea of how absurd it seemed what the women told. This means that the thought of a resurrection did not appear even in the thought of the disciples. They were very surprised. They were not prepared for this news.
It is a message for us too. The path that the women have made, and the disciples are doing in the text of Luke is our path. We begin thinking that this event is a delirium. Unbelief is an obligatory step because, otherwise, if we start from certainties, it means that we are confusing the 'resurrection' with the 'reanimation' and then we look for evidence. There are no proofs.
It is about remembering the words of the Lord and letting yourself be enveloped by this light, opening our heart that must be pure. And Peter leaves, gets up, runs to the tomb. It means that he is looking; he does not resign himself to not having an answer. And when he comes to the grave he bends down, sees only the sheet. He sees the signs of death and retires marveling. He does not believe... but he retires; does not deny, he begins a path of search for this truth. When will Peter have full light? Exactly like when he will do what women have done: open his mind to the understanding of Scripture.
It is the path of faith that we must also take. It necessarily passes through doubt, but then it does not fall back on the reality of this world, continues to receive and rethink the words of the Master. And this light tells him: He speaks the truth. He is right. And if we remember the Scripture, like the apostles, we will open our mind to this new light that gives meaning to our whole life.
I wish everyone a good Easter.
