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| "The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem," by J. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum / Public Domain. |
Today in
his Gospel, Christ has us witness again his suffering and death on the cross.
Already
last week at daily Mass, the prayer called the “preface” spoke to our heavenly
Father of the suffering and death of Christ on the cross.
For through the saving Passion of your Son the whole world has
received a heart to confess the infinite power of your majesty, since by the
wondrous power of the Cross your judgment on the world is now revealed and the
authority of Christ crucified.
The prayer
speaks of the Passion, the suffering of Christ crucified, but also of power, majesty
and authority.
It is a
paradox to speak of power, majesty
and authority coming from suffering.
Furthermore,
our faith and prayer acclaim the untold paradox of the suffering unto death of
one who is GOD.
How may we
find power, majesty
and authority through the cross, while in our own
lives we yet suffer and die?
Christ
said:
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will
know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Truly, truly, I say to you, every
one who commits sin is a slave to sin. [Cf. Jn. 8:31-34]
Christ
sets truth and freedom against sin and slavery.
He says
the truth will make us free, while sin makes us its slaves.
But was
Christ free when Pilate handed him over to death, when soldiers pounded nails
through his body, and when he sagged from those nails on the cross?
It would
be easy to answer that he was going to rise from the dead anyway.
But that
answer ignores the truth and freedom that appear and are present on the cross
itself.
On the cross, God who is Love abandons himself
absolutely to freedom from self-concern.
Love gives
away its all on the cross.
Love that
does not need anyone to give love back!
God who is
Love began to live as a man some two thousand and twenty years ago.
With that
birth, human flesh and blood, a human mind and heart began to be the sign, the
place and the event of Love in person giving itself away.
Christ is
God.
His
suffering and death are the power,
majesty and authority
of the Divine Love freely giving himself up and away in human flesh and blood.
In THIS world, one cannot ask more of love than
that; and God’s love in this world would not do anything LESS
than that.
The cross
already shows and gives to the world God’s power,
majesty and authority,
God’s truth, freedom and love.
In the
flesh and blood of Christ, the world of flesh and blood is set free from
slavery, sin, suffering and death by rising from the dead, swollen with all the
power, majesty
and authority of God’s Holy Spirit of truth and
freedom and love.
The truth
is that God made us human beings for happiness and freedom in knowing and
loving God and in loving as God loves.
God wants
to swell every fiber of our being, heart, soul, mind and strength.
God wants
to swell every fiber of our being with his Spirit of Truth and Freedom and
Love.
He gives
us that Spirit in the same flesh and blood that received birth in Bethlehem,
death outside Jerusalem and everlasting resurrection in a garden.
And so
Christ says:
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will
know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
The Word
of the Lord tells us:
God our savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth: there is one God and one mediator between God and
men... Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all. [1 Tim. 2:4‑6]
Our ransom
in person in flesh and blood is now our Eucharistic Food and Drink.
