I believe in you, Jesus, because you stayed with us even in the darkest hours. You didn’t refuse the cross, and you experienced the pain of abandonment, loneliness, and death for our sake. I believe in you and I know that love is stronger than any suffering.
Before being arrested and condemned, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his friends in Jerusalem.
At the Last Supper, Jesus gave himself to his disciples under the signs of bread and wine. He said, “This is my body, which is given for you. . . . This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:19–20). With these gestures and words, Jesus points to the events that are about to unfold. On the cross he will freely give his life out of love for men and women and for their salvation.
The Body and Blood of Christ is the Sacrifice of the new and lasting covenant offered for all. We receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. God welcomes everyone.
In the Creed we read that Jesus suffered “under Pontius Pilate”: this expression pinpoints when the crucifixion of Jesus occurred. In fact, in ancient Rome a period of time was always designated by mentioning the consuls (chief government officials) who were in office that year.
But this expression also reminds us of Pilate’s responsibility. In the pages of the Gospels he is presented as a cowardly governor.
Pontius Pilate found no guilt in Jesus. However, he was afraid that if he released Jesus, a riot would occur. The Sanhedrin—composed of the high priests, scribes, and Pharisees—was the highest ruling authority for the Jews, Jesus’ people. They had clearly indicated to Pilate what they wanted. For them it was wrong for Jesus to call himself the “Son of God.” Under their laws Jesus deserved to be executed.
Pilate then announced that he intended to keep the tradition of setting one prisoner free during festival days. He asked the people to choose between Jesus and Barabbas, a rebel accused of murder. When the Sanhedrin stirred the people to choose Barabbas instead of Jesus, Pilate made a dramatic gesture: he washed his hands as a public sign that the responsibility for Jesus’ death was not his.
The figure of Pilate makes us think about our responsibility in the choices we make. How sure are we that we are on Jesus’ side? Do we sincerely seek the Truth? What are we willing to risk for it?
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became a human being, lived among his people in poverty, and stayed close to those who suffered. After having shown them God’s wisdom and his unconditional and limitless love, Jesus was arrested. He was tried, beaten, abandoned even by those who knew him, and unjustly condemned to a horrible death. Crucifixion was reserved for traitors, deserters, slaves, foreigners, and criminals guilty of the worst crimes.
Jesus’ death on the cross can seem pointless to some. Yet, on the cross, Jesus brings himself even closer to every person who suffers and is alone, abandoned, humiliated, or rejected. Jesus says to them and to us all, “Have courage, you are not alone.” On the cross, in the moment of his greatest suffering and loneliness, Jesus trusts in God the Father and shows us how to place our lives in God’s hands.
In many languages, the word for Easter is pascal or pascua, which means “passage.” The Hebrew word for Passover, pesach, is the same. The Jewish people celebrate their ancestors’ passage from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
Jesus goes to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and enters the city where preparations are underway. The people remember their liberation from Egyptian slavery by sacrificing a lamb for each family. On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice; he is the lamb. He gives his own life to save us. John the Baptist had once pointed Jesus out as the Lamb of God. Easter is our Passover, the passage from death to life accomplished by Jesus so that we could be freed from the slavery of sin and death.
With Jesus, the covenant between God and humanity is fulfilled and renewed: it is an eternal covenant, which no one will ever be able to break.
The image of God is the image of Christ crucified. . . . It is to this image that the life of the disciples must be conformed. . . . In baptism the form of Christ’s death is impressed upon his own. . . . Anybody living in the strength of Christ’s baptism lives in the strength of Christ’s death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, unjustly imprisoned and executed during World War II
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Read the following poem, which speaks of the Sign of the Cross, and underline the words that the author dedicates to the gestures of moving the hand from the forehead, to the chest, to the shoulders. |
THE SIGN OF THE CROSS
It is done in the morning, or when the day wanes, by a person who is strong or by a body falling ill in the dim light; It is traced slowly —perhaps even backwards— by a child who is learning how; or very fast, even though it contains the universe. The Sign of the Cross touches the forehead where thoughts are, the shoulders that carry life, and the chest where the heart tolls. The simple sign of the mystery, the cross of Jesus, who offers himself to the flights of heaven, and the name of the Father who never leaves us alone. Davide Rondoni |
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Do you like this poem?
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