“Behold, we go
up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by
the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered to the
Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon; and after they
have scourged him, they will put him to death; and the third day he shall
rise again.”
Ordinary of the Mass
Mass Text - Latin
Mass Text - English
Lenten Observance
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season
of Lent. Today's Gospel is very appropriate, for, in a manner of speaking,
we are preparing to “go up to Jerusalem” with our Lord Jesus Christ. The
Apostles had the advantage of being first hand witnesses of our Lord's
wisdom and power. They could accept what our Lord told them without much
question. But we are told that “they understood none of these things.”
We have the benefit of hindsight. We know that Jesus
was referring to the central event of our salvation, the Sacrifice of the
Cross. You will note that in the very first sentence of the Gospel, Jesus
refers to Himself as the “Son of Man.” This title suggests that He is
telling the Apostles that He has taken on human nature in order to offer His
Sacrifice to God the Father on behalf of fallen humanity, which had no
adequate gift to make amends for the sin of Adam and Eve.
The blind man referred to Him as the
“Son of David,” still a Son of mankind, but a sure indication that the blind
man recognized Jesus as the Messias promised in the Old Testament:
And David himself saith in the
book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand,
[43] Till I make
thy enemies thy footstool.
I said that we are making the
journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. Of our own selves, we have nothing
adequate to offer the Father in Sacrifice, but Our Lord has willed that we
can offer ourselves up, together with Him. Every time you assist at Mass,
you stand at the foot of the Cross with the Blessed Virgin Mary, offering
yourself together with the Perfect Victim Who looks down upon you with
love. Holy Mass is the center of the Catholic Religion, and should be the
center of your Lenten journey to Jerusalem—as often as possible during the
forty days.
Particularly during Lent, you can
offer yourself to the Father by consciously detaching yourself from sin.
The practices of Lent are intended to strengthen your will by giving up
innocent pleasures, in preparation for refusing those pleasures that are no
so innocent.
A very beneficial Lenten practice is
meditation on the events of Our Lord’s Passion—His illegal trial before
Caiphas and Pilate, the painful whipping He received, the crowing with
thorns, the carrying of the Cross, being nailed through the wrists and the
feet, and the slow excruciating, asphyxiating agony that could end only in
death. We will read the Scriptural accounts during Holy Week, but you can
begin for yourself right now.
It also helps to read some of the
literature that describes this Roman method of execution. A Doctor at
Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ As Described by a Surgeon
by Pierre Barbet, M.D. clinically describes the agonizing death by
asphyxiation endured by the crucified.[3]
Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard includes a perfectly
awful description of the scourging of the victim before crucifixion—the
victim was to be embarrassed through nakedness and loss of control over his
body—a “softening up” for the cross.[4]
Such books are useful for modern Americans who (hopefully) will never
witness an actual crucifixion—they put our Lord’s sufferings, and the
seriousness of our sins, into perspective. (Both books are in print, and
your library can obtain them for your through inter-library loan.)
Finally, today’s epistle describes
another important aspect of offering ourselves to the Father. Saint Paul
tells us that we are nothing if we are without charity.
This is more than generosity to the poor—although that is part of charity.
Where our translation uses “charity,” others use the word “love.” Saint
Paul wrote in Greek, and use the word “agapēn” (“ἀγάπην”) which means a sort
of disinterested love, as God and man have for one another, and as man
should have for his neighbor because he loves God.
Every good deed done for the love of God is an act of charity, and a primary
way of offering ourselves with Jesus Christ to the Father.
This coming Wednesday we will begin
our journey to Jerusalem. Resolve to make this the best Lent of your life.
Offer yourself together with Jesus. Attend Holy Mass as often as possible.
Unite yourself with Holy Mass being offered somewhere in the world if you
cannot attend. Read about and meditate on the Passion of Jesus Christ, and
the part our sins play in it. Resolve not to add any more to His
suffering. Should you fall into sin, think immediately about the pain you
just caused to the One who loves you beyond measure—resolve not to do it
again. Recognize that without the love of God we are nothing.
If we persevere in the love of God,
one day our firm and holy faith will give way to the direct knowledge of
God; nothing more will remain to be hoped for, for we will possess
everything in the Beatific Vision of God. But the love of God, which
brought us to this blessed state, will endure in eternity: “And now there
remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is
charity.”
“Behold, we go
up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by
the prophets concerning the Son of Man.”
