The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Second reading from the letter to Philippians PHIL 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Matthew MT 27:11-54 Jesus stood before the governor, Pontius Pilate, who questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he made no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?” But he did not answer him one word, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them, “Which one do you want me to release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?” For he knew that it was out of envy that they had handed him over. While he was still seated on the bench, his wife sent him a message, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I suffered much in a dream today because of him.” The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus. The governor said to them in reply, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They answered, ABarabbas!” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”
They all said, “Let him be crucified!” But he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Let him be crucified!” When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourselves.” And the whole people said in reply, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” Then he released Barabbas to them, but after he had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him.
As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon; this man they pressed into service to carry his cross.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha — which means Place of the Skull —, they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink. After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And they placed over his head the written charge against him: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left. Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, and come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.
From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “This one is calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge; he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink. But the rest said, ‘Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.” But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit.
And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus feared greatly when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, and they said, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Jesus shows us how to face moments of difficulty and the most insidious of temptations by preserving in our hearts a peace that is neither detachment nor superhuman impassivity, but confident abandonment to the Father and to his saving will, which bestows life and mercy. Today, too, by his entrance into Jerusalem, he shows us the way. For in that event, the evil one, the prince of this world, had a card up his sleeve: the card of triumphalism. Yet the Lord responded by holding fast to his own way, the way of humility. (Homily, Palm Sunday, 14 April 2019)
FAUSTI - "Remain here, and stay awake with me!" Jesus asks to his disciples. He wakes them up three times, because at least for a brief moment, before falling again into slumber, it is imprinted in their hearts what is happening in the night. Jesus calls them to contemplate the passion of the Son for the brothers. It is the same of the Father! The disciple is one that makes, of God's love for the world, his own home. The story is a window on the most intimate ego of Jesus : it reveals His relationship with the Father and with us. And it makes it with His own words, at the decisive moment of His life. It is the night when He gives Himself to death, the violent and unjust death, in the leaving of man and of God. Jesus takes upon Himself the evil of the brothers, the abandonment of the Father. His anguish is endless, boundless: He is "the Son", whose being is "the beloved to the Father." But even the being of the Father is "beloved to the Son"! The evil of our abandonment touches the heart itself of God who loves us. He is is the lover who takes upon Himself the abandonment of the beloved! The evil in which Jesus is "baptized" is really absolute, it is impossible to think of a bigger one. On this night are all our nights; and the man knows many nights. The Son dives Himself in them and fills themof His presence. by the extreme distance ,He cries: "My Father!". In any abyss, from side to side of chaos, the voice of the Son resounds to the Father. "Abba" is the word spoken by the Son, the Father says. Jesus in this night, of any abandonment of the Father, He makes the abandon to the Father, making Himself close to any distance. Jesus feels sorrow and distress. The disciples were amazed of it. Although whit the eyes that stubbornly close again, they couldn't forget. "Over the years of His earthly life," the Son "offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and was heard", not because he was released, but because “ He lived well " death, the loud cries and tears, common to all His sinful brothers. For this He became the perfect Son as the Father. For "obedience" in "what He suffered." And so "He became the source of eternal salvation to those who listen to Him" and He was proclaimed "Pope", bridge between every lost man and his God. So he says one of the last writings of the N T providing still alive the memory of this scene. (Hb 5.7 to 10). The old Adam " lived badly " the good: He kidnapped the gift of sonship. The new Adam "lived well" even the evil: He gives Himself up to those who kidnap, bringing upon Himself the violence of theft. Because of this He is the Son equal to the Father: He gives Himself and saves everyone. In the story Jesus addresses continually alternately to the Father and to His disciples, experiencing the silence of everyone. His only anxiety comes from his being between us and the Father, living together His love for Him and our desertion of Him. He is the ' "intercessor," He who gets in the way, weaving in Himself the story between any distance and laceration. Jesus lives His being of the Father, through Him and for Him, in our state of sin and rejection. We have not accepted nor God as Father or ourselves as children. We wanted to own our own life: thus we do not accept to be children. We remove birth and death, we eliminate our beginning and our end. This is why our life is violent, sad and distressed: split from its source, it feels “ thrown" into void.
Jesus traces back the path of Adam, returning to the Father any abandonment of the Father. Jesus keeps vigil and prays: prostrated He has the power of the Spirit to cry. "My Father!" and to do His will. Instead the disciples are sleeping , sat in the weakness of their flesh, locked in the sleep of their death. The Son lives the drama that makes children those who are not children: the passage (baptismal) from my will to the will of the Father. Jesus wins the fight, and He heals us from the evil that is at the origin of our evils: the contrast between our and His will.Because of this it comes " the hour ", in view of which the world was created: that in which the Son of Man gives Himself to the Father in His surrendering to the lost brothers: it is the hour of salvation !. After this "good night" there is no more night. The light of the Son came into our darkness. Because of this,, to the end, after having repeaded to watch, Jesus says " to sleep and take their rest" and "to rise up and to go ." Every our sleep is not more an anticipation of the death, but " a way" in the new life of children. In fact every night of us is as clear as day, every our distance now anchored to the Father in the Son.
First reading from the Book of Isaiah
RispondiEliminaIS 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Second reading from the letter to Philippians
PHIL 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 27:11-54
Jesus stood before the governor, Pontius Pilate, who questioned him,
“Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus said, “You say so.”
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
“Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?”
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
“Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?”
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
“Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him.”
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
They answered, ABarabbas!”
Pilate said to them,
“Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”
They all said,
RispondiElimina“Let him be crucified!”
But he said,
“Why? What evil has he done?”
They only shouted the louder,
“Let him be crucified!”
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.
Look to it yourselves.”
And the whole people said in reply,
“His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.
As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha
— which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!”
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.
From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
“This one is calling for Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
‘Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.”
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.
And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
“Truly, this was the Son of God!”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
RispondiEliminaJesus shows us how to face moments of difficulty and the most insidious of temptations by preserving in our hearts a peace that is neither detachment nor superhuman impassivity, but confident abandonment to the Father and to his saving will, which bestows life and mercy. Today, too, by his entrance into Jerusalem, he shows us the way. For in that event, the evil one, the prince of this world, had a card up his sleeve: the card of triumphalism. Yet the Lord responded by holding fast to his own way, the way of humility. (Homily, Palm Sunday, 14 April 2019)
FAUSTI - "Remain here, and stay awake with me!" Jesus asks to his disciples. He wakes them up three times, because at least for a brief moment, before falling again into slumber, it is imprinted in their hearts what is happening in the night. Jesus calls them to contemplate the passion of the Son for the brothers.
RispondiEliminaIt is the same of the Father! The disciple is one that makes, of God's love for the world, his own home.
The story is a window on the most intimate ego of Jesus : it reveals His relationship with the Father and with us. And it makes it with His own words, at the decisive moment of His life.
It is the night when He gives Himself to death, the violent and unjust death, in the leaving of man and of God. Jesus takes upon Himself the evil of the brothers, the abandonment of the Father.
His anguish is endless, boundless: He is "the Son", whose being is "the beloved to the Father."
But even the being of the Father is "beloved to the Son"!
The evil of our abandonment touches the heart itself of God who loves us.
He is is the lover who takes upon Himself the abandonment of the beloved!
The evil in which Jesus is "baptized" is really absolute, it is impossible to think of a bigger one.
On this night are all our nights; and the man knows many nights.
The Son dives Himself in them and fills themof His presence. by the extreme distance ,He cries: "My Father!".
In any abyss, from side to side of chaos, the voice of the Son resounds to the Father.
"Abba" is the word spoken by the Son, the Father says.
Jesus in this night, of any abandonment of the Father, He makes the abandon to the Father, making Himself close to any distance. Jesus feels sorrow and distress. The disciples were amazed of it.
Although whit the eyes that stubbornly close again, they couldn't forget.
"Over the years of His earthly life," the Son "offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and was heard", not because he was released, but because “ He lived well " death, the loud cries and tears, common to all His sinful brothers. For this He became the perfect Son as the Father.
For "obedience" in "what He suffered." And so "He became the source of eternal salvation to those who listen to Him" and He was proclaimed "Pope", bridge between every lost man and his God.
So he says one of the last writings of the N T providing still alive the memory of this scene. (Hb 5.7 to 10).
The old Adam " lived badly " the good: He kidnapped the gift of sonship.
The new Adam "lived well" even the evil: He gives Himself up to those who kidnap, bringing upon Himself the violence of theft. Because of this He is the Son equal to the Father: He gives Himself and saves everyone.
In the story Jesus addresses continually alternately to the Father and to His disciples, experiencing the silence of everyone.
His only anxiety comes from his being between us and the Father, living together His love for Him and our desertion of Him. He is the ' "intercessor," He who gets in the way, weaving in Himself the story between any distance and laceration. Jesus lives His being of the Father, through Him and for Him, in our state of sin and rejection. We have not accepted nor God as Father or ourselves as children.
We wanted to own our own life: thus we do not accept to be children. We remove birth and death, we eliminate our beginning and our end. This is why our life is violent, sad and distressed: split from its source, it feels “ thrown" into void.
Jesus traces back the path of Adam, returning to the Father any abandonment of the Father.
RispondiEliminaJesus keeps vigil and prays: prostrated He has the power of the Spirit to cry. "My Father!" and to do His will.
Instead the disciples are sleeping , sat in the weakness of their flesh, locked in the sleep of their death.
The Son lives the drama that makes children those who are not children: the passage (baptismal) from my will to the will of the Father.
Jesus wins the fight, and He heals us from the evil that is at the origin of our evils: the contrast between our and His will.Because of this it comes " the hour ", in view of which the world was created: that in which the Son of Man gives Himself to the Father in His surrendering to the lost brothers: it is the hour of salvation !.
After this "good night" there is no more night. The light of the Son came into our darkness.
Because of this,, to the end, after having repeaded to watch, Jesus says " to sleep and take their rest" and "to rise up and to go ."
Every our sleep is not more an anticipation of the death, but " a way" in the new life of children.
In fact every night of us is as clear as day, every our distance now anchored to the Father in the Son.