April 10th 2022.  Palm Sunday

GOSPEL Luke 22:14 – 23:56

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL Luke 22:14 – 23:56

A link to the Gospel can be found here

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. Let us consider the passion narrative from the point of view of the three sayings of Jesus that are exclusive to Luke.

The Gospels all have their own perspectives on the passion of Jesus. This year we consider Luke’s account. It is not possible here to offer a unified reading of the entire narrative, so we will focus on those elements that are particular to Luke. We can look at the entire passion of Jesus from the point of view of his death. During these final hours, Jesus said seven different things, three of which are exclusive to Luke.

 

2. Humanity does not know itself and does not know what it is doing, hence the sin and violence of our existence.

The first is said at the moment that they were actually crucifying him: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. This is rendered in the Greek in a form known as the “verbal aspect”, which is like the present continuous. Luke was writing to a Greek readership and he does not use this tense casually. It is as if Christ is constantly repeating – while the nails are being driven into his flesh -  “Father forgive them for they know not what they do, Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. It is a prayer, a litany, that accompanies the violence of humanity through the ages. But what is Jesus saying, that we commit these acts of aggression not knowing who he is? No, this phrase is much more profound and illuminates our real condition. We have planks in our eyes and do not know what we are doing. Like the prodigal son, we have need to re-enter into ourselves, in order to make contact with our hearts. How often we embark on wrong courses of action, filled with certainty that what we are doing is right. The truth is that we cannot add a minute to our lifespan, yet we presume to know everything. Even our laboured psychological analyses often do not deliver an authentic knowledge of ourselves. Man does not know what he is doing because he fails to comprehend his own inner mystery. Sometimes when we lose control and commit violence we say, “I was outside of myself”. We do not know ourselves and fail to appreciate how patient God is with us.

 

3. Jesus reveals that paradise is not a place but a relationship with him

In Luke’s narrative, there is only one person who admits that he is in the wrong. The good thief accepts that he deserves his fate. He is the only one in this whole scene who knows how to speak to Christ. “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom”. With this prayer the thief enters into relationship with Christ through the door of his own littleness, acknowledging his guilt and asking for help. He is asking Jesus for a place in his heart and Jesus responds that the place is assured. This exchange reveals that Paradise is not a place but a relationship, that of being with Christ. Dying, the thief finally steals the one right thing, a place in heaven!  With his sincerity and his honesty he manages to attain something that he could never have expected. Paradise is not something that we deserve. We cannot earn it. It is a happy and joyful robbery and the Lord allows us to have it because he loves us and remembers us.

 

4. The tearing of the veil reveals the hidden life of God and that hidden life is the manner in which the Son entrusts himself to the Father

The last words in Luke’s narrative from Jesus are “Father into your hands I commend my spirit”. This is a glimpse into the life of Christ, which is a life of abandonment to the Father. Jesus is not on the cross because he is doing a heroic act, but because he is following the will of the Father. Interestingly, these words are said just after the veil of the Temple is torn in two. The veil covered the most sacred part of the Temple, where the high priest proclaimed the name of God on a single day of the year. Behind that veil was the inaccessible presence of God. Now that the veil is torn, we are given access to what is hidden there: the life of the Son who entrusts himself to the Father. At the moment when Christ seemed to have least motivation for entrusting himself to the Father, he commends himself entirely. This is the interior life of God – love, trust, abandonment, self-giving.

 

5. At the moment when everything is being taken from him, Christ gives everything

Christ in this narrative gives humanity pardon, opens the gates of paradise, and commends his spirit to the Father. At the moment of his death, when everything is being taken away from him, Jesus gives everything. Let us open ourselves to this passion narrative with the attitude of the good thief, aware of our poverty and smallness, allowing the Lord to love us and give us his gifts, allowing him to introduce us to the new life of sonship, the life of one who entrusts himself to the Father. This is a new kind of life, the kind of life that is risen and eternal.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

In his account of the Passion, Luke records three saying of Jesus from the cross that are not recorded elsewhere. The first is to ask his Father to forgive us for we do not know what we are doing. How arrogant we are! How often we think we know what we are doing, when in fact we are doing grave wrong, but have no idea of its gravity. The good thief alone recognizes his guilt and discovers how to pray: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom!” Jesus then utters his second phrase, “This day you will be with me in paradise”. How great is God’s mercy! The first person to enter paradise with the Lord is a thief! The third phrase is said as Jesus dies: “Father into your hands I commend my Spirit”. At this very moment the veil of the temple is torn in two. Behind the veil in the temple, the high priest alone was permitted to say the unpronounceable name of God. The tearing of the veil at the very moment of Jesus’s last words shows us that the Lord intends these words to be a revelation of the name of God, and we discover that his name is “Father”. This tortured and dying man - rather than sinking into the anguish of his horrific situation - surrenders and abandons himself to his Father. And his surrender will not be in vain. The Father will raise that flesh, revealing that the way out of anguish is not strength, is not intelligence, is not possessions, but consists in a relationship between Son and Father that endures through abandonment in the worst of moments.  In the end what does the Lord Jesus do on the cross? Whilst we are stripping him of life, he is bestowing gifts. He forgives us our sins, he grants us to be with him in Paradise, he entrusts his Spirit to the Father.