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February 12 - March 31, 2018
“Let [the Lord] rescue him, for he delights in him”: helpless suffering is cited as proof that God takes no delight in the one being tortured.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).
He knows no hatred. He does not call for revenge.
continues: “but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief”
At the same time, though, the tearing of the Temple veil means that the pathway to God is now open. Previously God’s face had been concealed.
portray Jesus’ death on the Cross as a cosmic and liturgical event: the sun is darkened, the veil of the Temple is torn in two, the earth quakes, the dead rise again.
Moreover, the opened side of the Lord asleep on the Cross prompted the Fathers to point to the creation of Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam, and so in this outpouring of the sacraments they also recognized the birth of the Church: the creation of the new woman from the side of the new Adam.
While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around: when the world, with all the injustice and cruelty that make it unclean, comes into contact with the infinitely pure one—then he, the pure one, is the stronger.
The mystery of the Cross does not simply confront us; rather, it draws us in and gives a new value to our life. This existential aspect
The Lord himself has told us that “heaven” in this world is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds (Mt 13:31-32), yet contained within it are the infinite potentialities of God.
The great—the mighty—is ultimately the small.
in which the essential is proclaimed: the event itself and the witness who testifies to it.
Then comes the confession of the fundamental historical event: God raised him from the dead. This already makes clear what the significance of the confession is for Christians: it brings salvation.
extended by Paul, inasmuch as he has added,
On the one hand, “the Twelve” remain the actual foundation stone of the Church, the permanent point of reference.
Now, after the Resurrection, the Lord appears first to him, before appearing to the Twelve, and thus once again renews Peter’s particular mission.
Matthew, apart from the risen Lord’s appearance to the women at the empty tomb, gives only one other appearance—in Galilee to the Eleven.
them to tell the disciples, “and Peter”,
One initial difference is that in the confessional tradition only men are named as witnesses, whereas in the narrative tradition women play a key role, indeed they take precedence over the men.
the testimony of women was considered unreliable.
Lord is from a mere “spirit” by recounting that Jesus asked the still fearful disciples for something to eat and then ate a piece of grilled fish before their eyes.
So the mysterious cipher of eating salt expresses an inner bond between the meal on the eve of Jesus’ Passion and the risen Lord’s new table fellowship: he gives himself to his followers as food and thus makes them sharers in his life, in life itself.
divine way? Not to overwhelm with external power, but to give freedom, to offer and elicit love.
The questioning about times and seasons is explicitly rejected. Speculation over history, looking ahead into the unknown future—these are not fitting attitudes for a disciple. Christianity is the present:
this is exactly what Jesus says to his disciples: “I go away, and I will come to you”
Their task at this moment is to proclaim to the ends of the earth their witness to Christ.
his first coming was in the flesh and in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the spirit and in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty”
We ask him to be close to those we love or for whom we are anxious. We ask him to be present and effective in his Church.
