April 14, 2017
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42
The high priest questions Jesus in the account of the Passion that we have just proclaimed. The high priest questions Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus’ responds to the high priest, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.”
Jesus’ response reveals that it is for us to answer the question of the high priest. We’ve heard Jesus speak to us. Well, do we know what He taught us and what he said to us? Do we really believe it? How do we answer the high priests of our contemporary world when they ask us what Jesus has taught us in the Gospel revealed in Sacred Scripture and in the Tradition of the authentic teaching of his Church? Do we witness clearly or do we run and hide? Do we stand at the foot of the Cross with the Blessed Mother and the Beloved Disciple, or do we deny Christ as we lurk in the shadows of conformity with the contemporary world steeped in relativism and apathy for all that is good and true?
Perhaps, Pilate too frequently provides the grounding for our response to the high priest’s question with his own cynicism, “What is Truth?” The manipulative character of Pilate is displayed when he moves from asking cynically as to what is truth to his self-serving declaration before the crowd that he finds no guilt in Jesus. How can one witness to guilt or innocence, right or wrong, virtue or vice, if one has no room for the truth? Pilate with firm purpose omits to state that he finds Christ to be innocent. Pilate lies by omission. He short-sells the fullness of the truth. It is the Truth that is crucified today and every day when we cowardly fail to witness to the high priest’s interrogation of the nature of Christ’s doctrine—the Truth in Love.
Without Christ we are lost. So, Jesus gives us Mary, his own Blessed Mother to be our mother as his last gift to us from the Cross. Mary shows us the bravery of discipleship and silently answers the high priest’s interrogation by her attentiveness at the Cross of her Son—her witness to the Truth. Her loving and hopeful surrender to the will of the Father in assisting Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will in offering his life for our salvation strengthens us and shows us what we must do with gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us. Mary shows us that there is nothing secret with her Son’s mission or doctrine. We cannot hide anything that Christ has revealed or taught us in Scripture and Tradition. We cannot adequately live our Christian faith, given to us by Christ, without the assistance, example, and intercession of our Blessed Mother who stands by us in our own share in her Divine Son’s Cross. The answer to the high priest’s question that Jesus asks us to answer is that of love, the sacrifice of the Cross, the statement of truth, the fullness of the truth spoken with courage, and hope in the face of sin and death.
