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| Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man!) 1871, Public Domain |
March 30, 2018
St. Patrick’s 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
Pilate ends where he should begin, “What is Truth?” The cunning and 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. Even that statement is non-committal because he does not declare Christ to be innocent, as Christ uniquely and truly is innocent; he waffles and subtly says that he finds no guilt in Jesus. The hand washing begins. Of course, how could one witness to guilt or innocence, right or wrong, virtue or vice, life or death 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 and with cunning and cowardice. 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.
The cynical Pilate becomes even more self-serving as he places before the people two figures to choose between: Jesus and Barabbas. The name Barabbas means “son of the father” —Bar Abba. From a bystander’s perspective Jesus and Barabbas are very similar—each challenged the status quo; each have similar names “Son of the father” and “the Lord God saves.” In a sense, Pilate places Barabbas next to Jesus as an option for the type of Messiah that the people can choose for themselves. There is Barabbas, a Messiah who is a violent and dynamic revolutionary who conspires and wages war against the authority of an oppressive regime and thereby brings about anarchy. Barabbas promises them freedom to do whatever one would want to do. Barabbas offers them an earthly kingdom of one’s own prosperity. Next to Barabbas, Pilate places Jesus. In Jesus they have a Messiah who proclaims that losing oneself is the way to life. It is Jesus who is the Messiah who hides nothing and is the Light of the World. It is Jesus who is the Messiah who calls them to obedience to the will of the Father and who lives it. It is Jesus who is the Messiah of the Cross.
The prince of this world is a liar. He knows the truth well enough to hate it. He is cunning and not so blatant as to advertise openly that we should worship the devil. He only suggests that we should decide on what is reasonable; opt for the advantages of a planned and thoroughly organized world with impeccable communication. Choose the world in which there is room for God in an individual’s life as a private concern but not a place for God to interfere in one’s essential and primary purposes. It is much more reasonable not to be inconvenienced by the Son of Mary, the Nazarene known as a carpenter, who asks so much of us in offering His life fully in sacrificial love. Any false religion subtly attempts to hide the Cross from view, or at least to make it tolerable only as a form of decoration but to remove its sacrificial character as the entrance of the Divine love into the world of humanity.
Without the crucified 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, our Mother, shows us the bravery of discipleship and silently answers the high priest’s interrogation by her attention and presence at the Cross of her Son—her humble and peaceful witness to the Truth. The sword pierces her heart. Her loving and hopeful surrender to the will of the Father in assisting Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will—consistent since the Annunciation—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. Christ means what He says and He says what He means. In so doing, Mary represents the Church. She stands precisely where the Church can only stand—at the foot of the Cross. In our membership in the Church, we cannot hide anything that Christ has revealed or taught us in Scripture and Tradition because that is what He taught and how He taught it. We also cannot adequately live our Christian faith, given to us by Christ, without the assistance, example, and intercession of our Blessed Mother who stands openly by us in our own share in her Divine Son’s Cross thereby fulfilling her share in the mission of Christ to be our Mother and for us to be her children marked by the sign of the Cross of Christ crucified.
