From The American Bible Society:
April 22, 2011
Good Friday
HE BOWED HIS HEAD AND GAVE UP HIS SPIRIT
John 19:1-42 (Good News Translation)
1 After Jesus had said this prayer, he left with his disciples and went across Kidron Brook. There was a garden in that place, and Jesus and his disciples went in. 2 Judas, the traitor, knew where it was, because many times Jesus had met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas went to the garden, taking with him a group of Roman soldiers, and some Temple guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees; they were armed and carried lanterns and torches. 4 Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward and asked them, “Who is it you are looking for?” 5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “I am he,” he said. Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they moved back and fell to the ground. 7 Again Jesus asked them, “Who is it you are looking for?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said. 8 “I have already told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “If, then, you are looking for me, let these others go.” ( 9 He said this so that what he had said might come true: “Father, I have not lost even one of those you gave me.”) 10 Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the High Priest's slave, cutting off his right ear. The name of the slave was Malchus. 11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back in its place! Do you think that I will not drink the cup of suffering which my Father has given me?” 12 Then the Roman soldiers with their commanding officer and the Jewish guards arrested Jesus, tied him up, 13 and took him first to Annas. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish authorities that it was better that one man should die for all the people. 15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was well known to the High Priest, so he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest's house, 16 while Peter stayed outside by the gate. Then the other disciple went back out, spoke to the girl at the gate, and brought Peter inside. 17 The girl at the gate said to Peter, “Aren't you also one of the disciples of that man?” “No, I am not,” answered Peter. 18 It was cold, so the servants and guards had built a charcoal fire and were standing around it, warming themselves. So Peter went over and stood with them, warming himself. 19 The High Priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. 20 Jesus answered, “I have always spoken publicly to everyone; all my teaching was done in the synagogues and in the Temple, where all the people come together. I have never said anything in secret. 21 Why, then, do you question me? Question the people who heard me. Ask them what I told them—they know what I said. ” 22 When Jesus said this, one of the guards there slapped him and said, “How dare you talk like that to the High Priest!” 23 Jesus answered him, “If I have said anything wrong, tell everyone here what it was. But if I am right in what I have said, why do you hit me?” 24 Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the High Priest. 25 Peter was still standing there keeping himself warm. So the others said to him, “Aren't you also one of the disciples of that man?” But Peter denied it. “No, I am not,” he said. 26 One of the High Priest's slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up. “Didn't I see you with him in the garden?” he asked. 27 Again Peter said “No”—and at once a rooster crowed. 28 Early in the morning Jesus was taken from Caiaphas' house to the governor's palace. The Jewish authorities did not go inside the palace, for they wanted to keep themselves ritually clean, in order to be able to eat the Passover meal. 29 So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What do you accuse this man of” 30 Their answer was, “We would not have brought him to you if he had not committed a crime.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Then you yourselves take him and try him according to your own law.” They replied, “We are not allowed to put anyone to death.” ( 32 This happened in order to make come true what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he would die.) 33 Pilate went back into the palace and called Jesus. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. 34 Jesus answered, “Does this question come from you or have others told you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “Do you think I am a Jew? It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!” 37 So Pilate asked him, “Are you a king, then?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.” 38 “And what is truth?” Pilate asked. Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, “I cannot find any reason to condemn him. 39 But according to the custom you have, I always set free a prisoner for you during the Passover. Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews? ” 40 They answered him with a shout, “No, not him! We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a bandit.) 1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. 2 The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him 3 and came to him and said, “Long live the King of the Jews!” And they went up and slapped him. 4 Pilate went back out once more and said to the crowd, “Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look! Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him.” 7 The crowd answered back, “We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. 9 He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus did not answer. 10 Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified.” 11 Jesus answered, “You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin.” 12 When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, “If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor's friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!” 13 When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement.” (In Hebrew the name is “Gabbatha.”) 14 It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, “Here is your king!” 15 They shouted back, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “The only king we have is the Emperor!” 16 Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took charge of Jesus. 17 He went out, carrying his cross, and came to “The Place of the Skull,” as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called “Golgotha.”) 18 There they crucified him; and they also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus between them. 19 Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” is what he wrote. 20 Many people read it, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21 The chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write “The King of the Jews,” but rather, “This man said, I am the King of the Jews.” ” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written stays written.” 23 After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took the robe, which was made of one piece of woven cloth without any seams in it. 24 The soldiers said to one another, “Let's not tear it; let's throw dice to see who will get it.” This happened in order to make the scripture come true:
“They divided my clothes among themselves
and gambled for my robe.” 25 Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “He is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “She is your mother.” From that time the disciple took her to live in his home. 28 Jesus knew that by now everything had been completed; and in order to make the scripture come true, he said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A bowl was there, full of cheap wine; so a sponge was soaked in the wine, put on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted up to his lips. 30 Jesus drank the wine and said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 31 Then the Jewish authorities asked Pilate to allow them to break the legs of the men who had been crucified, and to take the bodies down from the crosses. They requested this because it was Friday, and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses on the Sabbath, since the coming Sabbath was especially holy. 32 So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other man who had been crucified with Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs. 34 One of the soldiers, however, plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at once blood and water poured out. ( 35 The one who saw this happen has spoken of it, so that you also may believe. What he said is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth.) 36 This was done to make the scripture come true: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And there is another scripture that says, “People will look at him whom they pierced.” 38 After this, Joseph, who was from the town of Arimathea, asked Pilate if he could take Jesus' body. (Joseph was a follower of Jesus, but in secret, because he was afraid of the Jewish authorities.) Pilate told him he could have the body, so Joseph went and took it away. 39 Nicodemus, who at first had gone to see Jesus at night, went with Joseph, taking with him about one hundred pounds of spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes. 40 The two men took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial. 41 There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been put to death, and in it there was a new tomb where no one had ever been buried. 42 Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus' body there.
Other Readings: Isaiah 52:13—53:12; Psalm 31; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9;
Lectio
Both Friday and Saturday could be described as two days of silent contemplation and prayer. The liturgical services do not allow the celebration of the Eucharist, and in the Roman Catholic Church, after the celebration of Good Friday even the altar is ‘dismantled’, stripped of any liturgical cloth. The readings on this Friday underline the role played by Jesus’ Passion and Death on the Cross. We have already heard some passages taken from Isaiah’s Hymns of the Suffering Servant. Today’s fragment can be considered as one of the most accurate prophetical descriptions of the feelings Jesus must have experienced during those days of suffering and abandonment. But perhaps it is the text of Hebrews which provides us with the final meaning of all those events: ‘Even if he was God’s Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient… and he became the source of salvation for all who obey him’ (5:8-9). During the Holy Week, this is the second time we read the Passion, in this case, that of John’s gospel. No doubt, it has the most ‘theological’ approach, in the sense that the evangelist, besides ‘telling’ what happened, tries to give us the meaning of the events. From the very beginning, Jesus is the master of his own destiny: ‘He knew everything that was going to happen to him’ (18:4). He is conscious of his mission and, when asked if he is ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, his answer ‘I am he’ recalls the phrase which defined God himself. He is perfectly aware that amidst the whole process, his dignity as ‘the Word of God’ is above all doubt. From this moment on, step by step, the story will follow its due, foreseen course: suffering, humiliation, abandonment, death… Everything ‘is done to make the Scripture come true’ (19:36). Some moments are extremely significant. Jesus, who has said to Thomas ‘I am the truth’ (14:6), keeps silent when Pilates poses his rhetorical question ‘And what is truth?’ as there is no place for scepticism at that moment. Pilates’ words, ‘Here is your king’, as he presents Jesus to the people, have an ironical twist and become a prophetical reminder of the words used in the enthronement of the kings of Israel. And when Jesus dies on the cross and ‘gives up his spirit’, we can find a glimpse of the Spirit he had previously announced (7:39), which is also symbolized in the water pouring out of his side (19:34), and which he will eventually give to his disciples: ‘Receive the Holy spirit’ (20:22). ‘Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus’ body there’ (19:42). So ends John’s account of ‘the hour’ for which the Word, the son of God, had come to this world. For the Jews, the Sabbath was the day God has blessed and set apart because he had completed his creation and stopped working. In the same way, it was a day of rest for humans. For us, Christians, this Saturday has a special significance: it is a time for reflexion, silence and preparation for the great event of the Resurrection.
Meditatio
Study the characters in the narrative of the Passion story: Peter, Pilate, the people, the priests and Pharisees… In every one of them, there is some trait or feature that you can discover in yourself. See how you could avoid their flaws or imitate their virtues.
Oratio
One of the parts of today’s liturgy is the ‘general intercessions’, in which the Christian community prays for all the needs of the world, from the Church to those in special need. Make up your own list of people you know are in trouble or need. Ask the Lord to listen to them in a special way. Pray especially too for those we often forget in our daily prayers.
Contemplatio
On Palm Sunday, we read the hymn from Philippians 2:5-11, which was a synthesis of the Holy Week and Jesus’ life. Read it again and recall the path followed by Christ from the manger, through the cross, down to his tomb. In silence and reverence, try to anticipate the light of his resurrection.
Reflections written by Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón Director of Inter-Religious Affairs Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain
© 2010 American Bible Society. All Rights Reserved. 1865 Broadway,
April 22, 2011
Good Friday
HE BOWED HIS HEAD AND GAVE UP HIS SPIRIT
John 19:1-42 (Good News Translation)
1 After Jesus had said this prayer, he left with his disciples and went across Kidron Brook. There was a garden in that place, and Jesus and his disciples went in. 2 Judas, the traitor, knew where it was, because many times Jesus had met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas went to the garden, taking with him a group of Roman soldiers, and some Temple guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees; they were armed and carried lanterns and torches. 4 Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward and asked them, “Who is it you are looking for?” 5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “I am he,” he said. Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they moved back and fell to the ground. 7 Again Jesus asked them, “Who is it you are looking for?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said. 8 “I have already told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “If, then, you are looking for me, let these others go.” ( 9 He said this so that what he had said might come true: “Father, I have not lost even one of those you gave me.”) 10 Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the High Priest's slave, cutting off his right ear. The name of the slave was Malchus. 11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back in its place! Do you think that I will not drink the cup of suffering which my Father has given me?” 12 Then the Roman soldiers with their commanding officer and the Jewish guards arrested Jesus, tied him up, 13 and took him first to Annas. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish authorities that it was better that one man should die for all the people. 15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was well known to the High Priest, so he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest's house, 16 while Peter stayed outside by the gate. Then the other disciple went back out, spoke to the girl at the gate, and brought Peter inside. 17 The girl at the gate said to Peter, “Aren't you also one of the disciples of that man?” “No, I am not,” answered Peter. 18 It was cold, so the servants and guards had built a charcoal fire and were standing around it, warming themselves. So Peter went over and stood with them, warming himself. 19 The High Priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. 20 Jesus answered, “I have always spoken publicly to everyone; all my teaching was done in the synagogues and in the Temple, where all the people come together. I have never said anything in secret. 21 Why, then, do you question me? Question the people who heard me. Ask them what I told them—they know what I said. ” 22 When Jesus said this, one of the guards there slapped him and said, “How dare you talk like that to the High Priest!” 23 Jesus answered him, “If I have said anything wrong, tell everyone here what it was. But if I am right in what I have said, why do you hit me?” 24 Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the High Priest. 25 Peter was still standing there keeping himself warm. So the others said to him, “Aren't you also one of the disciples of that man?” But Peter denied it. “No, I am not,” he said. 26 One of the High Priest's slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up. “Didn't I see you with him in the garden?” he asked. 27 Again Peter said “No”—and at once a rooster crowed. 28 Early in the morning Jesus was taken from Caiaphas' house to the governor's palace. The Jewish authorities did not go inside the palace, for they wanted to keep themselves ritually clean, in order to be able to eat the Passover meal. 29 So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What do you accuse this man of” 30 Their answer was, “We would not have brought him to you if he had not committed a crime.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Then you yourselves take him and try him according to your own law.” They replied, “We are not allowed to put anyone to death.” ( 32 This happened in order to make come true what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he would die.) 33 Pilate went back into the palace and called Jesus. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. 34 Jesus answered, “Does this question come from you or have others told you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “Do you think I am a Jew? It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!” 37 So Pilate asked him, “Are you a king, then?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.” 38 “And what is truth?” Pilate asked. Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, “I cannot find any reason to condemn him. 39 But according to the custom you have, I always set free a prisoner for you during the Passover. Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews? ” 40 They answered him with a shout, “No, not him! We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a bandit.) 1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. 2 The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him 3 and came to him and said, “Long live the King of the Jews!” And they went up and slapped him. 4 Pilate went back out once more and said to the crowd, “Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look! Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him.” 7 The crowd answered back, “We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. 9 He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus did not answer. 10 Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified.” 11 Jesus answered, “You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin.” 12 When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, “If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor's friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!” 13 When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement.” (In Hebrew the name is “Gabbatha.”) 14 It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, “Here is your king!” 15 They shouted back, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “The only king we have is the Emperor!” 16 Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took charge of Jesus. 17 He went out, carrying his cross, and came to “The Place of the Skull,” as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called “Golgotha.”) 18 There they crucified him; and they also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus between them. 19 Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” is what he wrote. 20 Many people read it, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21 The chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write “The King of the Jews,” but rather, “This man said, I am the King of the Jews.” ” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written stays written.” 23 After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took the robe, which was made of one piece of woven cloth without any seams in it. 24 The soldiers said to one another, “Let's not tear it; let's throw dice to see who will get it.” This happened in order to make the scripture come true:
“They divided my clothes among themselves
and gambled for my robe.” 25 Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “He is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “She is your mother.” From that time the disciple took her to live in his home. 28 Jesus knew that by now everything had been completed; and in order to make the scripture come true, he said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A bowl was there, full of cheap wine; so a sponge was soaked in the wine, put on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted up to his lips. 30 Jesus drank the wine and said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 31 Then the Jewish authorities asked Pilate to allow them to break the legs of the men who had been crucified, and to take the bodies down from the crosses. They requested this because it was Friday, and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses on the Sabbath, since the coming Sabbath was especially holy. 32 So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other man who had been crucified with Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs. 34 One of the soldiers, however, plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at once blood and water poured out. ( 35 The one who saw this happen has spoken of it, so that you also may believe. What he said is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth.) 36 This was done to make the scripture come true: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And there is another scripture that says, “People will look at him whom they pierced.” 38 After this, Joseph, who was from the town of Arimathea, asked Pilate if he could take Jesus' body. (Joseph was a follower of Jesus, but in secret, because he was afraid of the Jewish authorities.) Pilate told him he could have the body, so Joseph went and took it away. 39 Nicodemus, who at first had gone to see Jesus at night, went with Joseph, taking with him about one hundred pounds of spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes. 40 The two men took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial. 41 There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been put to death, and in it there was a new tomb where no one had ever been buried. 42 Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus' body there.
Other Readings: Isaiah 52:13—53:12; Psalm 31; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9;
Lectio
Both Friday and Saturday could be described as two days of silent contemplation and prayer. The liturgical services do not allow the celebration of the Eucharist, and in the Roman Catholic Church, after the celebration of Good Friday even the altar is ‘dismantled’, stripped of any liturgical cloth. The readings on this Friday underline the role played by Jesus’ Passion and Death on the Cross. We have already heard some passages taken from Isaiah’s Hymns of the Suffering Servant. Today’s fragment can be considered as one of the most accurate prophetical descriptions of the feelings Jesus must have experienced during those days of suffering and abandonment. But perhaps it is the text of Hebrews which provides us with the final meaning of all those events: ‘Even if he was God’s Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient… and he became the source of salvation for all who obey him’ (5:8-9). During the Holy Week, this is the second time we read the Passion, in this case, that of John’s gospel. No doubt, it has the most ‘theological’ approach, in the sense that the evangelist, besides ‘telling’ what happened, tries to give us the meaning of the events. From the very beginning, Jesus is the master of his own destiny: ‘He knew everything that was going to happen to him’ (18:4). He is conscious of his mission and, when asked if he is ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, his answer ‘I am he’ recalls the phrase which defined God himself. He is perfectly aware that amidst the whole process, his dignity as ‘the Word of God’ is above all doubt. From this moment on, step by step, the story will follow its due, foreseen course: suffering, humiliation, abandonment, death… Everything ‘is done to make the Scripture come true’ (19:36). Some moments are extremely significant. Jesus, who has said to Thomas ‘I am the truth’ (14:6), keeps silent when Pilates poses his rhetorical question ‘And what is truth?’ as there is no place for scepticism at that moment. Pilates’ words, ‘Here is your king’, as he presents Jesus to the people, have an ironical twist and become a prophetical reminder of the words used in the enthronement of the kings of Israel. And when Jesus dies on the cross and ‘gives up his spirit’, we can find a glimpse of the Spirit he had previously announced (7:39), which is also symbolized in the water pouring out of his side (19:34), and which he will eventually give to his disciples: ‘Receive the Holy spirit’ (20:22). ‘Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus’ body there’ (19:42). So ends John’s account of ‘the hour’ for which the Word, the son of God, had come to this world. For the Jews, the Sabbath was the day God has blessed and set apart because he had completed his creation and stopped working. In the same way, it was a day of rest for humans. For us, Christians, this Saturday has a special significance: it is a time for reflexion, silence and preparation for the great event of the Resurrection.
Meditatio
Study the characters in the narrative of the Passion story: Peter, Pilate, the people, the priests and Pharisees… In every one of them, there is some trait or feature that you can discover in yourself. See how you could avoid their flaws or imitate their virtues.
Oratio
One of the parts of today’s liturgy is the ‘general intercessions’, in which the Christian community prays for all the needs of the world, from the Church to those in special need. Make up your own list of people you know are in trouble or need. Ask the Lord to listen to them in a special way. Pray especially too for those we often forget in our daily prayers.
Contemplatio
On Palm Sunday, we read the hymn from Philippians 2:5-11, which was a synthesis of the Holy Week and Jesus’ life. Read it again and recall the path followed by Christ from the manger, through the cross, down to his tomb. In silence and reverence, try to anticipate the light of his resurrection.
Reflections written by Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón Director of Inter-Religious Affairs Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain
© 2010 American Bible Society. All Rights Reserved. 1865 Broadway,
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