And [Pilate] said to [the mob], ‘Behold, the man!’
~St. John 19:5
Consider:
The processional for Palm Sunday Mass includes an invitation to Christ’s Passion. With all faith and devotion, let us commemorate the Lord’s entry into the city of our Salvation, following in his footsteps, so that, being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and his life. I kindle to the word invitation for it calls for a response. The invitation begins with Pilate’s words to the frenzied mob as the humiliated humanity of Jesus is paraded before them; Pilate exclaims, Behold the Man. That invitation into Christ’s humanity during his Passion begs us to behold. Now, there’s another word I kindle to. We aren’t passing spectators who just glimpse this holiday we call Easter, who color Easter Eggs and bake hams; No! We behold–witness, contemplate, discern, consider, and perceive–because it is not just any man we behold. This Man, the Second Adam, is the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin. In him, the curse of the first man is reversed–O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer! Let us behold our Redeemer! In this Holy Week, we see the length, depth, breadth, and height God went to regain his own–us, his beloved children. He exchanged himself as payment to redeem us to himself. This week is truly the path back home to our Father!
Broken and Spilled Out
[Christ Jesus] though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
~Philippians 2:6-11
Christologists have a word for today’s Epistle passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:6-11): Kenosis. In our commemoration of Christ’s Passion, we will observe the complete ‘self-emptying’ of Christ’s divine nature to suffer humanity–Behold the Man! That is the Savior we need–suffering human emotions and pain to lead us to empty our disordered human nature. God, with skin on, incarnated himself into us so that we may be re-created into our created identity as sons and daughters of The Most High God. Mind-blowing! And the only way of our re-creation is to follow Christ in His Passion. We, as Catholics, refer to this as redemptive suffering as we understand all suffering is a sacrament we unite with our Lord Jesus Christ. No suffering is wasted when we unite it with our Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering for us in His Passion. Let’s begin.
There’s an arresting (no pun intended) moment in today’s Gospel reading from St. Mark 14, hours before Judas’ betrayal, which foreshadows Christ’s Passion. Jesus was in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, eating with Simon, the leper, when a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head. Accusations and complaints followed about the extravagance of her offering being wasted on Jesus’ head. Jesus replies, Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me… wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” Jesus is about to be extravagantly broken and spilled out, for humanity is anointed by a broken and spilled-out woman in thanksgiving and praise. This is the posture, the sacrifice, to be embraced as we behold the Man, Jesus.
What about you, friend? Is your love for Jesus a lavish offering of abandonment to his goodwill, or are you constrained by parsimonious withholding caused by doubt and skepticism? Jesus told us that when we give, it will be given to [us]. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into [our] lap, for the measure [we] give will be the measure [we] get back. (St. Luke 6:38)
Pray:
Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. It is so easy to get caught up in grasping what I think I deserve from this life that I forget this life is not where I belong; I’m on my way home to You. I don’t belong here; therefore, I am not defined or controlled by what others may think of me, what I have or don’t have, what I do or don’t do. Empty me of all that is not You so that I may be permeated by all that is You! ~Amen
Act:
Choose your most treasured possession and lavish it on another.
The Maiden Warrior 