15 — THE PREDICTION OF THE PASSION

Sunday of Quinquagesima

Presence of God. — O Jesus, give me light to understand the mystery and the value of Christian suffering.

Meditation

1 — As Lent draws near, the time in which the remembrance of Jesus’ sorrows predominates, today’s Gospel (Lk. 18, 31-43) brings the announcement of His Passion.

The prediction is clear: “the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles and shall be mocked, scourged, and covered with spittle; and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; but on the third day He will rise,” yet, as at other times, the Apostles “understood none of these things; that saying was too obscure for them.” They did not understand because they conceived Jesus’ mission as that of an earthly conqueror who would reestablish the kingdom of Israel; dreaming of triumphs and preoccupied, as they were, with occupying the first places in the new kingdom, every allusion to the Passion dismayed them, scandalized them.

For those who dream only of prosperity and earthly glory, the language of the cross is incomprehensible. For those who have a material view of things, it is very hard to understand the spiritual meaning and especially the meaning of suffering. St. Paul too said that Christ crucified was “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (I Cor. 1, 23). And Jesus, rebuking St. Peter who at the first announcement of His Passion had exclaimed: “God forbid, Lord, this shall never happen to You,” said without hesitation: “Get behind Me, Satan!... for you do not have a taste for the things of God, but for the things of men” (Mt. 16, 22-23). For human wisdom, suffering is incomprehensible folly, a thing that dismays, even to extinguishing all trust in God, even to bringing one to murmur against divine Providence. Instead, for the wisdom of God, suffering is a means of salvation, of redemption. And just as it was necessary that “the Christ should suffer to enter into His glory” (cf. Lk. 24, 26), so it is necessary that the Christian pass through the crucible of sorrow to arrive at holiness, at eternal life.

2 — Only after the descent of the Holy Spirit did the Apostles fully understand the meaning of Jesus’ Passion and, instead of being scandalized by it, they regarded it as the highest honor to follow and preach Christ crucified.

The human eye has no light to understand the value of the cross; a new light is needed, the light of the Holy Spirit. Not by chance in today’s Gospel, immediately after the prediction of the Passion, we find the healing of the blind man of Jericho. Before the mystery of sorrow we are always a little blind: when suffering strikes us in what we have dearest and most intimate, it is easy to lose ourselves and grope like blind men in uncertainty, in darkness. The Church invites us today to renew the prayer full of faith of the blind man: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The world often marvels at the sufferings of the good and, instead of encouraging them in their recourse to God, seeks to draw them away by instilling distrust and false fears. Our very passions, our innate tendency to enjoy, often cry out within us and, under a thousand pretexts, would like to keep us from following Jesus crucified. Let us remain firm in our faith like the poor blind man, who, without worrying about the crowd that prevented him from approaching Jesus, without stopping at the rebukes of the disciples who wanted him to be silent, “cried all the louder” his prayer.

From the depth of our heart let us raise our cry to the Lord: “De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine, Domine audi vocem meam!” (Ps. 129). Let us not ask to be freed from suffering, but rather to be enlightened about its value: “Lord, that I may see!” As soon as the blind man recovered his sight, he immediately went after Jesus, “glorifying God!” The supernatural light we invoke from the Lord will give us strength to follow Him, carrying our cross after Him.

Colloquy

“O Son of the Eternal Father, Jesus Christ our Lord, true King of the universe! What inheritance have You left in this world for us Your descendants? What did You possess, my Lord, if not labors, torments, and contempts? And to swallow the bitter chalice of death, did You perhaps have more than a piece of wood? Ah! my God, if we wish to be Your legitimate children and not renounce Your inheritance, we must embrace suffering! Your standards are the five wounds!... And those wounds must be my coat of arms, if I want to inherit Your kingdom! It is not by rest, delights, honors, and riches that one gains that kingdom which You purchased with so much blood. For the love of God, open your eyes, you great ones of the world, and think that the true knights of Jesus Christ, the princes of His Church, like St. Peter and St. Paul, certainly did not follow the road you follow! Do you perhaps believe that for you there must be another way? Do not think it” (TG. Fd. 10, 11).

O my Jesus, the cross is Your standard; it would therefore be very presumptuous for me to ask to be freed from it. From one evil only I ardently beg You to free me: from any deliberate sin, however small. This, O Lord, by the merits of Your most holy Passion, always keep far from me. But as for other evils - sufferings of body and spirit, physical and moral pains - I ask You for light and strength. Light to understand the hidden meaning they have in the plans of Your divine Providence, light to believe firmly that all - any bitterness or trial, any heartbreak or upheaval - is ordained by You for my greater good. Strength not to let myself be impressed by the false maxims of the world or diverted by a vain mirage of earthly happiness; strength to embrace with courage and with love every kind of suffering.