Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand Him over to you?’ They paid him thirty silver pieces. (Mt 26:14-15)
The betrayal of God in exchange for unjust money… How often this story is repeated! How often people sell themselves at the price of money, of honour, of disorderly pleasures, of power!
“In all truth I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” (Jn 13:21b)
Betrayal! Here the most terrible depths of the human heart are revealed. Betraying a friend, betraying the Master and Lord, betraying love…
“Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair.” (Jn 12:3)
What a tender gesture on Mary’s part this Gospel passage tells us! It is a tenderness that corresponds to the being of a woman, and which reflects something of her beauty and her capacity for self-giving. Mary has given her whole heart to Jesus, and what a consolation that loving soul must have been for Him in the midst of so much hostility. Something similar will happen to Him on the Way of the Cross, when Veronica wipes His face.
“Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!” (Mt 21:9)
The people are gathered, and for a short time that which corresponds to the reality of the coming of the Son of God is happening: He is received with rejoicing and joy, the people receive their true King, their Messiah, the one long promised!
“Lent is the autumn of the spiritual life, when one should harvest the fruits and gather them for the whole year. Do everything, I beg you, to become rich in these precious treasures, which nothing can rob or destroy (Mt 6:20). Remember what I often say: As long as we try to observe two Lents at once, we will never observe even one properly. So let us observe this one as if it were our last, and then we will observe it well.” (St. Francis de Sales – Letter to Jane Frances de Chantal)
Today we take the final step on our Lenten journey before entering Holy Week. I warmly invite you to continue following us. We will be using the texts for Holy Week 2024. Individual passages will be explored in a more meditative way. You are also welcome to follow along via video on YouTube[1].
At the beginning of today’s Gospel (John 12:10–36), we already encounter Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, which we will reflect on more deeply tomorrow, on Palm Sunday.
For a brief time, everything in Jerusalem was as it should be. The people welcomed the true King of Israel and rushed to meet Him. This event revealed the truth, and one could see what Israel was meant to do for all humanity. It was not merely a human king but the heavenly King who came to earth to redeem His people. He enters the “city of the great King” (Mt 5:35), namely Jerusalem, chosen by God. What joy and what grace the Eternal Father bestows upon His people! He is coming—the One to whom all honor, praise, and glory are due (Rev 5:12).
And how does He enter? This King renounces all outward splendor and pomp to emphasize His significance and position before mankind. No, the heavenly King comes to the Daughter of Zion on the colt of a donkey, as foretold in Scripture (Zech 9:9). The cry of joy was never meant to fall silent, but to resound for all eternity: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (John 12:13).
Dear Father, in today’s Gospel reading (John 11:47–54), we encountered the stubbornness and blindness of the scribes. This was alarming and even led to the decision to kill Jesus. They deceived themselves, and thus the truth could no longer find its way into their hearts.
Holy Week is just around the corner, and today’s Lenten reading presents us with the Gospel passage in which Jesus’ enemies decide to kill Him (Jn 11:47–54). It reads as follows:
“So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, ‘What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.’” (vv. 47–48).
Here we see the false pretexts they put forward, for Jesus—through His preaching and His works—posed absolutely no threat to the Romans. In reality, it was the religious leaders who felt threatened and feared losing their influence over the people.
The raising of Lazarus, an unmistakable sign of Jesus’ divine authority, proved intolerable to them. Since they had no way to refute Him or accuse Him of any sin—and thus of having transgressed the Law—they simply decided to kill Him.
Following the joy of the election of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which we celebrated yesterday, our Lenten journey presents us today with the moving prayer of Azariah (Dan 3, 3–22), one of the three young men who, thanks to divine intervention, emerged unharmed from the fiery furnace.
Azariah, who lives in exile in Babylon alongside his people, first expresses his deep lament at having lost everything that once constituted the center of his life, while at the same time acknowledging the people’s guilt: “For we, O Lord, have become fewer than any nation, and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins. And at this time there is no prince, or prophet, or leader, no burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, no place to make an offering before thee or to find mercy.” (vv. 14–15a).
How important it is to acknowledge reality with such depth! Israel feels the consequences of having turned away from God and realizes that it has brought this upon itself. In this prayer, no one and nothing is blamed for the suffering and misfortune that have befallen the people; rather, one’s own guilt is acknowledged in a simple and sincere manner.
