Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023

Matthew 26, 14—27, 66

The Passion of our our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew graphically describes his suffering in the garden, his arrest, interrogation by the Sanhedrin, their handing him over to Pilate, the torture he endured, and his crucifixion.  Matthew also pays great attention to the events connected with the Lord’s Death and what happened at that time.

In particular, he speaks of the darkness that came over the land at noon and remained until the Lord died.  Matthew does not speak of an eclipse, but of “darkness” which may have dimmed the sun but did not become complete, for if it had no one would have seen what else transpired at that time.  We can understand the darkness as the natural world in mourning over its Creator’s Death or perhaps as a sign that this is the hour of darkness: “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luke 22, 53), as the Lord said to the wicked people who came to arrest him in the garden.

The Evangelist also reports that the Lord cried out, from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Matthew gives the Aramaic words the Lord used.  The Lord does not use these words in despair but in order to show that he was fulfilling the Scriptures written concerning him and also the depths of his suffering.  He knew that we need to see how much he suffered for us.  But this Psalm, which begins with this agonized cry, continues with the Psalmist praising God for his goodness: “I will declare your name to my brethren: in the midst of the assembly will I praise you” (Psalm 22, 23).  We recall that he fulfilled this as well when he rose again.  Some of the bystanders misinterpreted what he cried out, which shows his suffering, as he would have had great difficulty in speaking at all.

“One of them ran to get a sponge; he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink.”  The other Evangelists say that this “wine” was mixed with myrrh or was vinegar.  At any rate, it had a bitter taste.  He is said by the others to have tasted it but not to have drank it.  He did this so that all of his senses might suffer, and the last of them to suffer would have been his sense of taste.  He may also have tasted it — moistened his mouth with it — in order for his body to give out his great cry before he died.

“Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit.”  The fact that Jesus had the strength to “cry out again in a loud voice” stunned the centurion guarding him, for no one dying of asphyxiation, as he was, does this.  St. Thomas Aquinas notes that Jesus “gave up” his spirit, that is, his soul, not that he was killed against his will: “He died because he himself willed it” (Hebrews 2, 14).

As we meditate upon the sufferings and holy Death of our Savior, let us keep in mind st all times how desperately he wants to save us, that he would do anything, even die on a cross, for us.