A Homily for Passion Sunday

+ The fierce argument between Our Blessed Lord and the Jews that is recounted in the eighth chapter of St John’s Gospel, of which the Church gives us an extract in this holy Mass, is as instructive as it is violent in both its language and in it its near outcome (let us not forget that in the end “they picked up stones to throw at Him”).
 
One can understand the outrage of the Jews: a young man claiming “before Abraham was, I am” is utterly blasphemous—unless, of course, it happens to be true. The frustration, if not exasperation, of our Lord is audible in His plaintive question: “If I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?” And the stark condemnation with which He follows it resounds down the ages as a warning to us all: “Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.”
 
The argument, as can be readily gleaned, is about truth—to borrow from Pontius Pilate, the question is: What is truth? (cf. Jn 18:38) Both parties in this dispute had no difficulty at all in accepting the reality of truth; the people of Israel were the holy people of the jealous God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who had revealed Himself to them in history, and not some syncretistic sect following a god or idol of their own making (regardless of howsoever often they, too, had given into this insidious temptation). Truth, in all its objectivity, was accepted as a given.
 
The problem, however, is the astounding and unprecedented incarnation of Truth Himself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth—a problem that is confounded further still if He Himself stands before you teaching and making claims that are, seemingly, too great to be even considered. What He claims is simply is not possible—unless, of course, it is! We may have sympathy for Our Lord’s adversaries; we ourselves may not have done that much better.
 
And yet, thanks to the Providence of Almighty God, through the gift Baptism, we do recognise Jesus of Nazareth as “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. (Jn: 14:16) With the supernatural gift of hope we accept His words: “Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” Thus, we worship Him and strive continually to hold fast to His teachings as that saving Truth which shows us the path to that life which death cannot extinguish.
 
In recounting this dispute on the first Passion Sunday, our holy mother, the Church, takes us into the very heart of the drama that is Our Lord’s Passion which we shall live through the Sacred Liturgy in the coming fortnight. What is truth? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Is He possessed? What is to be done about His obstinate blasphemy?
 
But this quarrel will not end in the throwing of stones. Some will seek to end it with blows and spears and nails and a cross. Truth shall Himself end the argument once and for all by rising from the dead, triumphant over everything that the world in its petty mindedness could do to Him.
 
These are fundamental questions, and rightly do we ponder them in the liturgical intensity of this sober season. What is truth? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Where do I stand?
 
To do so is all the more important in our world for whom the question “What is truth?” makes no sense—for in our times there are as many truths as there are opinions, or—most worryingly, sometimes even also in the Church—truth is established by the shamefaced, positivistic exercise of authority, regardless of reality—moral, historical or otherwise. Neither relativism nor fascism, ecclesiastical or secular, show us the path to that life which death cannot extinguish. A prudence that compromises the truth in seeking a life without difficulty does not come from God: His only Son died on the Cross because He would not commit the ultimate injustice of renouncing the Truth. Indeed, if anything, the Gospel of this Holy Mass shows Our Lord as grossly imprudent in worldly terms. So be it. The world was wrong; as so often it is still, and as so often are we when we conform ourselves to it.
 
St Benedict insists that a novice be examined to see whether he truly seeks God (Rule, ch. 58); that is, whether he seeks to conform his life to the Truth. Passiontide poses the same question to each of us: do we truly seek God and His Truth, or are we content with the compromise of relativism?  Do we, who are baptised in Christ, obfuscate in respect of all that He demands of us and calls us to be? Are we prepared to stand firm and to embrace the cross?
 
For if we do truly seek God, if the actions of our lives make clear that we reject the falsehoods proffered by the princes and potentates of our times (whatever disguises they may wear), we are on the path to that life which death cannot extinguish, a life in which, by God’s mercy, we already share by means of the sacraments. As we approach the altar this morning to seek the nourishment we need in order to persevere along this path, let us do so in humility and in thanksgiving, renewing our commitment faithfully and courageously to witness to the Truth, that others too may find the path to salvation. +