THE SON OF MAN IS TO BE HANDED OVER

Wis 2,12.17-20; Ps 53; Jm 3,16-4,3; Mk 9,30-37
23 SEPTEMBER
If we read all the ancient prophecies about the Lord’s Messiah, only one truth appears in all: the God Christ is the man of suffering, of pain. However, it is necessary not to take according to the letter, but always according to the Holy Spirit what is written. Here is how the Third Chapter of Lamentations speaks of the suffering of the Christ of God.

I am a man who knows affliction from the rod of his anger, One whom he has led and forced to walk in darkness, not in the light; Against me alone he brings back his hand again and again all the day. He has worn away my flesh and my skin, he has broken my bones; He has beset me round about with poverty and weariness; He has left me to dwell in the dark like those long dead. He has hemmed me in with no escape and weighed me down with chains; Even when I cry out for help, he stops my prayer; He has blocked my ways with fitted stones, and turned my paths aside. A lurking bear he has been to me, a lion in ambush! He deranged my ways, set me astray, left me desolate. He bent his bow, and set me up as the target for his arrow. He pierces my sides with shafts from his quiver. I have become a laughingstock for all nations, their taunt all the day long; He has sated me with bitter food, made me drink my fill of wormwood. He has broken my teeth with gravel, pressed my face in the dust; My soul is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is; I tell myself my future is lost, all that I hoped for from the Lord. The thought of my homeless poverty is wormwood and gall; Remembering it over and over leaves my soul downcast within me. But I will call this to mind, as my reason to have hope: The favours of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness.

My portion is the Lord, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Good is the Lord to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him; It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke from his youth. Let him sit alone and in silence, when it is laid upon him. Let him put his mouth to the dust; there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to be struck, let him be filled with disgrace. For the Lord’s rejection does not last forever; Though he punishes, he takes pity, in the abundance of his mercies; He has no joy in afflicting or grieving the sons of men. When anyone tramples underfoot all the prisoners in the land, When he distorts men’s rights in the very sight of the Most High, They struck me down alive in the pit, and sealed me in with a stone. The waters flowed over my head, and I said, “I am lost!” I called upon your name, O Lord, from the bottom of the pit; You heard me call, “Let not your ear be deaf to my cry for help!” You came to my aid when I called to you; you said, “Have no fear!” You defended me in mortal danger, you redeemed my life. You see, O Lord, how I am wronged; do me justice! You see all their vindictiveness, all their plots against me. You hear their insults, O Lord, (all their plots against me), The whispered murmurings of my foes, against Lord, according to their deeds; Give them hardness of heart, as your curse upon them; Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under your heavens! (Cf Lam 3,1-66).

Before the Christ of God that lets himself be submerged by the expiating and redemptive suffering, there is no room to fight over questions of places. The place of the disciple is only one: the cross of the Master. On the cross, the wood does not give greatness, but love.

They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.”

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to see every place only as a cross of love.