We have reached the "culmination" of Jesus' life. That "dramatic ending" on the Skull Hill (the name of the place says it all!) was not improvised: although it may seem unbelievable, God had already "foreseen" it before the creation of the world (another mystery!).

St. Paul - who was putting in writing the tradition he was being instructed in - is totally explicit: "God, in Him [Jesus Christ], chose us before the creation of the world (...), through his blood" (Eph 1:3-4,7) (we have shortened the quote, probably diminishing its impact). This is how the Father in Heaven has blessed us: through the Blood of his Son!

When Jesus is "taken down" and "laid" in the lap of his (our) Mother, he no longer has any Blood: he has shed ALL of it for our eternal happiness (Read more: "When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit").

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1st) "When they came to the place called 'Skull,' there they crucified him" (Lk 23:33). Once again, we are surprised by the brevity of the description, almost as if it were something normal or natural for him: simply, "they crucified him". Just like in his birth: few words, with naturalness!

Only a Great Love (Infinite!) can explain such serene suffering, lived with such naturalness. In summary: it is not the violence of a cross (with nails!), nor the insults, that redeem us...; what "elevates" us is the Love that Jesus shows in his mercy, patience, obedience, generosity, understanding... (all this in a regime of almost unbearable pain).

After the original sin (and countless personal sins), what man needed was a "plus" of Love, an "unbreakable hope" of salvation (Read More: "So that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life").

2nd) "After they had crucified him, they divided his clothes by casting lots" (Mt 27:35). That detail was not just a "detail": all four Gospels narrate it. There is more to it than just Jesus' clothes. Physically speaking, Psalm 22:19 is fulfilled literally (the accuracy of prophecy is amazing). But there is much more, much more! It is a vital "stripping". Love means "stripping" (renunciation) of oneself to give oneself to others. It is not just the stripping of clothes (which was tremendously shameful for Jesus and his Mother); it is the stripping of Himself (hiding - from Gethsemane - his Divinity, in a "emptying within his power," as St. Hilary of Poitiers wrote in the fourth century).

All of this is perfectly described by St. Paul in Phil 2:6-8. Christ did not cling to his divine status (it is evident, because they provoked him from below to demonstrate that he was the Son of God by coming down from the cross... but he did not give in to the miserable blackmail), nor did he cling to his human beauty, because “taking the form of a slave… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:7-8) (death on a cross was the most horrible thing that could happen to someone). We could say that the Son of God experiences a double "stripping": the Incarnation and the Passion (there is more stripping in "becoming human" than in "being crucified"...: in a way, the journey from Heaven to Earth is longer than the Way of the Cross) (Read More: "Noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table").

At this point, we return again to "naturalness" (with which Christ lives all the "stripping" of his Passion). For the Divine Persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), it is natural to exist (to be) in an eternal and permanent renunciation of Love (stripping, abasement, emptying, annihilation... of love). In the life of Jesus - more visibly in his Passion - that Trinitarian current of "loving stripping" fully envelops us. The Father also lives that "loving stripping", for He did not cling to his Son but delivered him to us... Also, the Holy Spirit (who is the "gift" of both; "Lord and Giver of Life")... God is like that! May He grant us even a minimal understanding of this!

3rd) "Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews'" (Jn 19:19). With this title, Pilate - who continued to play with his frivolity - mocked the Jews, who obviously complained. The response was: "What I have written, I have written" (John 19:22). In any case, Pilate's version was not accurate, nor was the one the Jews pretended to be true. The Christian "version" is: "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn 18:36).

A God-King who, born in a stable, lives in diapers and, most strikingly, dies "in swaddling clothes" (that is, with nothing). After what has been said about "loving detachment", it only remains to reaffirm that God, before being "absolute power", is above all "absolute love": "His sovereignty is not manifested by clinging to what is His own, but by giving it away" (H.U. von Balthasar) (Read more: "Blessed is he who comes as king in the name of the Lord").

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