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A team of 200 priests comment on daily Gospel
Liturgical day: Tuesday 5th of Lent
Gospel text (Jn 8,21-30): Jesus said to the Pharisees, «I am going away, and though you look for me (…). Where I am going you cannot come». The Jews wondered, «Why does he say that we can't come where he is going? Will he kill him¬self?» (…).
Jesus was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, «When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of my¬self, but I say just what the Father taught me (…)». As Jesus spoke like this, many believed in him.
The “leave” of Jesus (about martyrdom)
EDITORIAL TEAM
evangeli.net
(based on texts by Benedict XVI)
(Città del Vaticano, Vatican)
Today, Jesus announces his “departure”, in a mysterious allusion to his “martyrdom”. According to John, Jesus spoke twice of his “leave” where the Jews could not go (cf. 7.34ss; 8.21s). His listeners tried to guess the meaning of this. In a case they said: “Will he go to the Greek cities where our people live…?” (7.35). In the other: “ Is he going to commit suicide?” (8.22). For both assumptions something real is assumed, but fail dramatically in the fundamental truth.
His “leave” is a leave towards death, not like suicide, but transforming his violent death in giving away his own life (cf 10.18). This is how Jesus, though he did not go to Greece, reached the Greeks and the Father to the pagan world through the cross and resurrection.
—“Why is it that I cannot leave with you now? I would give my life…”. “Will you come with me later…” Simon Peter had to learn that martyrdom is not just a heroic act, but a free gift of God.