Our site uses cookies to improve the user experience and we recommend accepting its use to take full advantage of the navigation

Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Download
Gospel text (Mk 10,32-45): (...) Once more Jesus took the Twelve aside to tell them what was to happen to him, «You see we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be given over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the foreigners who will make fun of him, spit on him, scourge him and finally kill him; but three days later He will rise».

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, «Master, we want you to grant us what we are going to ask of you». And He said, «What do you want me to do for you?». They answered, «Grant us to sit one at your right and one at your left when you come in your glory». But Jesus said to them, «You don't know what you are asking (…). Whoever would be first among you shall make himself slave of all. Think of the Son of Man who has not come to be served but to serve and to give his life to redeem many».

The Atonement of Christ for the sins of mankind

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, before the childish claims of notoriety of the Apostles, Jesus opposed its divine responsibility: He wanted to "atone" (to pay) for our sins. In Jesus’ Passion, all the filth of the world touches the infinitely Pure one, the soul of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around.

Through this contact, the filth of the world is truly wiped out, transformed in the pain of infinite love. But is it not a "cruel God" who demands infinite Atonement? The reality of evil that disfigures the world and at the same time distorts the image of God is an existing reality through our sin. It cannot simply be ignored, it must be eliminated. It is not the case of a cruel God demanding the infinite; it is exactly the opposite: God himself becomes the focus of reconciliation, and in the person of his Son takes the suffering upon himself.

—God Himself grants His infinite purity to the world.