Archive for the ‘Holy Pascha Week’ Category
Why was our Lord wearing white?
It is significant that Jesus is clothed in a white garment by Herod. It denotes His sinless passion; because the Lamb of God without stain and with glory accepted the sins of the world. (John 1:29) Herod and Pilate, who became friends instead of enemies through Jesus Christ, symbolize the peoples of Israel and the Gentiles, since the future harmony of both follows from the Lord's passion (Eph 2:13) First, the people of the nations capture the Word of God and bring it to the people of the Jew, through the devotion of their faith. They clothe with glory the body of Christ, who they had previously despised.
Note: Now our Lord is wearing the white garments, but in the next hour, they shall be crimson, reddened by our sins and stained by our iniquities.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:42:51.
The punishment of the wicked (Matt 25:30)
In this parable, the nobleman going into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return, is none other than Christ going into another country to receive the kingdoms of this world and the things in it; those who receive the ten talents are those who have been entrusted with the dispensation of the Word which has been committed unto them; His citizens who did not wish Him to reign over them when He was a citizen in the world in respect of His incarnation, are perhaps Israel who disbelieved Him, and perhaps also the Gentiles who disbelieved Him.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:55:37.
Who is Zachariah son of Berachiah?
St. Jerome thinks that in his time there were three options as to who this Zechariah was:
- The prophet Zachariah was one of the minor prophets, even though his father's name is in the accordance with the Lord's words. But the Book did not mention anything about the shedding of his blood between the temple and the altar, particulary because the temple at his time was merely in ruins.
- Some others think he is Zachariah, John the Baptist's father, who has been killed because of his prophecy about the Savior's coming. But St. Jerome does not accept this suggestion.
- He is Zachariah killed by Joach, King of Judea, as mentioned in 2 Chr. 24:21. But his father's name is mentioned in the Holy Book as Jehoioda. St. Jerome believes that this man had two names: Berachia, meaning "blessing" or "blessed from the Lord," and Jehoiada meaning "holiness."
Originally posted 2006-04-18 19:56:36.
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Originally posted 2006-04-13 17:39:41.
Why didn't He defend Himself? Why was He silent?
The Lord became the defender of truth, and came in silence before Pilate, on behalf of truth which had been oppressed (John 18:37-38). Others gain victory through making defenses, but our Lord gained victory through His silence, because the recompense of His death through divine silence was the victory of true teaching. He spoke inorder to teach, but kept silent in the tribunal. He was not silent over that which was exalting us, but He did not stuggle against those who were provoking Him. The worlds of His accusers, like a crown on His head, were a source of redemption. He kept silent so that His silence would make them shout even louder, and so that His crown would be made more beautiful through all his clamor.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:38:40.
"My soul is very sorrowful"
The Lord, to test the fidelity of the human nature He had taken on, truly felt sorrowful. However, lest the suffering in His soul be overwhelming, He began to feel sorrowful over the events taking place just before His suffering. For it is one thing to feel sorrowful and another thing to begin to feel sorrowful. But He felt sorrowful, not because He feared the suffering that lay ahead and because He had scolded Peter for his timidity but because of the most unfortunate Judas, the falling away of all the apostles, the rejection by the Jewish people, and the overturning of woeful Jerusalem. Jonah, too, became sad when the plant of ivy had withered, unwilling to have this booth disappear.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:08:57.
"One of you will betray me"
Did Judas also fall from the apostolic order in which he too, being once in a condition similar to the other disciples, was exalted?
This is how I understand the statement, "Behold Adam has become of us," (Gen. 3:22), since it is said there, neither "as we," nor "as I," but because of the one who had fallen from blessedness,"as one of us." [And the phrase],"as on" seems to me to agree also with the statement, "But you indeed die as men, and fall like one of the princes." (Ps. 81:7)
For of the many who are princes, one has fallen, with whom sinners fall in close imitation of his fall. For just as that one who partook of deity has fallen, so too have those to whom the Word says, "I have said, you are gods and all sons of the Most High," (Ps. 81:6) fallen from blessedness and, although they were not originally men, they die as men, and fall as one of the princes.
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Originally posted 2006-04-19 23:06:01.
"Sit here while I pray"
His disciples were clinging to Him inseparably. So He said to His disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." (Matt 26:36) For it was usually with Him to pray apart from them. He did this to teach us how to pray, how to use silence and solitude to pray for great matters. And taking with Him the three, He said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with Me." (Matt 26:38) Why does He not take all of them with Him? that they might not be more sorrowful. He took only thode who had been spectators of His glory.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:01:02.
The three denials
What difference does it make that the maid is the first to give Peter away? The men could have recognized him instead. Perhaps this happened so that we may see that the female gender also sinned by killing the Lord, so that His passion should also redeem womankind. A woman therefore was the first to receive the mystery of the Resurrection and to obey the commands (John 20:11-18), so that she abolished the old error of her sin.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:21:11.
Wars and Rumors of Wars (Matt 24:6)
He is speaking of wars in Jerusalem…for there are many wars and calamities in the world at large, which have always been and will always be. For before this, were wars, and tumults, and fights. But, He speaks of the Jewish wars coming upon them at no great distance, for henceforth the Roman arms were a matter of anxiety. Since then these things also were sufficient to confound them, He fortells them all.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:48:19.
Why did He keep the Passover?
To indicate in every way and until the last day that He was not opposed to the law. And for what possible reason does He send them to an unknown person? To also show by this that He might have avoided suffering. For He had the power to change the minds of those who crucified Him. So it is once again clear: He is willing to suffer.
Originally posted 2006-04-19 22:14:04.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Actually, we are the Jerusalem that Jesus wept over. After we came to know the mysteries of Truth, the words of the Gospel, and the teachings of the Church; and after we have seen the mysteries of the Lord, we still commit sins! The Lord wept over Jerusalem due to its sin, for the enemies besiege it, and ruin its buildings in it, and they leave no stone one on top of the other….
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:38:39.
What is the difference between being "snatched out of the Father's hand" and out of Christ's hand? (John 10:29-38)
Do the Father and the Son have one hand, or is the Son Himself, shall we say, the hand of His Father?…the Father's hand is the Son Himself, which is not to be so understood as if God had the himan form, and as it were, bodily members: but that all things were made by Him.
For men also are in the habit of calling other men their hands, by whom they get done what they wish. And sometimes also the very work done by a man's handis called his hand; as one is said to recognize his hand when he recognizes what he has written. Since, then, there are many ways of speaking of the hand of a man, who literally has a hand among the members of his body; how much rather must there be more than one way of understanding it, when we read of the hand of God, who has no bodily form? And in this way it is better here, by the hand of the Father and the Son, to understand the power of the Father and the Son; lest, in taking here the hand of the Father as spoken of the Son, some carnal thought also about the Son Himself should set us looking for the Son as somehow to be similarly regarded as the hand of Christ. Therefore, "no one plucks them out of my Father's hand;" that is, no one plucks them from Me…
Originally posted 2006-04-19 21:56:31.
The experience of the Eucharist
When we eat the holy body of Christ, our Savior of us all, and drink of His precious blood, we thus obtain the life in us, for we become as if we are one with Himl we dwell in Him, and He too reigns in us. Do not doubt, for this is true, since He is the One who says it clearly, This is My flesh, this is My blood.” (John 6) Rather, accept the word of the Savior in fath, for He is the Truth, who can never lie.
Originally posted 2006-04-19 22:56:35.
What is the wedding garment? (Matt 22:1-14)
Put off, I beg you, fornication and uncleanness, and put on the brightest robe of chastity. This charge I give you, before Jesus the Bridegroom of souls, come in and see their fashions. You have been allowed a long notice; you have forty days for repentance. You have had a full opportunity to both put off and wash; and to put on and enter. But if you persist in an evil purpose, the speaker is blameless. But you must not look for the grace; for the water will receive, but the Spirit will not accept you. If any one is conscious of His wound, let him take the salve; if any has fallen, let him arise. Let there be no Simon among you, no hypocrisy, no idle curiosity about the matter.
Originally posted 2006-04-18 19:44:12.
