Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Agnes Church, Manhattan
Passion Sunday
March 21, 2021
Heb 9:11-15, Jn 8:46-59
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
This is the text that guided today’s homily:
Today the Church celebrates with Passion Sunday the beginning of the brief liturgical season called in the extraordinary form Passiontide, during which the Church turns all of her attention more explicitly toward the betrayal of the Lord, toward his sufferings and death. It’s meant to help us to prepare well to enter deeply into the mystery of, and receive more fruitfully than ever before, what the Lord accomplished for us during his passion, death and resurrection. Regardless of how the Season of Lent has gone until now — whether it’s been what it should have been, a season of conversion through more intense prayer, fasting, and sacrifice; or whether it’s been a series of missed opportunities — now is the time the Church wants to help us to focus, to get serious, to change our priorities, to make sure we’re not just bystanders of the sacred mysteries we’re preparing to mark, but active participants, zealous recipients, and passionate sharers of Christ’s saving work.
The readings today help to set our coordinates. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we see laid out the consequences of what Jesus accomplished through his Passion: he obtained our “eternal redemption” by his blood, so that “our consciences [might be cleansed] from dead works to worship the living God” and so that we might “receive the promised inheritance.” Jesus died so that we might be able to worship the living God aright and experience the full riches of our inheritance and sons and daughters of God.
The letter contrasts what Jesus did with what happened on the Jewish Day of Atonement in his day and prior. On Yom Kippur, there were three ritual sacrifices: a bullock that, following the Book of Leviticus (16:15,21-22), the priest offered for his sins; a goat that he offered for the sins of the people; and, following what God dictated in the Book of Numbers (Numbers 19), a red heifer whose blood would be sprinkled in front of the tabernacle area and whose ashes would be placed in a clean place outside the camp. The Jews believed that those sacrifices, whether in the temple or in the desert, were necessary and sufficient for taking away their sins.
Within this context, the Letter to the Hebrews says, “If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ!” It adds, comparing Jesus to the Jewish High Priest, that “when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, … he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood.” The tabernacle Christ entered was ultimately the tabernacle of the holy of holies of heaven, which was anticipated in his own body, in which God — in the accurate translation of “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us” from St. John’s prologue that we say at the end of every Mass and that we will ponder especially this Thursday on the Solemnity of the Annunciation — “tabernacled” himself among us.
And so the Letter to the Hebrews helps us to appreciate what Jesus accomplished as our high priest: he made forgiveness of sins possible for us by himself becoming not only our high priest but making himself the victim, the sacrifice, by whose blood that atonement was achieved. The Letter also makes clear what our response has to be: Jesus by his Passion has cleansed our consciences from sin, from dead works, precisely so that we might use our freedom to “worship the living God.” And so, as we approach Holy Week and examine our life in the light of how precious that life must be must be that Jesus would die to save it, we need to examine whether worship of the living God is really the center of our life or just a part of it.
We witness in the Gospel some of what Jesus needed to endure in order to redeem us. We hear Jesus’ contentious dialogue with many of the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, and others in the Temple area immediately after Jesus saved the life of the woman caught in adultery whose life they were using as a prop to try to entrap Jesus. The conversation only grew in intensity after that showdown, in which those who had made themselves Jesus’ adversaries were challenging his credentials and accusing him of the nastiest things while Jesus was responding by calling out their hypocrisy, that they were claiming to be faithfully worshipping God while they really didn’t know who he was, and to be good sons of Abraham while, instead of doing deeds of faith like Abraham, they were plotting to kill Jesus. They were children not of Abraham, Jesus insisted, but of the devil, because they were willingly, though unwittingly, carrying out the devil’s schemes. As obedient sons of the father of lies, they were stubbornly opposing the truth Jesus was witnessing and incarnating. That sets up today’s passage.
Jesus asks, “Can any of you charge me with sin?” We can hear the pause as Jesus looked around to see if anyone had ever seen him sin. The people at whom he was peering almost certainly included many of those who had had to drop stones minutes earlier when Jesus said, in the context of their wanting to kill the woman caught in adultery, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Nobody, obviously, could say that Jesus had sinned. So Jesus continued, “If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?” Again, we can imagine a long pause so that Jesus could allow his words to sink. When no one proffered an answer to told them the reason: “Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God,” underlining, “for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God.” His opponents answered by accusing him of being a devil — that’s what the word Samaritan means in context, because in Aramaic the Jews would refer to the devils as “Shomeroi,” the same word for Samaritan — and being possessed. Jesus replied that he was not possessed, but in everything was honoring the Father who seeks his Son’s glory and that God himself — not them, not Pontius Pilate, not Herod — will judge.
If that were not enough, Jesus stepped on the gas petal, bringing them and us squarely to face whether we will receive what he sought to accomplish during his passion. Swearing an oath Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” His auditors found that claim ridiculous, since all of the prophets had died, Moses had died, and Abraham had likewise breathed his last on earth. Jesus added that the Father would glorify him — through his resurrection and ours — and that Abraham had rejoiced to see his day: rejoiced because Jesus was among the sons prophesied when he counted the stars, he was the one through whom Abraham would be blessed, he was the one would be the fulfillment of the sacrifice of Isaac, carrying his own wood as the Lamb God would provide. The adversaries argued that Jesus was too young for to have known Abraham, who had lived 1800 years before, but then Jesus laid all his cards on the table with a statement pointing clearly to his divinity: “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” He used the same expression God had used with Moses from the burning bush. The adversaries picked up stones to try to kill him for blasphemy, but he left the temple area to await the events that we will ponder next Sunday and throughout Holy Week in the reading of the Passion.
Why does the Church have us ponder this passage on Passion Sunday? Not only because it reveals the opposition to Jesus that would lead to his death, but also it is meant to expose within us any resistance to living by faith in Jesus. Do we oppose him in any way? Do we recognize that Jesus is telling the truth and therefore believe in him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength? Do we listen to the words he says and obey them just like Jesus who knows the Father and keeps his word? Do we honor Jesus or dishonor him by our thoughts, our words and our conduct? Do we rejoice to see Jesus’ day? Do we believe that for those who keep his word death is nothing other than a change of address, to a place far more beautiful than any earthly temple?
As we draw closer to the reliving of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, the Church wants us pondering these thoughts and making choices. Choices about how we’re going to spend these next two weeks. Choices about whether we’re going to put God first and come to each of the events of the Sacred Triduum, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, especially this year, when because of the lockdowns, we were prevented from them last year. Choices about whether we’re going to receive the atoning fruits of his Passion in Confession. Choices about whether we’re going to persevere in and up our prayer, fasting, almsgiving, or whether we’re going to allow our commitments to wane. Choices about whether we’ll be satisfied with being part-time in our spiritual life or making our whole life an act of divine worship.
In the Mass, we enter into the saving mysteries of the Lord’s passion. We go up to Golgotha with Jesus as he enters the sanctuary. We are not sprinkled with his blood, but receive within his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. We not only listen to the words of the great “I AM” who existed before Abraham, but allow that Word-made-flesh to take on our flesh, as the down payment of our receiving, through Jesus’ love and sacrifice, “eternal redemption.” As we will pray in the Communion Antiphon, Jesus tells us anew today: “This is my body, which shall be given up for you: this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood,” … and … “Do this as often as you receive it, in remembrance of me.” Jesus, the eternal high priest, in the fulfillment of the ancient atonement rites, goes through his passion, death and resurrection precisely to make us his tabernacle and dwell within us. Whoever belongs to God, he tells us, hears the words of God. May we put into practice what we’ve heard so that our consciences may be cleansed from dead works, we might worship the living God, and receive with joy, here today, in Jesus, a down payment of an eternal inheritance.
The readings of today’s Mass were:
A reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
The continuation of the Gospel according to St. John
Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God.” The Jews answered and said to him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed?” Jesus answered, “I am not possessed; I honor my Father, but you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the one who judges. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” [So] the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
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