Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 14:1-15:47
The litany is terrible: trickery, betrayal, arrest, humiliation, rejection, desertion, denial, misunderstanding, false judgment, torture, taunting, mockery, crucifixion and death.
To make it infinitely worse he was entirely innocent.
We have this quick succession of human atrocities, one after the other – but we also have a context which is supernatural.
Not only are these events set against the religious backdrop of the time, they are divinised by the personal prayer of Jesus who prayed his way from one act of cruelty to the next.
Despite the horrendous pain and his agonised suffering Jesus never lost touch with his Father.
Indeed, every step he took was a step towards his Father and in accordance with the will of his Father.
What a lesson for us, who are not innocent!
Jesus prayed his way through his Passion and transformed all its horrors into a prayer offered to his Father on our behalf.
And because he did this we can do the same with the difficulties of our life suffered in union with him. Do you understand this? Can you grasp this? If not, you must meditate on it; spend time.
'Take it; this is my body', Jesus had said at the Last Supper a few hours earlier -and we did.
May we learn to imitate him.
