Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil, for you are at my side.

I am struck by the fearlessness of Jesus as Saint John describes him. In the Gospel according to Saint Mark, when Jesus arrives in the garden of Gethsemane he falls to the ground. It seems his knees buckled in sheer terror and he collapsed. His fear is recognizably human and we who love the man sympathize with him.

But Saint John has another point to make:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

We should understand Jesus’ absolute freedom and his intense dedication as he advances toward Jerusalem and Calvary. In today’s gospel he speaks freely and directly of his unique relationship with God his Father:

my judgment is valid, because I am not alone,
but it is I and the Father who sent me.

No other human being can make such a claim. He is not, as some critics have said, a “son of God” as you are a daughter or son of God. Rather, he is the only begotten Son of God, coequal to God the Father, of the same substance though not the same person. He is:

the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.

With that assurance, authority and freedom Jesus can taunt his opponents:

“You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

And he can walk away from them because his hour had not yet come. When it would come he would freely walk into their grasping, cruel hands, through their mock trials and finally, carrying his own cross, to Calvary.

It is silly to ask, “What would I do under such circumstances?” This is not about me or you. This is a drama that you and I must watch as awed spectators and devout believers. This is a drama about the Son of God, the “second person of the Trinity” who loves God the Father with the absolute purity of the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity. On Mount Calvary we should watch in the same mute silence that overcame Peter, James and John on Mount Hermon. 

From our earthly vantage point we cannot see the God whom Jesus adores, nor can we feel the urgent drive of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, though we might have moments when we sense it. From our earthly vantage point we can only see Jesus mounting the cross and giving himself with abandon to death. But we believe that his God hears his prayer. His death may appear as utter foolishness – even as an ugly sacrilege – but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, (it is) Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.