So from
that day on they planned to kill Him. So Jesus no longer walked about in public
among the Jews, but He left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim,
and there He remained with His disciples. [vs. 53,54]
Each of
the Gospel accounts, leading to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the
crossing of the threshold into the week of His Passion, detail, as always, acts
and teachings of Jesus: St. Matthew 21ff; St, Mark 11ff; St. Luke 19ff.,
however only St. John tells us of the stay in Ephraim, yet without giving any
details such as where did Jesus and His disciples stay, what did they do there,
how long was the stay?
Perhaps,
since St. John does indicate the region was ‘near the desert’, Jesus took time
to go into the desert by Himself to pray. Certainly, given the events of the
triumphal entry into Jerusalem and all that followed, including the teachings
of Jesus to His Ascension, He may well have contemplated in His Heart the
entire history of creation, of humanity, of the Chosen People since Abraham: When
Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called My son. The more I called
them, the farther they went from Me, sacrificing to the Baals and burning
incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in My
arms; but they did not know that I cared for them. I drew them with human
cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like those who raise an infant to
their cheeks; I bent down to feed them. [Hosea 11:1-4]
Certainly
if any proof is needed that each of us is the beloved child, [in the passage
quoted above Israel and Ephraim are prototypes of every human being] albeit as
recalcitrant as the Chosen People, therefore in need of redemption and healing,
the Agony in the Garden and the entire Passion, including the piercing of His
Heart, reveals the Trinitarian reality of our creation in love by Love: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Indeed, the entire history of salvation, of collective and
individual human history shows each of us is the beloved Israel, the Ephraim
drawn by bands of love, and yes each of us time and again burns the incense of
our beings to idols. We can only be redeemed by, find absolution in Confession,
be nourished by the Bread of Angels Himself, if Jesus contemplates the reality
of the history of the human family, each of our histories, and loves us anew by
laying down His life for us. We know this Jesus does, and the cost, by His
experience in the Garden as He takes us on in all our weaknesses, sins, need of
redemption.
The
‘town of Ephraim’ where Jesus went before returning to Jerusalem is both place
and person, both every place of all time since the beginning to the end of
history, and likewise is every person from Adam and Eve to the last person who
shall be given breath of life by the same God who is Love.
St.
John has shown us time and time again that Jesus does not allow any person or
circumstance to control His ‘hour’, so His moving away from the crowds, and not
just those seeking to kill Him, is consistent with His preparing for His Hour.
St.
John leads us into the Holy Gospel with the words: In the beginning…..[1:1]
and when it comes to Jesus’ hour Archbishop Fulton Sheen uses similar language,
connecting the ‘hour’ with time and taking the ‘hour’ beyond time, chronos to
kyros: The Cross was at the end of His life from the point of view of time;
but it was at the beginning of His life from the point of view of His intent to
offer Himself as ransom for man. [1]
When
St. John next points out that: Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and
many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify
themselves. [v.55], he is pointing to the tremendous events and teachings
leading us into Christ’s Passover as the True Lamb of God.
St. John’s Gospel speaks of three Passover
feasts celebrated by Jesus in the course of His public ministry: the first,
which is linked to the cleansing of the Temple [2:13-25], The Passover of the
multiplication of the loaves [6:4], and finally the Passover of His death and
Resurrection [for example,12:1, 13:1], which became “his” great Passover, the
basis for the Christian celebration of Easter, the Christian Passover. [2]
Pope
Benedict is pointing to a catechesis of salvation history: the cleansing of the
Temple exemplifies how the cleansing of metanoia converts the temple of our
hearts, restoring them to sacred space for the Holy Trinity; the multiplication
of the loaves exemplifies the inexhaustible gift of the Holy Eucharist, as we
pray in the Divine Liturgy: Broken and distributed is the Lamb of God;
broken but not divided; always eaten, yet never consumed, but sanctifying those
who partake.
Then
they looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple, “What
do you think? That He will not come to the feast?” [v.56]
In
reality it is not so much that Jesus will ‘come to the feast’, He makes Himself
the feast, the nuptial banquet.
Every
time we participate in Holy Mass and Holy Communion we participate in Christs’
“great Passover” and it behooves us, like the Chosen People before Passover, to
purify ourselves.
How? By
taking to heart the Penitential Rite, viscerally, and if we have committed
mortal sin then availing ourselves of Sacramental Confession before going to
Holy Communion. The immediate purifications.
There
are also the proximate purifications of leading lives that are peaceful, holy,
without sin through living the Gospel with our lives without compromise.
Now
both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew
where He was, he should inform them, so that they might arrest Him. [V.57]
There
is a powerful line in the First Reading of today’s Holy Mass, accomplished when
we are baptized as the priest and our family members in turn sign us: Then
the glory of the God of Israel rose off the cherubs and went up to the
threshold of the temple. He called to the man dressed in linen with the
scribe’s case at his waist, and the LORD said to him: Go through all the city,
through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of those who
grieve and lament over all the abominations practiced within it. To the others
He said in my hearing: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not let
your eyes spare; do not take pity. Old and young, male and female, women and
children—wipe them out! But do not touch anyone marked with the cross. [Ez. 9:
3-6]
Passover
celebrates the marking of the lintels with blood that those therein be spared.
After His great Passover and the pouring out of His Blood for us we are marked
with the Sign of the Great Passover, His Cross!
[1] THE
LIFE OF CHRIST, Fulton J. Sheen; p.215; Image Books, 1990
[2]
JESUS of Nazareth; HOLY WEEK: from the entrance into Jerusalem to the
Resurrection; Joseph Ratzinger-Pope Benedict XVI; p.1; Ignatius Press 2011
© 2020
Fr. Arthur Joseph
