Passion Sunday – Christ Rejected
On Passion Sunday, Christ hides his face from those who reject him.
On Passion Sunday, Christ hides his face from those who reject him.
Editor’s Notes
What is called the “Fifth Sunday of Lent” in the Novus Ordo calendar is known as “Passion Sunday” in the traditional Roman Calendar – and marks the beginning of a new and distinct period in the traditional Roman Calendar.
The Gospel for Passion Sunday recounts one of several debates which Our Lord conducted in the Temple before his final Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday. It occurs in the part of Christ’s ministry that followed the confession of St Peter – namely, when Our Lord began preaching the Cross. It appears in St John’s Gospel, immediately after the incident of the woman taken in adultery, and before the healing of the man born blind. Both of those episodes – especially that of the blind man – provide instructive analogies of the state of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Christ affirms his divine origin, exposes the priests’ and pharisees’ blindness and bondage to sin, and contrasts divine sonship with servitude. This provokes the Jews to stone him, and yet represents a moment of unveiled divinity and his rejection by the authorities.
By falling in Passiontide, the liturgy points to the connection between this declaration and the solemn declaration before the Sanhedrin in his trial.
The parts of Fr Coleridge’s treatment are included below – along with The WM Review’s commentary on the liturgical propers of Passiontide, our “Little Lenten Effort”, and our Top Five Lent Articles.
Disputes in the Temple
Part I: How did the Sanhedrin know Christ would affirm his divinity under oath?
A series of debates in the Temple led to the pretext used for putting Our Lord to death.
Part II: Why did Christ call himself ‘The Light of the World’?
The priests and the Pharisees were blind to the light of Christ’s divine mission.
Part III: What prevented the Pharisees from hearing Christ’s words properly?
When he told them that they would die in their sins, they heard something completely different.
What prevented the Pharisees from hearing Christ’s words properly?
Part IV: Why did Christ say ‘the truth will set you free’?
Faith in Christ, who is ‘lifted up’ on the Cross, is the only path to freedom.
Part V: Why does Christ say ‘You are of your father the devil’?
Faith in Christ, who is ‘lifted up’ on the Cross, is the only path to freedom.
Part VI: How is Satan ‘a murderer’ and ‘the father of lies’?
Anyone who lies and denies the known truth needs to contemplate these words.
Part VII: What did Christ mean by, ‘Before Abraham was made, I AM’?
Some way that Our Lord never claimed to be divine in the Gospels. This passage shows that this is false.
Bonus Articles
Passion Sunday: The Composure of Christ
The Roman liturgy presents a Christ who suffers with majesty, silence, and strength.
Christ’s silence in his Passion—and in his Church
The Church stands before the world, as Christ stood before Pilate to be judged—and she stands in silence.
Why Palm Sunday’s joy ends at the church door
The triumph of the procession on Palm Sunday does not spill over into the Mass. But why?
The WM Review’s Little Lenten Effort
See here for a very simple programme based on the “Little Way” of St Thérèse of Lisieux:
The WM Review’s Top Five Lent Articles
Father Coleridge Reader is a project of The WM Review. Here are our favourite five sets of WM Review articles for the Lenten period.
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