A good Sunday for everyone.

The evangelists dedicate a similar space to the account of the passion and death of Jesus. And the facts they tell are fundamentally the same, so that you can follow well what has happened. Nevertheless, the evangelists introduce in their narrative some episodes, some details that are important and that are their own. The reason is that with that they want to give a catechesis that interests especially their community.

This year we read the text of Matthew and in this explanation, we will focus especially in some elements that the evangelist wants to emphasize since they were useful for the catechesis of his community and will serve also to us, to better understand Jesus’ passion for love for all of us. The first detail of this characteristic text we find it in the narrative of the Last Supper of Jesus with his twelve disciples.

Let us listen to this narration.

“When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, He said, Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I? He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I?” (Mt 26:20-25).

In the text, we have just heard Jesus has two details that surprise us. The first is that all the disciples ask Jesus: Am I, Lord, who gives you over to your enemies? Am I the one who wants you to be removed from this society… because you disturbed the religious power, am I? It is very strange, because everyone knows very well whether he is on Jesus’ part or not. So, why do they ask? Why does this doubt arise? They know that they are disciples, but, clearly, they begin to doubt … will I be the one against the Master?

As chronicled this detail is strange, but as catechesis this question that the disciples ask, is very concrete and current as we will see shortly. The second detail is that Judas also asks the same question as the others. And this is the detail found only in the evangelist Matthew. And this too is very strange taken as chronicle, because Jesus, responding to Judas, says: “You said it” – you are the one who wants to give me.

If it were a chronicle, what would we expect? That the other eleven rush against Judas and ask him to account for his behavior. Instead, dinner continues quietly. So, what’s the message that the evangelist wants to give with this question that all make? Am I a true disciple or am I against the Teacher? And Judas also asked the same question. And Jesus answers him: You are the one who, as my disciple, gives me up. Let’s see what the message means for our communities today. The Twelve are together with Jesus in the Upper Room. They are all putting their hands on the plate together with the Teacher.

The table is the place of meeting with brothers, with friends … with those who love each other, not with those who betray themselves. We contemplate these hands that are all on the table together with those of Jesus and among these hands are those who want to give up the Master. Judas did not connect well with the rest. In the three years he has been with Jesus he did not empathize with the proposal of a new world presented by Jesus. He was deeply rooted in his traditional conception of God over religion, on the value of the ancient world and did not follow the Teacher well.

It is a question that we must continually ask ourselves, especially this week, since we are confronting the passion of love of Jesus. Perhaps we are convinced that by being baptized and frequenting the community, without missing out on liturgical celebrations … we are convinced to be apostles, like Judas, who was always with Jesus and if he asks the question together with the others, he might still be convinced that he is right, but did not want to show that he was against the Teacher.

This can happen to us today: to be convinced that we are Christians, coherent, authentic … but let us ask ourselves this question. The invitation that the evangelist Matthew makes is that each one ask himself this question: Am I a true disciple? Do I connect with Christ, with his Gospel?

After dinner, Jesus goes to Gethsemane and Judas arrives there, leading a mob with swords and staffs. A mob sent by the high priests. At a certain moment, the confrontations begin and one of the disciples reaches out to the sword. This is how Matthew, characteristically, shows Jesus’ reaction – let us listen to it: “One of those who were with Jesus drew his sword and cut off one ear of the servant of the high priest. Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Mt 26:51-52).

Here we find a message where Matthew insists more than the other evangelists: The unconditional repudiation of violence. Jesus forbids the use of weapons to obtain justice, to build a new world. Only Matthew brings the phrase of Jesus to Peter: Sheathe the sword. All who resort to the sword will die by the sword. The new world is not built with violence. This was the criterion by which ancient kingdoms were governed when it was the force that established who dominated over others.

In the new world, violence is excluded. A new force enters – that of love. The first Christians understood very well the message of the Teacher and we know that in order to refute the use of weapons, sword, military service, we have had martyrs who have donated their lives because they wanted to be faithful to what the Teacher had said. This is what Tertullian said about the non-violence of Christians. He referred to the phrase of Jesus: “Taking the sword from the hand of Peter, Jesus has removed the sword from the hands of all the soldiers.” And he went on to say, “The son of peace goes to battle, and he is not allowed to fight as he will inflict on others, chains, imprisonment, torture, torture that cannot be vindicated of the injustices made to him … or the soldier will fight with the sword in hand, will lean on the spear when his Teacher has been pierced by the spear.”

Some years later the biblical writer Origen, of the third century, said: “We Christians no longer hold the sword, we no longer learn the art of war, because by Jesus we were made children of peace.” The first Christians took these words of Jesus very seriously. Those who used weapons had to put them down, otherwise they were not accepted to baptism, because the disciple knows only one force, that of love. And this is the force that builds the new world.

Let us now listen to a scene that has two facts that only the evangelist Matthew brings us. The dream of the woman of Pilate and then the famous gesture of Pilate to wash his hands.

“While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, or I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” All the people answered, All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” (Mt 27:19-20,24-25).

The dramatic phrase uttered by the people of Israel: May his blood fall on us and our children, has received throughout the centuries a false, foolish interpretation. This phrase has given rise to absurd accusations of hatred, of violence against the people of Israel as if they were responsible for the death of Jesus. The meaning that the evangelist gave to these words was totally different.

Let us try to understand them. The evangelist writes in the second half of the first century and has in mind what has happened to his people. Israel had been hit by many catastrophes, famines, pestilences and corruption by the last Procurator sent by Rome. Let us remember Albino, Gesio Floro, especially Gesio Floro who boasted of being corrupt. At least, says Josephus Flavius said that Albino and his predecessors tried to conceal their corruption, but not Gesio Floro, who gloried in it. Every form of robbery, he knew no piety, no gain satisfied him. It is in this situation that arises the revolt of the Zealots who then ended in a bath of blood.

The evangelist Matthew asks: How did this happen? Why do these evils, that culminated in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, why have these struck the people of Israel? And it gives a theological answer. He says: these evils have hit my people because they have rejected the new world proposal made by Jesus. Remember that Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem because they were not willing to change their hearts in Israel. And, not accepting the new world proposal, presented by the Teacher … these are the consequences.

The one who moves away from Christ – this is the message that is repeated today … he who believes on the messiahs of this world which aim at glory, power, wealth and, therefore, are willing to do anything, even to resort to deception, to violence … those who trust in these messiahs end up refuting the proposal of Christ and then consequences come. Here the Israelites from the time of Jesus and the apostles are challenged. The blood falls on them and their children if they do not accept the new world proposal made by Jesus, will pay the consequences and even the generations that follow.

Let us now listen to the account of extraordinary events that happened at the death of Jesus and that only Matthew narrates.

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.” (Mt 27:51-53).

We have heard a long list of dramatic events which occurred on Calvary at the death of Jesus. They are very strange as a chronicle but, let’s face it, it is not a reportage of journalism with miraculous deeds. They are images with which the evangelist Matthew wants to make us understand what has really happened on Calvary.

When we speak of a real fact, it is not only the things we see with the eyes, and is verifiable. This is a real material. But there is a ‘real’ that is not less real, it is even more real even if you do not see it. And it is precisely this ‘real’ that is not seen, that it was not possible to see, that the evangelist wants to make us understand with this image that he takes back from the Old Testament.

Many times we confuse the real with the sensible. If we look at the ‘look’ of Jesus to Peter. Peter has denied the Master… For anybody who observed that look (materially) has said very little. A look like so many others. We know that the real, true, not visible reality was much greater that a small detail that was verifiable outwardly.

The evangelist Matthew is in front of what has happened on Calvary. If any of us had been present, what would I have seen? One man, some of whom said he was a righteous man, died on the cross with two criminals. This is what everyone saw, but was that the real reality? What the eyes could not see was much greater, it was the event that changed the history of humanity, it was the event that marked the peak of God’s revelation. What does the evangelist do? He uses images that the people of Israel, his readers, understood very well, to communicate the reality that was not visible but was fundamental for us to understand, because of this event – of what happened at Calvary, at three in the afternoon of April 7, year 30 – has altered the world and altered our lives if we join to this proposal of ‘man’ that Jesus makes us.

Matthew wants to put before the eyes the invisible reality of the extraordinary event that marked the birth of the new world. Let’s look at these facts. The first: “the veil of the temple was torn” says the translation. The veil of the temple was torn. The subject of this passive and the other 6 (there are 7 ‘passives’), it is the image that the evangelist uses to make us understand – to make us see the invisible … the subject is God.

They are the famous “divine passive” that the evangelist uses to avoid naming the ineffable name of God. It is God who has torn the veil from the temple. You see it in the background. The veil that separated the ‘saint of saints’ where no one could enter. Only the high priest once a year to shed the blood of the oxen or of the lambs upon the foundation stone of the world. The stone, they said, that kept the abyss closed so that its waters may not arise to create a new flood to punish humankind. It was therefore the atonement that was made only once a year and that only the high priest could enter into the ‘holy of holies’ where, it was said, the presence of God dwelt.

That veil, at the time of Jesus’ death, was torn. Materially nothing has happened. The veil of the material temple remained as it was. But it is another veil that has been torn at that moment. What was it? It was the veil that separated people from God. That veil has been removed by God forever. And so, man, has access to the house of God, sees in the face of Jesus the face of God. And this face no longer has a veil. If there are veils these are the ones we placed… are our images of God: The God who loves the good and punishes those who disobey him; the God who loves only good people and punishes the wicked. These are all veils that have been torn, because on Calvary we now have access to God and there are no more veils.

This curtain has fallen forever. Jesus who dies on the cross, has placed himself in our hands: The Lord has manifested Himself as the God who is love and only love. This is the image of the veil of the temple that has been torn by God. Not the veil of the material temple. It is the image of which the evangelist Matthew serves to show us the invisible: What has really happened on Calvary.

Second image: “the earth trembled”. Not that the earth trembled, but it made us tremble. It is the image of the earthquake that was known in the Old Testament. Remember that when God came down to Sinai to speak with Moses, the mountain trembled, because where God enters there is always a tremor and there are things that fly around. Specifically, on Mount Sinai, the earthquake did not happen on the mountain, but in the mind and heart of Moses, because when God enters our mind, an earthquake happens in our heart. It is a beautiful biblical image that tells what happened that day on Calvary. He made the world tremble.

And those who read Matthew understood very well the message that the evangelist was giving. It was the collapse of the ancient world and the beginning of a whole new world. This earthquake will reappear on Easter morning – always told by the evangelist Matthew. It is an effective way to talk about God’s intervention. When God enters, nothing remains the same as before.

We can think about our life: What happens when we really let God, the gospel, his word come in. It is an experience that we all do in our lives. Our dreams fly away; all this is removed by the word of the Teacher. Then a new life is built, with completely new foundations, on values that are not those of the ancient world. This is the earthquake … not materially … there was no earthquake, nothing was recorded by historians, there were no signs that have been attested by archaeologists… Nothing of this. The earthquake did not happen on the material earth. The earthquake came into the world, because the world did not remain the same after the death of Jesus on Calvary.

The third image: “the rocks that open”. It is a very clear meaning for those who knew the Old Testament. The prophet Ezekiel spoke of the heart of stone which would be destroyed. The stone hearts were changed because of what happened on Calvary, because from that day a person must be compared not with the people of success in this world, but with the person who is recognized by God as his Son, that is, as the truly resurrected man, he gives his life for love. When this happens, the heart of stone that we have inherited changes and we receive the new heart of the Teacher.

The fourth image: The tombs were opened. They were opened by God. And many bodies of saints who had died were resurrected. This clearly refers to the prophet Ezekiel who had said that one day God will open the tombs, the Israelites will resurrect from their graves, tombs will open, they will rise… It is the realization of this prophecy.

Materially, what happened? Because the text goes on to say: coming out of the tomb after the resurrection they entered the holy city and were manifested unto many. As a chronicle this cannot be, because after the resurrection they appeared to many in the holy city. And we ask ourselves: did they return to the tomb again? This is not a chronicle.

We are facing a page of theology written by the evangelist Matthew to say, using biblical language, that the prophecies have been fulfilled. It is the truth that we know very well. When Jesus died, he descended into hell where he was preceded by all who had died before him since the beginning of humankind – that hell he came in was emptied. And when he entered, the divine force has entered, that force that overcomes death, and overcomes it definitively, not as we do when we bring biological people back to life – death carries them back again.

Therefore, it is an intervention of God when Jesus dies, descends to the hells to empty it, not to bring here again those who had died but introducing them all in the life that has no end. These are the seven images that the evangelist Matthew has used to say what has really happened on Calvary. Materially, the eyes of those present have seen very little.

With this image the evangelist has helped us to understand the truth. The true reality. The one that touches the decisions of our life. We also know another episode that is only narrated by the evangelist Matthew. It is about the death of Judas—which the other evangelists do not mention.

Listen to this passage:

“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buythe potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me” (Mt 27:3-10).

We’ve heard an episode that features dark, mysterious aspects. It seems to me that it will not be clarified from the historical point of view. Judas dies hanged after having gone to the temple to return the 30 coins which the high priests had given him. In the Acts of the Apostles we find a very different account of the death of Judas. Peter does it at the beginning of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:16-20).

Let’s say it right away: We are not interested in knowing how this man materially ended. It had to be a dramatic death that has been re-read by Christians to emphasize a message: Pay attention to the choices we make, because we can ruin our life, as this man did who spent three years with Jesus, but at one point he was disconnected.

He abandoned Jesus; the New Testament says that Judas has abandoned the Teacher. It is never said that he has betrayed him. His action was to hand him over to the religious authorities. I think it’s important, at least for a moment, to break free of stereotypes that we have on this figure of Judas. We cannot but show respect and piety for the great drama that this man had that, according to Peter, John and the other evangelists in general, it appears that in the group of the apostles he had no friends.

What has happened to Judas? He has listened to the Teacher, but with the catechesis he had received, with the conviction that had been made regarding the Messiah, he had become disillusioned with Jesus. He saw that Jesus was a dangerous person for the structure because he moved away from the traditions of its people and was rejected by the religious authorities. And he relied on the religious authority and, at one point, handed over to the religious authorities the Teacher because he saw that Jesus had made an earthquake in the world. This is what happened to this man who, at one point, felt lonely, terribly lonely, and carried the weight of his own mistake. Then this man went to unburden himself, to confide his repentance and his inner torment with the wrong people—the temple priests, who took advantage of him and then were disinterested in him. I would say he mistake the confessor. If he had gone to Jesus, if he had returned to Christ, his life would have ended in a completely different way. This is the error that Judas did. He made the mistake of not trusting Christ, made the wrong choice and when he realized his mistake he should have come to Christ, not to his enemies. He would have saved his life. There is one last episode referred only by Matthew.

The guards laid to guard the tomb. Let us first listen to the narration, then we will try to understand the message:

“The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard” (Mt 27: 62-66).

While the Son of God was in this world, the dominators have understood the danger that THEIR kingdom was running. Recall what Herod the Great did – sought to eliminate it immediately, because he realized that a kingdom Completely new that would have eliminated the ancient kingdoms. Kings had their power based on force, violence, abuse, injustice, robbery … These are the forces on which the success of the kingdom of this world is built.

One has entered that began a new world, not the world of the beasts, the kingdom of those who are lambs, who give their lives, give everything for love. It is this new kingdom, which with their own weakness is shaking the ancient world, the ancient kingdoms. And the ancient kingdoms do not resign themselves to disappearing peacefully. They seek to survive; therefore, they react with aggression.

It is what has happened to Jesus. The kingdoms of this world, the political and religious dominators are related and have managed to put in the tomb the one who was dangerous to them. And that Friday they were happy when they finally put that stone before the tomb. And only the evangelist Matthew says they were not at ease. They thought that they had definitely succeeded, having celebrated their own victory over the new kingdom announced by Jesus. And yet they come to Pilate and tell him: We must guard this sepulcher so that nothing happens. And they say, perhaps his disciples will come, take the body out and then say he’s still alive. They want to have this tomb definitively closed.

The soldiers in the tomb represent the power of this world which, after having celebrated their own victory, try to always keep the Lord of life closed in the realm of the dead. What’s going on? This human power did not realize that it was not being confronted with a human force – they would have won. But they were confronted with a divine power, which is the power of love. The explosion of this divine force will be seen on the night of Easter, when the angel descending from heaven will roll that stone, he will sit upon it, a seal of complete victory. No one else will be able to get close and put that stone back where it was before. And the guards, set to defend the ancient world, will faint, terrified by the light from above. These guards represent those who want to defend the ancient world.

Let’s keep it in mind because it could be us, perhaps even without realizing it, those guards who seek to protect a world that, in fact, on the Calvary, Christ has crumbled it.

I wish you all a good week of preparation to receive in the mind and in the heart the light of the Passover.