Silent Presence

“Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
and opened not his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.”

Isaiah 53:7

First published April 15, 2022.

After Our Lord had been arrested and sentenced, we do not hear much from Him. Rather He remains relatively silent. This is His passion. It is a passivity, but not an idle one. This part of His life and ministry was one that was passive, one that was about what He allowed others to do to Him. His passion was what He suffered, what He permitted to be inflicted upon Himself for the sake of the Father’s will. Jesus’ passion was a ministry of silence.

It was through this ministry of silence that Our Lord’s mission was brought to completion and perfection. It was in His silence that He spoke the loudest. It is no wonder that it is said that God comes to us in the silence. For it is in the silence of our hearts that God meets us and speaks to us. It was not in the earthquake or fire that Elijah experienced God’s presence, but rather it was in the small still voice. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, Jesus “was silent and opened not His mouth,” but allowed the soldiers to strip Him and nail Him to the Cross, because it was there, in His silence, that God was present. It was His silence that moved the centurion to faith. How can one endure such pain and suffering and yet remain silent and unforgiving? It was incomprehensible to the people, but it moved them to think about all that was said about Jesus, and for some it brought them to faith. It was in His silent suffering that people came to experience the presence of God. May we today, sit in the silence, and meet the God who comes to us.

Emptied to the End

“But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.”

Matthew 27:50

Every Palm Sunday we read the Passion Narrative, journeying with the Lord from the Last Supper in the Upper Room to the hill of Calvary where Jesus breathed His last. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week that leads up to the Paschal Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil), the three holiest days of the liturgical year. Today we are invited to walk with the Lord on this journey, a journey that begins with singing and praising and that ends with the Resurrection but not without first the pain and suffering of death. Will you walk with the Lord?

On Palm Sunday we commemorate the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem triumphantly, being treated as king, with the people waving palm branches and paving the road with their garments. Although the people were singing and smiling, Jesus knew deep down that this was the beginning of what would be the most painful and excruciating trip into the Holy City, a journey He had made plenty of times in His lifetime, but this time would be different.

Jesus loved us to the very end. For three years He taught and preached and performed numerous miracles while walking on this earth. Many believed but others wanted Him gone. Jesus’s love was the visible expression of the eternal love with which God has loved us. From the healings and miracles to the final sacrifice on the Cross, those were all expressions and manifestations of God’s unconditional love for us.

From the moment God became man to the moment Jesus breathed His last on the Cross, Jesus’s entire life was one of “kenosis” or self-emptying. God chose to empty Himself and condescended to earth leaving the glory of Heaven, being born in the most humble of states. God loves us so much that He was willing to assume our lowly human nature, experiencing all that we do as humans (but sin) so that He might truly understand us but at the same time so that we might dare taste the glory of His divinity. When God assumed our humanity, humanity was forever changed. But this was not enough.

Jesus willingly suffered threats, humiliation, scourging, ridicule, and crucifixion. On the Cross, Jesus was emptied of every last drop of blood and He breathed His last. In breathing His last and giving over His Spirit, Jesus breathed life into the Church. In dying, Jesus gave us life. In emptying Himself to the very end, Jesus fills us with new life.

Spoken Into Life

“I am the resurrection and the life; 
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

John 11:25-26

In this final “character Gospel,” we hear of the “raising of Lazarus.” Notice that it is not the “resurrection” of Lazarus. So far, Jesus has told His disciples that He is the living water in the encounter with the Samaritan woman and that He is the light of the world when He cures the man who has been blind from birth. Today we hear Jesus say He is the resurrection and the life. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were good friends with Jesus and upon hearing that Lazarus was sick, instead of quickly making His way to him, Jesus stayed where He was for another two days. Does that make sense? Wouldn’t you want to rush to your loved one who is sick? How could Jesus treat one of His best friends this way?

Jesus told His disciples that Lazarus’s illness will not end in death but instead will be used for the greater glory of God. After two days, Jesus tells His disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep and so He will go wake him. The disciples are still not quite understanding Jesus and the way He speaks, and so they really think that Lazarus fell asleep. But how would that even make sense? Jesus will walk all the way to Bethany to wake up His sick friend who probably needs all the rest he can? The disciples just do not get Jesus. So, after this, Jesus tells them plainly “Lazarus has died.” They start on their way to Lazarus.

Upon arriving close to the town, Jesus encounters Martha whom has run out to meet Him. Martha expresses her grief while at the same time affirming and confessing her faith in the Lord. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” I can only imagine what Jesus may have felt. Perhaps sadness in seeing His friends so upset and also somewhat disappointed that He was not there to save their brother. But, Jesus has a bigger plan, one that could not have come to fruition if He had ran to Lazarus once He heard he was sick. There is always a bigger plan, a plan in which God will bring about greater good.

Jesus was moved by Mary and Martha’s grief and was “perturbed” or “deeply moved in spirit” at the sight of such sadness. Some commentators say that being deeply moved in spirit here points not to the grief as experienced by the sisters but rather as a result of being in the presence of death. Jesus who is the resurrection and the life, at the sight of death, will naturally have a negative reaction, just like how in the presence of light, darkness scatters, and in the presence of the divine, evil scatters. How can death remain when the Lord of Life is present? And so Jesus raises His eyes towards the heavens, gives thanks to His Father, and commands Lazarus, who has been dead and entombed for four days now, to come out. Upon hearing the voice of Jesus, Lazarus walks out in his burial cloths. Lazarus was spoken into life once again by the Lord. The words of Jesus has the power to bring the dead back to life, hearkening back to Genesis when the Lord created the universe by simply speaking, “Let there be light.” When Jesus speaks, something amazing happens and even the dead listens to Him and follows His commands.

Remember in the beginning I mentioned that the word to describe this miracle was “raising from the dead” and not “resurrection.” That is so because although Lazarus has been called back to life, he will die again. Only Jesus has resurrected, and on the last day, we pray that we too might share in that Resurrection in our glorified bodies.

Do we believe that the words of Jesus has power to save and to bring to reality what seems impossible? Do we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do we listen to Him? May we listen to the Voice who calls out to us today and may we ask the Lord to grant us the grace and strength to follow Him, who is the resurrection and the life.