There has been a lot of hulabaloo about Pope Benedict the XVI's willful departure from Pontifical duty and most of this chatter has tended toward a negative view of the Pontiff's actions. There have not only been attacks from anti-Catholics, heretics and conspiracists but, from within the Church as well. Indeed, a lot of people are still processing exactly what this all means and, in the upcoming weeks as Pope Benedict's resignation nears, there will be A LOT of both speculation and ill sentiment towards the office of the Pope by both Catholic and Protestants alike; one truly has to wonder why a sitting Pope wouldn't remain atop of St. Peter's throne until death? Why didn't Pope Benedict run the full course of his Papacy?
In trying to answer this question, let us ask ourselves the proverbial question: "WWJD?"
Would Jesus have ever given up? Would Jesus have known when it was "time to quit?" Did Jesus ever, by his own will, give up on an endeavor? Did Jesus ever concede? In trying to answer these questions we can easily flip through Scripture and pull out passages to demonstrate arguments for and against this supposition. However, if we take a deeper theological look at Jesus' Passion in light of the Passover, I think we can easily answer those questions as well as reconcile Pope Benedict XVI's personal decision to depart from the Papacy and, furthermore, we will prove it by illustrating a very pivotal moment during Christ's Passion.
The Passover Feast has been celebrated by devout Jews for over 3,000 years. This fact relegates us as Christians to come to a better knowledge of Judaism due to the fact that Jesus Himself celebrated the Seder meal along with various other spiritual ceremonies that we modern-day disciples do not have the luxury to know from first-hand knowledge. In as much as the Passover Seder is concerned, we have to take into account at least two things:
1. The Passover is a covenant between God and his people.
In Exodus 12:14 we read the following concerning the celebration of the Passover:
This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.
And again ten verses later in Exodus 12:24, which states:
You shall observe this as a perpetual ordinance for yourselves and your descendants...
To this day, the covenant feast of the Passover is still celebrated by all faithful Jews, it not only ties them all to a common heritage but, it also gives them a familial bond to God. So intense is this bond that God referred to the nation of Israel as "his firstborn son" in Exodus 4:22-23 when He tells Moses to go and confront pharaoh. Indeed the simple fact that God chose the Hebrews to be His own is reason enough for all Jews to celebrate!
2. The Passover Seder is a meal that commemorates the exodus of the Jews out of Egypt.
As described in Exodus 12, the Passover meal entails a lot of specifics that the ancient Hebrews were to do so that the Angel of Death would literally "pass over" the homes of the faithful. Exodus 12:3-9 details exactly what the Jews were to do, among other things, it states that families were to acquire a year old unblemished lamb that was to be slaughtered at twilight. The lamb's blood was to be applied to the doorposts of the Israelite's homes with a bunch of hyssop, while the lamb itself was to be roasted and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. No part of the lamb was to be eaten the following day and any remains were to be burned, additionally, the Jews were to dress as if they were prepared to take flight.
One thing that we must not forget is that the Passover meal is broken up into 4 parts. It is these 4 parts that are not only integral to Jesus' Passion but, to my argument as well. The Passover has 4 cups of wine that MUST BE drank in commemoration of the exodus of the Jews out of Egypt and, in drinking these 4 cups of wine, the Jews are reminded of God's 4 promises found in Exodus 6:6-7 (with my emphasis):
"Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am the LORD. I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and will deliver you from their slavery. I will rescue you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and you shall have me as your God. You will know that I, the LORD, am your God when I free you from the labor of the Egyptians."
The structure of celebrating the Passover using the 4 cups is as follows:
The 1st cup signifies the blessing of the festival day, it is called the Kiddush Cup; kiddush means sanctification in Hebrew. As God's first promise found in Exodus 6:6, this sanctification comes by God bringing the ancient Jews out from under the burden of the Egyptians.
The 2nd cup, called the Cup of Plagues, signifies judgement. In this part, a young child usually asks the rabbi or eldest participant the following question, "why is tonight different from all other nights?" At which point 4 different questions are asked and the story of the Jew's exodus out of Egypt is retold. The second half of Exodus 6:6 proclaims God's judgement via the 10 plagues He wrought upon Egypt which rid the Jews of Egyptian bondage. At the end of the 2nd stage of the Passover, all the participants sing Psalm 113 which is called "the Little Hallel" and drink from the second cup.
The 3rd cup is called the Cup of Blessing. At this stage in the Passover, the actual meal is eaten and, as prescribed per Exodus 12, a roasted lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread are eaten. The lamb is to remind them of the sacrifical lamb that saved the ancient Jews and bitter herbs to recall the bitterness of bondage that the LORD God freed them from. After the final piece of unleavened bread (called the Afikoman) is eaten, the celebrant of the feast concludes this part by passing around the third cup which beckons the faithful Jew to God's third promise of salvation when He said that He would redeem the Israelites with his "outstretched arm." Psalms 114-118 are then sung, these psalms collectively constitute what is called "the Great Hallel."
The 4 cup is introduced after the singing of "the Great Hallel." This fourth cup signifies the joy that is to be had by praising the LORD God for His fulfillment of His fourth promise found in Exodus 6:7 and, that is, of making the Israelite nation His own. After this cup is drank, the rabbi or celebrant of the feast says the following phrase: "Tal telesti" which means "it is finished" or, "it is consummated." At this point the Passover Seder meal is officially over.
These are the steps to observing a proper Passover meal and, of critical importance, is the fact that these are the steps that Christ did all his life up until His final Passover in the upper room with his Apostles. It is in His final Passover, i.e., the last supper, that we find Jesus doing something remarkably at odds with Jewish tradition, in Mark chapter 14 verses 22 through 25, we read the following:
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Clearly then we see that Jesus is celebrating the Passover (see Mk 14:12) with His Apostles and, knowing now the 4 steps of the Passover, we can correctly conclude that Jesus and the Apostles are in the 3rd step of Passover since they are eating and a cup of wine gets passed around. Now, taken by itself this isn't anything out of the ordinary for a Jew to read or listen to BUT, it is what happens in Mark 14:26 that separates this Passover from all others. Mark 14 verse 26 says the following:
Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
So then, what do we have here? We have the end of the 3rd stage being completed because Scripture points out that they sang a hymn, that is, "the Great Hallel" and, after singing it they go out to the Mount of Olives. Now this may not seem odd or weird to us modern day Christians but to any Jewish reader of Mark's Gospel, they would seriously find issue with Jesus' actions, why? BECAUSE JESUS FAILED TO END THE PASSOVER MEAL! By not drinking the 4th cup, Jesus has unambiguously and definitely chosen not to end the Passover.
This presumption is made all the more recognizable when Jesus, while praying in the Garden at Gethsemane, says the following in Mark 14:35-36,
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him; he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will."
What cup is Jesus talking about if not the 4th cup? The 4th cup which will end the Passover and see the nation of God redeemed by a sacrifical lamb! This is what Jesus meant when he asked for "this cup to be taken away," Christ knew that when the Passover would end, so would His life. He knew that soon, he would be forced to take up His cross (literally) and be sacrificed for all; Luke 22:41-42 depicts the same scene in which we hear Jesus say:
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done."
How, you may ask, does any of this have to do with our current Pope, Benedict XVI? Well, like I stated at the onset of this post, the real question is whether or not Jesus ever gave up. In the same manner that Christ carried His Cross, Benedict XVI has had to carry the huge burden of the Papacy upon his shoulders and the task that Joseph Ratzinger was given, was truly one of self-sacrifice for the honor of Christ's one true Church.
So, did Jesus know when to give up? Yes, by all accounts he did. He gave Himself up when He knew that all that he was sent here to do had been fulfilled, the same as Pope Benedict XVI. In Mark 15:23, we see that Jesus has finally carried His cross to Golgotha and the Roman soldiers offer Him wine drugged with myrrh but, as the Scriptures dictates, he did not take it. Jesus had the opportunity at that point to end the Passover sacrifice only if He would've drank from that cup but, he suffered on. Matthew 27:34 recounts the same information, it states:
...they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
Luke 23:36 also states the same thing:
Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine.
Notice that in Matthew's narrative, Jesus actually tasted the sour wine but, refused to drink. Again, He choose to carry on regardless of the weight of our sins. However, there did finally come a time when Jesus, having known that His hour had come, did give Himself up and this happens precisely when he drinks the final cup of wine. In Mark 15:36 & Matthew 27:48, we see that a bystander comes and gives Jesus wine to drink off of a sponge, immediately in both Gospels, Jesus gives out a loud cry and dies. It is in John's Gospel, however, that we get to see exactly what happened at the foot of the cross, remember, St. John was actually there!
In John 19:28-30 we get to see the Passover - that originally began in the upper room - finally come to a close. The evangelist writes:
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Notice what St. John tells us, he states that Jesus knew that His hour had come and so he willingly and freely asked for that final 4th cup of wine which was placed on a sprig of hyssop (Exodus 12:22!) and, most importantly, he says the words that any rabbi would've said to end the Passover celebration! By stating "It is finished" (tel telesti) Christ ended the Seder and introduced all of us to eternal life.
With regards to Pope Benedict XVI, what we have to appreciate is the fact that, much like Jesus, he too has had numerous times to quit and yet, he continued on. He continued on even in the face of the sexual abuse crisis, corruption allegations, a financial scandal and, most recently, the traitorous actions of his own butler. He knew that leading the 1.3 billion Catholics of the world would be no easy task and, truly, such a heavy load could take a toll on almost any of us much less an 85 year old man in poor health.
Therefore I suggest that we, as Catholics, not look at our 265th Pontiff in a bad or negative light but, that we continue to have faith in the Office of the Papacy - an office that is protected by the Holy Spirit itself! That we as Catholics ardently pray for our current Pope, because he will certainly be praying for us even in retirement and, let us never forget, that Jesus knew when his time had come and so we too must acknowledge and respect that Pope Benedict XVI has freely and willingly also realized the same thing.
St. Peter, first Pope of the Catholic Church, pray for us!
No comments:
Post a Comment