Mk 15, 21-32 They crucified him

(Mk 15, 21-32) They crucified him

[21] They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. [22] They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull). [23] They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it. [24] Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take. [25] It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. [26] The inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." [27] With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left. [28]. [29] Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, [30] save yourself by coming down from the cross." [31] Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. [32] Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.

(CCC 571) The Paschal mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all" (Heb 9:26) by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ. (CCC 573) Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus' death, faithfully handed on by the Gospels (Cf. DV 19) and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption. (CCC 591) Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the Father's works which he accomplished (Jn 10:36-38). But such an act of faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new "birth from above" under the influence of divine grace (Cf. Jn 3:7; 6:44). Such a demand for conversion in the face of so surprising a fulfilment of the promises (Cf. Isa 53:1) allows one to understand the Sanhedrin's tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged that he deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer (Cf. Mk 3:6; Mt 26:64-66). The members of the Sanhedrin were thus acting at the same time out of "ignorance" and the "hardness" of their "unbelief" (Cf. Lk 23:34; Acts 3:17-18; Mk 3:5; Rom 11:25, 20).