Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 96 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 96 - Part I. Why was a man of peace like Jesus condemned to death on a Cross?

(Youcat answer) Jesus posed a decisive question to his contemporaries: Either he was acting with divine authority, or else he was an impostor, a blasphemer, and a violator of the Law and who had to be called to account.       

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 574) From the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, certain Pharisees and partisans of Herod together with priests and scribes agreed together to destroy him  (Cf. Mk 3:6; 14:1). Because of certain of his acts - expelling demons, forgiving sins, healing on the sabbath day, his novel interpretation of the precepts of the Law regarding purity, and his familiarity with tax collectors and public sinners (Cf. Mt 12:24; Mk 2:7, 14-17; 3:1-6; 7:14-23) - some ill-intentioned persons suspected Jesus of demonic possession (Cf. Mk 3:22; Jn 8:48; 10:20). He is accused of blasphemy and false prophecy, religious crimes which the Law punished with death by stoning (Cf. Mk 2:7; Jn 5:18; 7:12; 7:52; 8:59; 10:31, 33).  574 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In many respects Jesus was a unprecedented challenge to the traditional Judaism of his time. He forgave sins, which God alone can do; he acted as though the Sabbath law were not absolute; he was suspected of blasphemy and brought upon himself the accusation that he was a false prophet. All these were crimes punishable under the Law by death.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 576) In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against essential institutions of the Chosen People: - submission to the whole of the Law in its written commandments and, for the Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral tradition; - the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy place where God's presence dwells in a special way; - faith in the one God whose glory no man can share.      

(This question: Why was a man of peace like Jesus condemned to death on a Cross? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 95.

YOUCAT Question n. 95 - Why did Jesus choose the date of the Jewish feast of Passover for his death and Resurrection? 

(Youcat answer) Jesus chose the Passover feast of his people Israel as a symbol for what was to happen through his death and Resurrection. As the people Israel were freed from slavery to Egypt, so Christ frees us from the slavery of sin and the power of death.     

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 572) The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26-27, 44-45). Jesus' sufferings took their historical, concrete form from the fact that he was "rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes", who handed "him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified" (Mk 8:31; Mt 20:19). (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.      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The Passover was the feast celebrating the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Jesus went to Jerusalem in order to free us in an even deeper way. He celebrated the Paschal feast with his disciples. During this feast, he made himself the sacrificial Lamb. “For Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7), so as to establish once and for all the definitive reconciliation between God and mankind.  

(CCC Comment)

(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.     

(The next question is: - Why was a man of peace like Jesus condemned to death on a Cross?)

Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 94 - Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 94 - Part III. Did Jesus know that he would die when he entered Jerusalem?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Yes. Three times Jesus had predicted his suffering and death before consciously and voluntarily (Lk 9:51) going to the place of his Passion and his resurrection.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 560) Jesus' entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom that the King-Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection. It is with the celebration of that entry on Palm Sunday that the Church's liturgy solemnly opens Holy Week. (CCC 569) Jesus went up to Jerusalem voluntarily, knowing well that there he would die a violent death because of the opposition of sinners (cf. Heb 12:3).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 570) Jesus' entry into Jerusalem manifests the coming of the kingdom that the Messiah-King, welcomed into his city by children and the humble of heart, is going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection.    

 (The next question is: Why did Jesus choose the date of the Jewish feast of Passover for his death and Resurrection?) 

Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 94 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 94 - Part II. Did Jesus know that he would die when he entered Jerusalem?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Yes. Three times Jesus had predicted his suffering and death before consciously and voluntarily (Lk 9:51) going to the place of his Passion and his resurrection.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 559 a) How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of "his father David" (Lk 1:32; cf. Mt 21:1-11; Jn 6:15). Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means "Save!" or "Give salvation!"), the "King of glory" enters his City "riding on an ass" (Ps 24:7-10; Zech 9:9). Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth (Cf. Jn 18:37).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 559 b) And so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God's poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds (Cf. Mt 21:15-16; cf. Ps 8:3; Lk 19:38; 2:14). Their acclamation, "Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord" (Cf.  Ps 118:26), is taken up by the Church in the “Sanctus” of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord's Passover.     

 (This question: Did Jesus know that he would die when he entered Jerusalem? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 94 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 94 - Part I. Did Jesus know that he would die when he entered Jerusalem?

(Youcat answer) Yes. Three times Jesus had predicted his suffering and death before consciously and voluntarily (Lk 9:51) going to the place of his Passion and his resurrection.    

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 557) "When the days drew near for him to be taken up [Jesus] set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Lk 9:51; cf. Jn 13:1). By this decision he indicated that he was going up to Jerusalem prepared to die there. Three times he had announced his Passion and Resurrection; now, heading toward Jerusalem, Jesus says: "It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem" (Lk 13:33; cf. Mk 8:31-33; 9:31-32; 10:32-34).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 558) Jesus recalls the martyrdom of the prophets who had been put to death in Jerusalem. Nevertheless he persists in calling Jerusalem to gather around him: "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Mt 23:37). When Jerusalem comes into view he weeps over her and expresses once again his heart's desire: "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes" (Lk 19:41-42).    

 (This question: Did Jesus know that he would die when he entered Jerusalem? is continued)