The Shadow of the Cross

Homily for Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

On Thursday, we heard the episode from St. Mark’s Gospel in which Jesus uttered the first of his statements regarding his own suffering and death. Yesterday, Fridays Gospel text told us that if we wish to save our lives, we must lose them. Today, we hear Jesus once again tell his disciples that he will suffer and die but then will rise again.

It has often been said about the Gospel of St. Mark that the shadow of the cross is present throughout the entire Gospel. As is the case in all of the Gospels, the passion narrative occupies more of the verses than any other episode from the life of Jesus. It is thought that the Gospel writers composed the chapters covering the passion and death and resurrection of Jesus first, and then added information regarding how Jesus arrived at that point.

Because the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus are so important to our understanding of the Gospels, it is extremely important for us to place our faith in Jesus. This was especially true for his disciples because, unlike us, while they were living with Jesus and hearing him speak of his death, they did not understand what he was saying about rising from the dead.

Faith is also the topic that we read of in the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews this morning. While we spent almost the entire month of January meditating upon this letter, the verses we hear today from chapter eleven were not included in our reading. They reflect upon the characters from the first chapters of the book of Genesis who put their faith in God despite the fact that they did not receive that which God had promised them. How much more so, then, should we who know of the resurrection of Jesus place our faith in him.

Suffering and death are simply a part of human life. God did not promise that we would escape them. God did promise that he would be with us through our suffering and at the moment of our death. Our daily Eucharist reminds us of that promise, and it is with that promise of eternal life that we come to the table of the Lord for a foretaste of what is to come.