February 25, 2004
Lent 2004: Pontius Pilate and Jesus
During Lent I’m going to make an attempt to provide some reflections as often as possible that illuminate the purpose of and need for the season. This is the first in that series.
When we think back to the Passion, we typically focus our thoughts and meditations on Jesus and rightly so. But it’s also interesting to see the surrounding characters in the narrative and attempt to understand their actions. Pilate was always fascinating to me. How much arrogance must one have to ask, “What is Truth” to He who is Truth? And yet Pilate didn’t know. Pilate was just a few feet from Christ Himself, but his lack of holiness blinded him to the truth. We often see images of Jesus with a halo or seeming to radiate light, however this required faith in order to see. Faithless Pilate saw only Jesus’ humanity and missed the deeper reality of Jesus’ divinity.
We look back now and laugh a little – how could Pilate have missed it? The Messiah was right in front of him! And yet every week we sit in Mass and sometimes miss that Christ Himself is present in reality. If only we have the faith to see, God Himself is sitting just a few feet from us calling us to Him. Through the Eucharist God sanctifies His people and calls us to deeper communion with Him. How many times have we missed Mass without understanding that we are ignoring an appointment with the Jesus who died on the Cross for us?
Lent is the perfect time to make reparation to God, to straighten our priorities, and to realize the reality of life: we will die and face God. Now is the time to take a holy hour, to go to Mass more than once during the week, and to remember that God Himself is present in the Eucharist.
God bless,
Jay
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