The Betrayal by Judas

This series of posts considers, in detail, the gospel reading from Mark for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. This is the third post in the series.

10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them. 11 When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.  Continue reading

The Anointing at Bethany

This series of posts considers, in detail, the gospel reading from Mark for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. This is the second post in the series.

3 When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head. 4 There were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil? 5 It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her. 6 Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial. 9 Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” 

Continue reading

The Passion of the Christ

The Conspiracy Against Jesus

This series of posts considers, in detail, the gospel reading from Mark for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. This is the first post in the series.

There is much that occurs between the entry gospel on Palm Sunday and the gospel proclaimed during the Mass. If one wanted to give a moniker to what falls between it may be best described as a “conflict between the kingdoms.” The passages (11:12 – 13:37) between include:

  • Arguments surrounding the authority of Jesus, taxes to Caesar, the Resurrection, the greatest commandment, and the nature of the Messiah
  • The parable of the vineyard and the widow’s mite
  • The Markan discourse of the things to come and the end time.

Continue reading

The Passion of the Christ

Crowning-with-Thorns-lowf16 The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort. 17 They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him. 18 They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify 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. Continue reading