Our liturgy today opens with the following prayer: "Do not leave me to the will of my foes, O Lord, for false witnesses rise up against me and they breathe out violence" (Cf. Ps 27 (26): 12). How many people are being left to the will of their enemies, victims of crimes committed by persons of little or no conscience, persons who think nothing of making up lies or engaging in criminal activity at the expense of others and using others to cover up their crimes.
Jesus, the Son of God, fully human and fully divine, suffered in all the ways any human being suffers. Jesus was unjustly accused, as are so many people in our day--our prisons house many people accused of crimes that they did not commit. Some of these people are also on death's row, awaiting execution. The leaders of Jesus' time felt threatened by Jesus' population and the crowds of people following Him, proclaiming Him as their king. The leaders of the Jewish nation decided that Jesus had to be to death so that Israel would not lose its status as a nation. So, to have significant data to convince the Romans, who occupied Israel at the time, to put Jesus to death, the chief priests and the leaders of Israel falsely accused Jesus of blasphemy, punishable by death. When Pilate examined Jesus, he found no guilt in Him yet turned Him over to the crowd who insisted that He be put to death and He was!
However, death had no power over Jesus! His enemies did not triumph. Jesus did! In referring to His impending death, in fact, Jesus stated that the time for Him to be glorified had come. As we approach the time of our deaths, we, as Christians, believe that we, too, are about to be glorified with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven.
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