Passion Friday Meditation: Pilate and Herod: Images of the Fall

Passion Friday meditation

Probing the Creed

Pilate and Herod: Images of the Fall

Consider this reflection from an article that I was blessed to have appear in the publication Homiletic And Pastoral Review.

It is entitled, Pilate and Herod: Images of the Fall

Here, Pontius Pilate is not merely considered to be some arbitrary historical figure within the Creed, but is himself seen as an image of the first great lie of the Fall itself, the lie that can be called the antithesis of the baptismal disposition. And this first great lie emanates from the two greater words that come from his mouth: what is truth? And then, a blasphemous and cowardly act of the total opposite of repentance: I am innocent of this man's blood, crucify him yourselves!

For, the declaration what is truth, implies either the truth cannot be known, or else that it does not matter what the truth is , and this is the complete antithesis of faith, whose objective is truth, one of the two great reasons we exist, which is to say that we might know the truths of God and his mysteries.

And the second great declaration of Pontius Pilate is to absolve himself of full culpability of the greatest act of sin ever committed, the murder of God himself.

Consequently then, once one embraces the LIE of the fall of Pilate, which is to say that one has no regard for knowing or loving God or one's neighbor, then one is necessarily living for this world alone, which will simply mean materialism and hedonism.

And this is definitively what digresses down to King Herod. Herod is himself a hedonistic reveler who has little and no regard for even the natural law, an adulterer , a drunkard , and flamboyant. And he does not merely I have no regard for the truth, nor to do what is right, but then , on consequence, when he is encountered with Christ, he really only wants what any other materialist would want, what any other person who lives only for this world would want, which is simply signs and wonders.

And therefore, he says to the Christ , show me some miracles. But Jesus did not come to perform physical miracles for the sake of miracles, but only in the end to bring about the spiritual miracle of our inner transformation, in order that we might possess true happiness , which comes from the first two great reasons we exist , which heal the lies of the fall; mainly this: the Christ's Revelation shows us the path to what is true, the truth that alone can open our eyes to the Wonder of God's love and mystery and which can guide our paths towards what is true salvation, marriage to God in the next life, which heals our blasphemous and brute materialism, enabling us to see that the only things that ultimately matter in the end are not the signs to the next world but the next world itself: the beatific vision of heaven!!

For greater depth here is the article link and God bless you!!

https://www.hprweb.com/2019/04/probing-the-creed/