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deceitful intention of his brother, but let us imitate the just Joseph, for having
guarded his virtue without tarnishing it, he was delivered from all kinds of dangers, for the eye which never sleeps holds all things in sight.
Messianic Entry Into Jerusalem
Put death behind us—In this passage, many words are taken in an opposite
sense: to-conquer death means to be subjected to it; to see Christ means to
wait until He disappears; the hour of triumph means the time of chastisement;
to obtain world-wide power means to mount the scaffold; to live is to die and
to gain is to lose.
Moreover, the people involved do not understand one another.
The crowd acclaims the friend of Lazarus who gave life back to a corpse by a
single word. But Jesus is enthusiastic because His Hour has finally come: He
will destroy death by embracing it.
The people go ahead of the Messiah shouting the exalted refrains of the Feast of
Booths. But Jesus deliberately adopts the manner of the “poor of Yahweh” who
rely on God alone for any success.
The “Greeks” (pagans in sympathy with Judaism) desire to “see” Jesus, to
contemplate this extraordinary man. Jesus does not satisfy their curiosity.
Later, they will really see Him, when the “grain of wheat” buried in Judea will
be multiplied and encompass all nations. Soon the whole world will be drawn
to Jesus.
Yes, it is the hour when the Son of Man will experience glory, and when in
Jesus all men will be assured of mastery over their own existence. Realities
change signs: what was negative becomes positive.
To depart no longer means only to abandon; it means to refind something more
profound. To die no longer means only to be decomposed; it means also to be
reproduced in a multitude. And the painful choices that the present imposes on