So today we are simply going to read with little comments
the founding passage of the mystery of the Heart of Jesus. Pierced, of course,
is chapter 19 of the Gospel of John. And I start at verse “When he had taken the vinegar.
Jesus said, it is finished. And inclining his head. He gave up the spirit.”
So already, I make a small comment here: He says, it’s over.
It means that he has completed the work of the second creation, the work of redemption.
He enters his rest. It is a Shabbat and later John will say that this Shabbat was a great day.
Friday is the 6th day. Of the week. Friday. And it corresponds to the 6th day of the original week
of creation, the day of the creation of man.
And there, there is a re-creation, symbolically. Here is finally the man as Pilate said, “Ecce homo” without knowing what he was saying.
The man as God willed him, the new Adam. So it is not neutral that it happens on a Friday.
As was the preparation 0the Jews to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross during Shabbat.
Because this Shabbat was a great day, so that is Saint John who says it. Asked Pilate
to have their legs broken and removed. So, a terribly cruel and terribly banal detail above all.
By breaking the legs, we hurry. The death of the condemned because there should not be corpses in the air for Shabbat. Otherwise we couldn’t celebrate Shabbat.
A corpse in the open air was considered a sign of impurities, so to hasten death, by removing
their last support to be able to breathe a little more.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, then the other who had been crucified with him, who came to Jesus when they saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with his lance pierced his side.
and there immediately came out blood and water. “
There again a very very banal, cruelly banal, brutal event. It was a question of verifying
the death of the condemned man. So he pricks with his spear. As one would prick an animal for to be sure that he is really dead. Only here, and that is what would not hold back
a little for Saint-Jean. This event takes. Very particular importance and even central! Not immediately, it is not the Friday he had the revelation of all these things on Good Friday, he was in shock from the Passion and the cross.
But we will come back over then. for decades he meditate all that.
and ‘Gospel is the fruit of decades of meditation of all kinds.
So one of the soldiers of his spear, pierced his side. There immediately came out blood and water
and here John was. writes: He who has seen bears witness. His testimony is true,
and this is that he speaks true so that you too may believe .
For it happened so that the writing would be fulfilled.
Not a bone will be broken. And another scripture, again says, they ‘ll look at the one
they’ve pierced.
I invite you to reread before our meeting tomorrow, slowly reread and meditate a little bit on
this passage from the Gospel of John chapter 19, verse 30. To 37,
they will look at the one whom they have pierced.