• Homily by Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna

  • St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta
    30th March 2018

    “Whom are you looking for?” (Jn 18,4). This is the question that Jesus put to the rabble that went to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest him. “Whom are you looking for?”

    Christ also asks us this question whenever we doubt him, whenever we are scandalized by his holy cross, whenever we imagine him as Deus ex machina, as God who fulfils our every need and who can be bought by a candle or by a bouquet or by a solemn promise or pledge. In the depth of our conscience we hear him repeat this question: “Whom are you looking for?”

    In order to have an authentic answer, we must understand Christ in his holy passion, we must welcome him as he had told us: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mt 16,24). These are not empty words if we understand that while the Lord is asking this of us, he walked the way to Golgotha carrying his cross.

    Pilate also posed this question to Christ: “Where are you from?” (Jn 19,9). But the Lord did not reply. Pilate’s inquiry was answered when he was informed that the Lord’s tomb was empty.

    Today let us adore the Lord Jesus who showed us his true identity on the cross. Let us adore him, he who is offered to us, a pure and innocent victim. Let us see in him the suffering of humankind in every epoch in history, he “who as borne our infirmities and carried our diseases” (Is 53,4). On the cross, the Lord is burdened with all the sorrows of every age, with the brutality we cultivate for each other and transforms for us the “sign that will be opposed” (Lk 2,34) into one of love.

    Let us pray that we welcome him as the King of our hearts, he who was condemned as the King of the Jews.

    ✠ Charles J. Scicluna
         Archbishop of Malta

  • Readings:
    1st Reading: Is 52, 13 – 53, 12
    Psalm: 30 (31), 2.6.12-13.15-16.17. 25
    2nd Reading: Hebrew 4, 14-16; 5, 7-9
    Gospel: Jn 18, 1 – 19, 42

  • All photos are available on the website of the Official Photos of the Church in Malta.

  • Photos: Curia Communications Office – Ian Noel Pace