The Passion Gospel, which we have just heard, is a very sober account, with little appeal to our emotions. Our culture tends to make much of emotions: how we feel about things. The story of the Passion is like someone in shock saying what happened.
Jesus “lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: Blessed are you”!
He formally and publicly declared his disciples blessed, that is, righteous before God – over against the self-appointed judges of righteousness, usually represented in the Gospel by the Scribes and the Pharisees.
