MARY, OUR MOTHER

 

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY #554

Now on the festival day he was wont to release unto them one of the prisoners, whomsoever they demanded. And there was one called Barabbas, who was put in prison with some seditious men, who in the sedition had committed murder. And when the multitude was come up, they began to desire that he would do as he had ever done unto them. And Pilate answered them and said: "Will you that I release to you the king of the Jews?" For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him up out of envy. But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas to them. And Pilate again answering, saith to them: "What will you then that I do to the king of the Jews?" But they again cried out: "Crucify him." And Pilate saith to them: "Why, what evil hath he done?" But they cried out the more: "Crucify him." And so Pilate being willing to satisfy the people, released to them Barabbas: and delivered up Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. (Mark 15:6-15)

MORTAL SIN IN ITS TRUE ASPECT: Nothing is so calculated to show us the fearful evil of mortal sin as that horrible cry of the Jews: "Away with this Man! Give unto us Barabbas!" Any Christian who commits a mortal sin thinks, speaks and acts just as did those blinded Jews. Whenever there is a question between observing or transgressing God's commandments in any important matter, then, we may say, Almighty God with His promises and Satan with his allurements are placed face to face, and man has to choose between them. The choice is put to you. Will you choose God, the most gracious, the most holy God, the source of true joy and of all noble happiness, His grace, His friendship, and His heaven so full of inconceivable bliss; or will you choose the prince of darkness, the liar and the murderer from the beginning, and the sinful pleasures which are all that he holds out to you? Whenever a man consents to sin, he, as it were, says to God: "I have compared together Thy service and that of the devil, and I find that Satan is a better master than Thou art, and that I can gain more from him than from Thee; and that the sinful pleasures by which he allures me are dearer to me than Thy friendship and promises." Thus the sinner insults his Lord and God in exactly the same way as did the Jews, when they cried out: "Not this Man, but Barabbas!" Nay, more; the Christian who commits a mortal sin offers a much greater insult to our Lord than did the Jews when they preferred Barabbas to Him; for 1. he sins against greater knowledge and therefore with greater malice. He believes and knows that Jesus Christ is his God and Savior, and has, moreover, pledged both faith and obedience to Him. Nevertheless he despises His Commandments, and prefers the service of His enemy, Satan. 2. The Jews despised our Lord at the time of His abasement, but the Christian sinner despises Him now that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. 3. Barabbas, whom the Jews preferred to our Lord, was, at least, a man, made to the image of God; but the Christian who sins prefers the Author of all good the most despicable things, the works of darkness, base lusts and passions. Mortal sin on the part of a Christian is, therefore, a horrible offense, an undervaluing of God, and a shameful want of gratitude towards Him.

[From 'A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture' by Bishop Knecht, D.D.]

(1899 Douay-Rheims Bible)