[LA EN] Tuesday of Passion Week fits into the most solemn days of the time of immediate preparation for the Holy Triduum, a period in which the Church focuses its gaze on the growing sufferings of Christ before the opposition of His enemies, as well as on the imminence of His Cross. The liturgy highlights the atmosphere of persecution and the mystery of a God who, by wisdom and providence, hides Himself and manifests Himself only according to the time He Himself has determined for human redemption. Originally, the Christians of Rome gathered on this date in a stational assembly at the venerable Basilica of Saint Cyriacus in the Baths of Diocletian, a place doubly venerable for recalling the persecutions and the persevering faith of the first martyrs, whose life surrendered to God inspired the faithful during Lent. However, due to the abandonment and ruin of that basilica, as well as the construction of new Christian structures over the complex of the ancient baths, the cardinal title and the Roman station were gradually transferred to the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata. This most ancient diaconia and Marian basilica, which venerable tradition associates with the residence of Saint Paul and Saint Luke during the Roman captivity of the Apostle to the Gentiles, became the heart of the stational prayer of this day, reinforcing in the penitents the unbreakable bond between the sufferings of the Lord and the apostolic and Marian perseverance in following the cross.
📖 Introit (Ps 26, 14; 26, 1)
Exspécta Dóminum, viríliter age: et confortétur cor tuum, et sústine Dóminum. (Ps. 26, 1) Dóminus illuminátio mea, et salus mea: quem timébo? Exspécta Dóminum.
Wait for the Lord, and act manfully; let your heart be comforted; wait for the Lord. Ps. The Lord is my Light and my Salvation: whom shall I fear? - Wait for the Lord.
📖 Reading (Dn 14, 28-42)
In those days, the Babylonians gathered together and went to the king. And they said to him: Deliver us Daniel, who destroyed Bel and killed the dragon; otherwise we will kill you and your house. The king then saw that they were coercing him with violence and, forced by necessity, delivered Daniel to them. They threw him into the lions’ den and there he remained for six days. Now there were seven lions in the den, and they used to give them each day two bodies and two sheep, but on that occasion they gave them nothing, so that they would devour Daniel. However, the prophet Habakkuk was in Judea; he had made a stew and put bread in a bowl, going to the field to take them to the reapers. The Angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk: Take the meal you have to Daniel, who is in Babylon in the lions’ den. And Habakkuk said: Lord, I have never been in Babylon and I do not know the den. And the Angel of the Lord grabbed him by the head, and carrying him by the hair, placed him in Babylon, above the den, in the rapidity of his spirit. And Habakkuk called out loudly, saying: Daniel, servant of God, take the meal that God has sent you. Daniel answered: You have remembered me, O God, and do not abandon those who love You. And rising up, Daniel ate. The Angel of the Lord then took Habakkuk back to the place from where he had come. The king came, on the seventh day, to mourn Daniel. Approaching the den, he looked inside, and saw Daniel sitting in the midst of the lions. And the king exclaimed loudly: Great are You, O Lord, God of Daniel! And he had him taken out of the lions’ den. Then those who had planned to destroy Daniel were thrown into the den, and they were devoured in his presence, in a moment. Then the king said: All the inhabitants of the earth fear the God of Daniel; for He is the Savior who works miracles and wonders on the earth; and it was He who delivered Daniel from the lions’ den.
📖 Gospel (Jn 7, 1-13)
At that time, Jesus was traveling through Galilee, because He did not want to go to Judea, for the Jews were seeking Him to kill Him. It was near the Jewish feast called Tabernacles. His brothers therefore said to Him: Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples may see the works that You do. For no one acts in secret when he desires to be known. If You can do these things, reveal Yourself to the world. For not even His brothers believed in Him. Jesus said to them: My time has not yet come, but for you it is always time. The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me, because I bear witness to it that its works are evil. Go to this feast; I, however, do not go to it because My time has not yet come. After saying this, He remained in Galilee. However, when His brothers had left, He also went up to the feast, not publicly, but secretly. The Jews therefore sought Him during the feast and said: Where is He? And among the crowd there was much talk about Him. Some said: He is good. Others, however, replied: No, He seduces the people. Nevertheless, no one spoke about Him openly, for fear of the Jews.
🛡️ The Confident Waiting and the Hour of the Lord
The hesitation of Our Lord in going up to Judea for the Feast of Tabernacles constitutes a profound teaching on docility to the designs of Providence in the face of the mystery of iniquity. As Saint Augustine explains (Sermon 133 on Saint John), Christ’s deliberation in acting in a hidden manner does not proceed from carnal fear, but has the purpose of repudiating worldly vainglory and ostentation, which blind the human heart through pride. While His brothers, figures of incredulity attracted by exterior recognition, demanded manifest signs, the Lord awaited the supreme determination of eternity. As Saint Thomas Aquinas clarifies (Commentary on the Gospel of John, Ch. 7), the Savior’s response shows that His actions are never subject to the impatience of human will, making a clear distinction between the deceptive time of men and the hour perfectly fixed by divine Wisdom. The hatred of the world turns against Christ precisely because He is the Light that exposes the darkness of sin, making His presence imperceptible to obstinate eyes, but resplendent to the faithful, His public silence being, according to the mysticism of Saint Bernard, the vigorous prelude to the redemptive work of the cross.
The mystery of confident abandonment to the provident will is reflected with equal greatness in the figure of the prophet Daniel, condemned to the lions’ den. Before the persecuting fury of Babylon, whose irrational wrath anticipates the hostility of the blind crowd that would demand the crucifixion of the Savior centuries later, the prophet sustains himself solely by submission to the invisible God. The doctors of the Church contemplate in this Old Testament prefiguration not only the imminent Passion and burial of Christ, but also the invincible divine protection over just souls. The miraculous intervention of the Angel, transporting Habakkuk to satisfy Daniel’s hunger, proves that true deliverances are wrought in the quietness of unshakable faith, far from the tumult of human plots. Even cast into the darkness of accusations and surrounded by the brutality of the world that hates the truth, the faithful soul, in the image of the prophet and the Incarnate Word Himself, remains nourished by a supernatural support that the pride of the nations will never be able to subjugate or understand.
The vigorous cry of the Introit organically unifies the double lesson of fortitude offered by the liturgy: “Wait for the Lord, and act manfully”. Before the deceptive exhortations to seek perishable glory and before the declared hostility of earthly forces, the Christian is called to reproduce in himself the absolute serenity of Jesus, whose “hour” belongs to the Father, allied with the martyrial constancy of Daniel amid the beasts. Saint Thomas repeatedly warns that the dispersion of opinions in the crowd exposes the intrinsic confusion of nature deprived of grace; however, the soul that confesses with the Psalmist — “the Lord is my Light and my Salvation” — builds itself upon an unshakeable foundation and wards off the terror of persecutions. Mortifying selfish haste and human fear, the spirituality of Passion time is consolidated in the understanding that true victory is not obtained in the spectacle of the world’s flatteries, but in daily and hidden perseverance, firmly believing that the same sovereign God who closes the jaws of the lions will triumph definitively over the empire of death.