Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: This series on Apologetics is based on the book Catholicism & Reason. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. You can send them either to the postal mailing address or to the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them.
Special Course On Catholicism And Reason (Chapter 7)
For three years, Jesus had been preaching, teaching, and healing the sick throughout Galilee and Judea. While He was very popular with the people, the religious leaders — the Pharisees and the Scribes — were jealous of Him and plotted to get rid of Him. Their opportunity came unexpectedly when one of Jesus’ own apostles, Judas, offered to betray His Master for thirty pieces of silver. He told the chief priests that Jesus would be praying in the privacy of the Garden of Gethsemane late at night, and it would be easy to arrest Him without a lot of people around to defend Him.
After concluding the Last Supper with His apostles, during which He had instituted the Holy Eucharist and said the first Mass, Jesus arrived at the Garden around midnight on Holy Thursday, took with Him into the Garden Peter, James, and John, and then went off a short distance to pray. Jesus began to sweat blood as He prayed to His Father in Heaven to spare Him the suffering and death He knew that He would suffer on Good Friday. But then He said, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
While Jesus prayed and suffered His Agony in the Garden, Peter, James, and John fell asleep. Twice Jesus woke them and asked them to stay awake for an hour and pray that they would not fall into temptation. The third time Jesus woke the three of them, a crowd of Temple guards and soldiers came into the Garden to arrest Jesus.
Because it was dark and the soldiers didn’t know who Jesus was, Judas went up to our Lord and kissed Him on the cheek. The soldiers then bound Jesus with ropes and led Him back to Jerusalem while the apostles all ran away.
Jesus was brought first to Annas, the former high priest, and then to the house of his son-in-law Caiaphas, the high priest at the time. He was questioned about His teachings and then asked if He was “the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One.” Jesus said, “I am,” and the council of 71 men known as the Sanhedrin condemned Him to death because He had claimed to be God.
Peter was outside in the courtyard and three times denied that he even knew Jesus, just as the Lord had predicted on the way to Gethsemane.
Since the Sanhedrin had no authority to execute anyone, they took Jesus to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate and accused Jesus of political crimes, such as claiming to be a king. Pilate asked Jesus about this and believed Him when He said that His Kingdom was in Heaven.
Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, but was afraid of the crowd. He tried unsuccessfully to release Jesus instead of a murderer named Barabbas and then had Him brutally scourged with whips, thinking that the crowd would be satisfied with that ghastly punishment. But they shouted all the louder for Jesus to be crucified, and Pilate caved in.
A painful crown of thorns was jammed down on Jesus’ head, and He had to carry a heavy cross about half a mile to the place of His execution, a small hill known as Golgotha or Calvary. He fell at least three times, and the soldiers forced a man named Simon to help Jesus carry the cross. When they reached Calvary, the soldiers nailed His hands and feet to the cross and put the cross in a hole in the ground.
During His agonizing three hours on the cross, Jesus spoke seven times. He forgave those who had crucified Him, promised to take the good thief crucified next to Him to Heaven, asked the Apostle John to watch over the Blessed Mother, and said that He had finished the mission on which His Father had sent Him — to save us from our sins.
After a soldier stabbed Jesus through the heart with a spear, causing blood and water to flow from His side, the body of our Lord was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea, a secret admirer of Jesus. His friends who were there then walked slowly and sadly away.
List Of Answers:
BLOODY
CAIAPHAS
CALVARY
FORGIVE
GETHSEMANE
GOLGOTHA
HANDS AND FEET
JOSEPH
JUDAS
MASS
PETER
PHARISEES
PILATE
SANHEDRIN
SCOURGING
SIMON
WATER
Quiz:
- Jesus said the first ____ at the Last Supper.
- The _____ and Scribes were jealous of Jesus.
- Jesus suffered His agony in the Garden of __.
- One part of His agony was the __________________sweat.
- Jesus was betrayed by __ for thirty pieces of silver.
- ________________three times denied that he knew Jesus.
- Jesus went on trial before the high priest ____.
- The _ found Him guilty of claiming to be God.
- _ was the Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death.
- The form of torture inflicted on Jesus was called __.
- A man named __ was forced to help Jesus to carry His cross.
- The place of Jesus Crucifixion was called _ or_________.
- Jesus was nailed to the cross through his ____.
- Jesus asked His Father to _ those who had nailed Him to the cross.
- Blood and ________________came out of Jesus’ side after a soldier stabbed Him.
- Jesus was buried in a tomb owned by _____________of Arimathea.
