“Now upon the solemn day the governor was accustomed to release to the people one prisoner, whom they would. And he had then a notorious prisoner, that was called Barabbas. They therefore being gathered together, Pilate said: ‘Whom will you that I release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus that is called Christ?’ For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. And as he was sitting in the place of judgment, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have thou nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.’ But the chief priests and ancients persuaded the people, that they should ask Barabbas, and make Jesus away. And the governor answering, said to them: ‘Whether will you of the two be released unto you?’ But they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate saith to them: ‘What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ?’ They say all: ‘Let him be crucified.’ The governor said to them: ‘Why, what evil hath he done?’ But they cried out the more, saying: ‘Let him be crucified.’ And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it.’ And the whole people answering, said: ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children.’ Then he released to them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him unto them to be crucified.”
Pilate, not being given a good reason to acquit Jesus due to His silence, then tries to release Him by means of a different practice; this is because Pilate saw the justice of Jesus, with the perfect measure of justice being known by human nature: “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20), though this is clouded by sin and concupiscence: “But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear” (Isaias 59:2), the latter being a result of original sin that takes shape based on the ways one went unloved in their life. Jesus Himself, being God, is the aforementioned measure of justice, and is put alongside a notorious criminal, Barabbas, whose name means “the son of their master,” for the one who seeks freedom from the gentle law of Christ’s love: “My yoke is sweet and my burden light” (Matthew 11:30) instead gets slave driven by the devil and sin, following base desires through life like cargo, rather than being the driver themselves: “Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). This move by Pilate was to measure Jesus, whom the Jews did not see as innocent, against a hardened, dangerous criminal, and he asks them if he would release Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ, the King of the Jews: “Will you that I release to you the king of the Jews?” (Mark 15:9), indicative of the sacred anointing Jesus received: “He arose, and went into the chamber: and he poured the oil upon his head, and said: ‘Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: I have anointed thee king over Israel, the people of the Lord’” (4 Kings 9:6); “And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descending, and remaining on him” (Mark 1:10), and by joining in the divine life by the sacraments, you participate in His kingship: “To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Apocalypse 3:21), meaning that any internal voice that does not treat you with regal dignity and reverence comes from the enemy, who thinks you something despicable: “They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred” (Psalm 108:3), whereas, because you are the Father’s child, the Son’s spouse, and the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place, He approaches you as something beautiful and sacred: “For the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5); “Open to me, my love, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled” (Canticle 5:2), with the wonder and joy of one in love and mesmerized by the beloved: “Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse” (Canticle 4:9). Then, added to Pilate’s awareness of the justice of Jesus is added the admonishment of his wife, who “suffered much” because of a dream about Him, to draw compassion from the heart of Pilate. The message has no effect, which is indicative of the proper approach to discernment of spirits, that dreams, visions, locutions, and such like are best ignored: “For Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), whereas what takes your breath away from an abundance of love is what you should desire, with ecstasy not being light, silence, sense consolation, or vision, but in the love of Jesus Christ no longer seeming like a foreign reality: “And she called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her: Thou the God who hast seen me. For she said: ‘Verily here have I seen the hinder parts of him that seeth me’” (Genesis 16:13), which is a love greater than all love in the world: “For I have known that the Lord is great, and our God is above all gods” (Psalm 134:5). Returning to the text, the enemies of Jesus, foaming at the mouth with hatred, poison the minds of the people, showing the necessity of caution in finding a spiritual guide: “Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind” (Ecclesiasticus 37:9), for the one that is not educated, wise, and madly in love with Jesus can easily lay a snare for your feet, doing damage to your soul rather than bringing you deeper into His love, thus does Wisdom say: “Be in peace with many, but let one of a thousand be your counsellor” (Ecclesiasticus 6:6); your soul is the most precious treasure you have, Theophila, and to leave it to your own keeping or anything less than the best spiritual guide you can find is to treat it with less respect than it deserves: “Is there not here some prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire by him?” (3 Kings 22:7). The people then clamor for His death, for where Jesus is not, there is affliction: “Fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Galatians 5:19-21), whereas the voice of Jesus is one of profound peace, a whisper of love that calms the heart: “A whistling of gentle air” (3 Kings 19:12), and the extraordinary goods that arise from this love. To love well, then, is to bind Barabbas and take Jesus unto yourself: “I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us. Let us therefore make him a little chamber” in your heart “and put a little bed in it for him” (4 Kings 4:9-10), but to consent to what is evil is to loose Barabbas in yourself and leave Jesus behind, who weeps, not solely for being forgotten, but that you miss out on the delicacy of His presence: “I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my palate” (Canticle 2:3). Pilate then, confounded, asks what to do with Jesus, less out of seeking instruction but rather being indignant with their grave injustice, a net through which they tear with the rabidity of hate, calling for His crucifixion, the worst of deaths given its slow, agonizing nature. Pilate presents the infallible nature of Jesus’ life once more, asking what He had done, which is a lesson to the Christian, Theophila, to live a life that is spotless: “Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace” (2 Peter 3:14), not out of a fear of punishment, for this wearies the soul and was the heaviness of the Law of Moses: “And Moses’ hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides” (Exodus 17:12), but from an abundance of love. Now, “Aaron” means “Mountain of strength” and is indicative of Christ, who can be found in the reinforcement of mutual charity: “For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20), and “Hur” means “fire,” showing that it is a burning heart and the bonds of mutual love that can uphold the commands of the Lord, with fallen nature being too feeble to carry them on its own: “It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers” (3 Kings 19:4). The reason for a life free of blemish is that none may bring a testament against you and the faith, but rather that you may be a champion of Christ’s infallible love: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), without a chink in your armor: “He must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:7). The people clamor all the harder: “Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me. They have opened their mouths against me, as a lion ravening and roaring” (Psalm 21:13-14). The people override all of Pilate’s efforts to do what is just, and in a vain gesture, he washes his hands, which in ancient tradition was a sign of refusing to participate in a crime: “My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths” (Proverbs 1:15), but with a tumult arising and the charge of treason being levied against him: “If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar” (John 19:12), he convicts the accusers as doing what is unjust. Fiery passion, including that of hatred, clouds the eye of prudence, and the people curse themselves and their children, but God in His love does not accept the curse on the children, for the sins of the parent are not placed on the head of the child: “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (Ezechiel 18:20), but rather each person’s love story is their own. Pilate’s acquiescence keeps him from guiltlessness, for concession to injustice is itself injustice: “If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, ‘God speed you.’ For he that saith unto him, ‘God speed you,’ communicateth with his wicked works” (2 John 1:10-11). Jesus is then beaten; a man through which every good thing shines like a kaleidoscope of spiritual beauty is taken to be whipped like a criminal. God Himself is punished as a miscreant, the source of all that is wonderful is treated worse than a dog. While you may not encounter His physical sufferings, Theophila, everyone has a heart that resembles the back of Jesus upon His scourging, being deeply affected and wounded by the lack of love in the lives of others: “Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17), for love ever desires greater oneness with the beloved, and Jesus, seeing you scourged physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, then joins with you in your suffering, that He may be compassionate to your sufferings, that you may in turn be one with His love.