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Saturday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Philoxenes of Mabbug (?-c.523), Bishop in Syria
Sermon no.5 on simplicity, 137-139
"He will not contend or cry out"
Our Lord was not compared to a lion when he was led to death... Like a lamb, like a sheep, he kept silent when he was led to his Passion and death: “Like a sheep before the shearers... he opened not his mouth” (Is 53,7)...
Standing before his judge and interrogated, he, our Lord and teacher of all wisdom, did not answer... that these words might be fulfilled: “he was led like a lamb the slaughter” (Is 53,7). They led him about, escorted him from one spot to another, conducted him from one place to another place, dragging him from one judge to another as though he were a dumb thing. He was silent before Annas, never speaking a word until the latter abjured him to speak (Mt 26,63). Questioned by Pilate, he remained silent; and until he heard the question: “Are you the king of the Jews?” (Mt 26,11; cf. Jn 18,33)... he gave no answer. Then they led him to Herod, who interrogated him to see and hear marvels from his own mouth and to put him to the test (Lk 23,8f.): but there, too, he kept his peace, said nothing and did not respond to his interrogator. They looked on him as an ignorant madman, a fool without an answer. His enemies thought what they wished but he never lost the innocence of the lamb.
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