Second announcement of the passion
M Mons. Vincenzo Paglia
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Gospel (Lk 9,43b-45) - On that day, while everyone was amazed at all the things he did, Jesus said to his disciples: "Put these words in your mind: the Son of man is about to be handed over into the hands of men." However, they did not understand these words: they remained so mysterious to them that they did not grasp their meaning, and they were afraid to question him on this subject.

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The insistence in saying: "Put your mind firmly in mind...", seems to want to force the hardness of the disciples' minds in understanding his true identity. He strongly warns them not to be fooled by the admiration everyone has for him, because a humiliating and painful death awaits him. Being "handed over into the hands of men", in biblical language, means suffering the painful and cruel fate of a person abandoned by God and left precisely in the power of men and their free will. In fact, that's exactly what will happen. But despite this clarity – the evangelist underlines – the disciples do not understand. It is a notation that we can also apply to us who are often distant, just as the disciples of the time were, from the thoughts of Jesus, from his concerns and above all from the sense he had of his own mission. It is not in human strength and power that salvation is achieved, but only in the path of love for all, a love that goes as far as giving one's life for the enemies themselves. The evangelist notes that the disciples continue not to understand Jesus' words: "They remained so mysterious to them that they did not grasp their meaning". And they remained silent, without asking for further explanations. It is an attitude of harshness and mistrust. They do not accept their ignorance and prefer to remain in the dark. However, Jesus does not abandon them. He continues to teach them, in the hope that they will gradually understand the Gospel.