In light of these readings, Sunday’s Gospel is poignant. Jesus asks his closest friends, ” who do you say that I am?” Peter replies, “The Messiah of God.” Jesus then reveals to them, as Zechariah had foretold, that the Messiah must be “thrust through” and killed and mourned before the Spirit would come forth on Pentecost.

The day has indeed come. Yet still we long for its fullness, and so we pray to God in the Psalm: “for you I long! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, Like a land parched, lifeless, and without water.