Tuesday of Holy Week

Before the festival day of the pasch, Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. ~John 13:1

The Passion marked the culminating point of the work He came to carry out here below. For Jesus, it was the hour when He consummated the sacrifice that was to give infinite glory to His Father, redeem humanity and re-open to mankind the wellsprings of eternal life. Therefore Our Lord, who was devoted wholly to doing the will of His Father, ardently desired from the first moment of his incarnation to see what He called "His" hour come: "His hour," (John 13:1), the hour par excellence. "I have a baptism" -- a baptism of blood -- "to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!" (Luke 12:50) Jesus longed for the hour to sound when He would be plunged in suffering and would undergo death in order to give us life.

He does not wish to bring that hour nearer, of course; Jesus is fully submissive to the will of His Father. St. John notes more than once that the Jews sought to take Him by surprise and put Him to death; but always our Lord escaped, even through a miracle, "because His Hour had not yet come." (John 7:30; 8:30).

But when the hour did sound, Christ delivered Himself up with the greatest ardor, though He knew in advance all the sufferings that were to overtake His body and His soul. "I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22:15) It had come at last, the hour so long awaited.

Let us contemplate Jesus at that hour. This mystery of the Passion is ineffable, and everything about it is great, to the smallest detail; as moreover are all things in the life of the God-man. Here especially we are at the doors of a sanctuary we cannot enter except with living faith and deep reverence.

~from Christ in His Mysteries by Blessed Columba Marmion

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.  ~John 13:31