3-29-26 Palm Sunday the Passion of the Lord
This Sunday begins the holiest week of our year. During it, we experience through quiet, thoughtful prayer, and attendance at Holy week Services how much and how deep our God is in love with us. On Palm Sunday, we have two gospels. The first gospel as the mass begins, reflects on Jesus ‘entry into the city of Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover later in that week. Note that when Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, there are numerous gates by which he can enter it. He enters the city not riding triumphantly on a horse, like a king, but, rather on a donkey, a sign of humility and lowliness. He chooses to enter the city through what is known as the Sheep gate. This particular gate was where all the lambs and sheep would also be brought through and who were going to be sacrificed later in the week during the Passover festivities. So, the Lamb of God enters along with the other lambs. So, we might pause at this point to reflect on the words of John the Baptist when Jesus passed him three years before this time. At that time John called out, “Behold the lamb of God” (John 1:29). Could his words have been not only a notification of who Jesus is but also a prophecy for a future time? Later in the liturgy this Sunday, we will read the passion account of Jesus Christ. Some wonder, why do we read the passion days before it actually happens? Partly this happens because a number of people will either choose not to attend the services later in the week or cannot attend for a number of reasons, work, illness, or imprisonment. If we did not read the passion on Palm Sunday, then they would see that Jesus enters the city triumphantly on Palm Sunday, (first gospel) and then a week later they would hear that he has risen from the dead and would wonder what happened in between Palm Sunday and Easter. Indeed, what happens in between is critical to our understanding of how much God loved us and what he was willing to endure that we might be saved and have access to eternal happiness with Him. In the reading of the Passion, we listen as Christ on the cross, cries out “My God, my God why have you abandoned me”? The exact phrase comes from Psalm 22:1. Speaking these words his hearers would remember that this psalm is not only about being abandoned but the psalm concludes with an affirmation of being delivered. As we see in the Responsorial Psalm this Sunday the final lines of this psalm 22, are: “I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you: “You who fear the Lord, praise him; all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him; revere him, all you descendants of Israel!” (Psalm 22: 22-23) There is a beautiful story about a woman who once spoke about sitting in church during the reading of the Passion. She had come, as she often did, because it was Sunday, and that is what she did on Sundays. She had a full life centered around her work, family, and obligations. From the outside, nothing seemed amiss in her life. Yet for a long time, she carried within herself a quiet sense of loneliness that never quite left her. As the passion story unfolded- the betrayal, the denial, the abandonment – she found herself listening more closely than usual. And then the words of the Passion were spoken: “My God, my God why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 22:46). She said later that the words did not sound distant or theological. They sounded not only familiar, but personal and close to her life. For the first time, she realized that the loneliness she carried had already been spoken – not by her, but by Christ.1 We might note in this little story a comparison to our own lives, which is between Jesus’s pain and our own sense of abandonment at times. But we must also always remember that Jesus has entered, through his suffering, “our “experience of pain, in order to save us. As St. Paul wrote in the letter to the Philippians (i.e., our second reading this Sunday) “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, ….” (Philippians 2:6). He humbles himself to our level, so, he experiences exactly how our feelings of abandonment feel for us. Again, he shows that he is one of us and one with us by living through the experience of our lives. As Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem in the first gospel this Sunday, there is much expectation by the crowd as they cry out “Hosanna! Hosanna!” Their cries of expectation will change between Palm Sunday and Good Friday this week. Their cries will change from one of praise, confidence, and hopefulness on Sunday, to ones of rejection and condemnation on Good Friday. It is sort of like what can happen on remarks we may make on social media and how others criticize us on them. Or sometimes we pray prayers of expectation and hope, only to later cry out in desperation when God does seem to respond the way we asked him to. We may wonder if God is listening to us, and will He come through with what we ask of him. Later in that week in the gospel, Jesus is on trial before Pontius Pilate. The crowd does not stand beside him in exaltation anymore, but rather in condemnation: “Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”( Matthew 27:20-26) In reflecting on that scene before Pilate, do we stand beside Jesus ready to endure what life has prepared for him and for us and offer it lovingly to our God, or do we try to hide within the crowd, embarrassed by our feelings or lack of faithfulness in Jesus at times? There is much in the passion narrative that we can reflect upon and that is why we need to read it very slowly so that we can identify with the passages that are seemingly reflective of our own lives. For example, when the criminal who is also crucified with Christ, asks Jesus to remember him when Christ comes into his kingdom, how often do we ask Christ to remember us in our tribulation, pain, or feelings of isolation. How confident are we when we ask Jesus to remember us? The passion narrative that we will hear this Sunday during the liturgy is a homily unto itself. There are far too many words and experiences to encapsulate in this brief sharing of mine anything more meaningful. So, I would ask you to walk slowly through this coming Holy week. There are many people to encounter, and to talk with, or even pray with - Jesus, Jesus' mother, the good thief, Peter, Judas, the other Apostles, Pilate, and lastly the crowd. Each has their own agenda, yes, but each has something to teach us. Listen carefully to their words, actions, and their relationship to Jesus. Yes, Resurrection will come. But it will come in its own time and as a part of a process through which suffering must be endured. Resurrection is not just an event that happens after the passion. Resurrection is an encounter between us and Jesus. “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) Resurrection was an encounter between Peter and Jesus, between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, and eventually between Thomas, and all the apostles. And so Holy Week invites us to walk slowly, pray carefully, love lovingly. If we will be willing to do this, then the experience of Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of Jesus, will be like being standing in the garden of the gospel on Easter Sunday morning. May you have a blessed Holy Week, and may He who loves you beyond your understanding; He who accompanies you in your joy and your suffering; may He make known to you the fullness of his message so that you too can follow the instructions of the angel when he told the women at the tomb on Easter morning “…. ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Mark 16:7)
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