Martin Jumbam
The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, April 09, 2017, as Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, because the theme of Jesus’ suffering and death begins with the reading of the passion. Palm Sunday begins Holy Week. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Hosanna to the Son of David, the King of Israel. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Amen.”
In all the churches of our diocese, as in churches throughout the world this day, the congregation begins by assembling in some suitable place outside the church from where the procession will move to the church. The priest blesses the palms, then proclaims the account of our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem from the Gospel according to Matthew 21: 1-11. This is followed by a procession into church, with the people holding the blessed palms and singing festive songs. The blessing of the palms and the procession recall our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. The purpose of this ceremony is to involve us physically and through the material symbols in the commemoration of all that Holy Week means.
Shortly after the procession into the church, the theme of triumph changes radically with the reading of the passion narrative. Palm Sunday liturgy is devoted, therefore, more to the suffering of Jesus than to his triumphant reception by the people. By focusing on these events of Christ’s suffering, the church emphasizes the meaning of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday the church celebrates the beginning of Jesus’ passage from life to death to new life: the Paschal Mystery.
First Reading: Isaiah 50: 4-7
The Lord has given me a disciples’ tongue. So that I may know how to replyto the wearied; he provides me with speech. Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle. The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed.
V: The Word of the Lord.
R: Thanks be to God.
Comment
This passage is usually referred to as the Third Song of the Servant of God. It shows how this Servant meets opposition to his mission to proclaim God’s salvation. His docility to God’s word brings him suffering as it did to his brother prophets. He utters no word as he suffers but his silence is not out of cowardice; rather it is because God helps him and makes him stronger than his persecutors. When all is said and done, the Servant will stand strong and his enemies will be struck down.
The evangelists saw the words of this song as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who also suffers in silence and is untouched by insults with his face set like flint. Christ the ‘Suffering Servant’ accepts suffering and death for the salvation of mankind. He is beaten, scourged and crowned with thorns; and rejected by his own people, who put him to death. But he has full trust in his Father because he knows that his Father loves him and will glorify him.
We Christians should recall this song of the Suffering Servant as we contemplate the passion of Jesus and how they “spat on his face in his face; and struck him; and some slapped him” (Mt 26:67). We too spit on our Lord’s face and strike him and slap him each time we sin or each time we fail to love him in our brother or sister.
Second Reading: Phil 2: 6-11
His state was divine, yet Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are; he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. But God raised him on high and gave him the name which is above all other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
V: The word of the Lord
R: Thanks be to God.
Comment:
This passage from Saint Paul’s letter to his converts of Philippi is one of the most beautiful passages he ever wrote. In it, he explains to them how Jesus came down from heaven, humbled himself and God raised him up. Saint Paul explicitly proclaims the divinity of Christ, expressing how he accepted our condition with all its consequences. The paradox of Christ’s humanity and divinity, his victory through suffering and his humble attitude show us that suffering is part and parcel of our lives as Christians and that suffering should bind Christians closer to our Lord.
Saint Paul starts this hymn by showing us Christ humbling himself by becoming man, then he shows us the extreme to which his humility takes him: as man he obediently accepts death on the cross; and finally he describes Christ’s exaltation in glory. After his humiliation on the cross, where he is stripped of everything he has, Christ fulfills his mission of salvation and is again clothed in glory at his Resurrection. His crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation. Christ gives us a wonderful lesson in humility and obedience and his suffering should bind us together in love and unity.
Gospel: Matthew 21: 1-11.
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."
Comment
Palm Sunday is the day we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, one week before His resurrection. As Jesus enters the holy city, He nears the culmination of a long journey toward Golgotha. He has come to save the lost (Lk 19:10), and now is the time—this was the place—to secure that salvation. Palm Sunday marks the start of what is often called “Passion Week”, the final seven days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Palm Sunday is the “beginning of the end” of Jesus’ work on earth.
Palm Sunday begins with Jesus and His disciples traveling over the Mount of Olives. The Lord sends two disciples ahead into the village of Bethphage to find an animal to ride. They find the unbroken colt of a donkey, just as Jesus had said they would (Lk 19: 29-30).). When they untie the colt, the owners begin to question them. The disciples with the answer Jesus had provided: “The Lord needs it” (Lk 19:31-34).. Amazingly, the owners are satisfied with that answer and let the disciples go. “They bring the donkey to Jesus, throw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it” (Lk 19:35).
As Jesus ascends toward Jerusalem, a large multitude gathers around Him. This crowd understands that Jesus is the Messiah. The crowd’s actions along the road give rise to the name “Palm Sunday”: “A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road” (Mt 21:8). In strewing their cloaks on the road, the people are giving Jesus the royal treatment similar to the honor King Jehu was given at his coronation (2 Kg 9:13).
On that first Palm Sunday over two thousand years ago, the people also honored Jesus verbally: “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ / ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ / ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” (Mt 21:9). In their praise of Jesus, the Jewish crowds were quoting the Psalmist, who said “Blessed in the name of Yahweh is he who is coming” Psalm 118:25-26, a prophecy acknowledging Christ as the Messiah. The allusion to a Messianic psalm drew resentment from the religious leaders present: “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’” (Lk 19:39). However, Jesus saw no need to rebuke those who told the truth. He replied, “I tell you . . . if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Lk 19:40).
Some 450 to 500 years prior to Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, the prophet Zechariah had prophesied the event we now call Palm Sunday: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! / Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! / See, your king comes to you, / righteous and victorious, / lowly and riding on a donkey, / on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zec 9:9). The prophecy was fulfilled in every particular, and it was indeed a time of rejoicing, as Jerusalem welcomed their King. Unfortunately, the celebration was not to last. The crowds looked for a Messiah who would rescue them politically and free them nationally, but Jesus had come to save them spiritually. Mankind’s primary need is spiritual, not political, cultural, or national salvation.
The crowds who are crying out “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday will be the same people who will cry out a few days later “Crucify Him!” This Sunday therefore sets the tone of the contradiction that we shall live all this week. It is the beginning of a week of mystery of dying and rising, the mystery of Christ as he is humiliated on a journey to the Cross and the mystery of his exaltation on Easter Sunday. It is the inauguration of the week of the mystery of suffering on Good Friday and glorification on Easter Sunday. It is the mystery of death that gives rise to life. It is the mystery of the apparent defeat on Good Friday, which is crowned with victory on Easter Sunday. It is a Sunday that combines agony and sadness with joy and ecstasy.
For us Christians, members of Christ’s body, our suffering should be a sharing of Christ’s suffering. Like Christ, our suffering should not shrink or diminish us. From the experience of Christ, Christians should know that their suffering has meaning because it opens them up to something joyful. If our suffering is our Good Fridays, then as Christians we must look forward to the joy of our Easter Sundays.
Our mind and heart shall be overwhelmed this week to see the suffering of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He suffers this way because of sin – the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and our own personal and individual sins. Christ’s sufferings spell out for us, as nothing else can, the infinite gravity of sin, which has called for the death of God himself made man; moreover, this physical and moral suffering which Jesus undergoes is also the most eloquent proof of his love for his Father – obedience unto death. Only one thing can therefore explain why Christ undergoes this redemptive passion – what one theologian has described as his immense, infinite, indescribable love for us.
Let us therefore pray for the grace and the courage to contemplate Jesus’ passion, identify ourselves with his suffering so we can share in his triumphal resurrection on Easter Sunday. Amen.
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