The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, March 24, 2024, as Palm Sunday. It is also known as Passion Sunday because the theme of Jesus’ suffering and death begins with the reading of the Passion.
The first reading, from the prophecy of Isaiah, is the third of what is usually called “the Servant Songs” of Isaiah. In it, the prophet speaks of the ‘Servant of Yahweh’ who would do the Father’s will and suffer for the sins of others. This passage blends well with Saint Mark’s passion narrative of this day, with its theme of noble and innocent suffering. Like the suffering servant in Isaiah, Christ accepts his suffering and death for the salvation of mankind.
In the second reading, from the Letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul presents one of the most beautiful passages he has ever written. He explains to his converts of Philippi how Christ came from heaven, humbled himself, died for their sins and God raised him up from the dead on the third day.
The Gospel presents Saint Mark’s Passion narrative, which is a story of victory, with Christ committing into his Father’s hands the Spirit which anointed him, so that his disciples might receive the same Spirit from on high. It presents a paradox of people acclaiming Christ one day as the Son of David, singing ‘Hosanna’ to him, only to turn around a few days later and shout, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ In the course of the Holy Week, let us pray to identify ourselves with the passion of our Lord so we can share in the glory of his resurrection.
First Reading: Isaiah 50: 4-7.
The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue. So that I may know how to reply to the weary, 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 insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed.
Comment
Of all the Old Testament Books, pride of place in the liturgy belongs to the Book of Isaiah. Its sublime doctrine on the Messiah and the Suffering Servant of God makes it a natural choice for the Advent preparation of Christmas and the Lenten prelude to Holy Week. As Saint Jerome once remarked, Isaiah is more a Gospel than a prophecy. It leads the collection of Old Testament prophets more for its religious importance and beauty than for its age and size.
Isaiah is considered the greatest of all the prophets. He was born in about 765 BC of a Jerusalem aristocratic family and received his prophetic vocation in 740 BC and his long ministry spanned a period of over forty years.
The Book of Isaiah covers three distinct periods of Israel’s history. The first thirty-nine chapters were written by the prophet himself; the second and third parts were written by other prophets when the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon and after their return from exile.
This passage is from the third ‘song of the servant of Yahweh’, which emphasizes the servant’s docility to the word of God. He is an obedient servant of God who suffers without a word of complaint because of his total trust in God. However, if he suffers in silence, it is not out of cowardice, rather it is because God helps him and makes him stronger than the people persecuting him. In the end, he will stand strong while his tormentors will be struck down.
The Church sees the words of this song as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ, especially what the song says about the servant of God suffering in silence. We are urged to recall this song as we meditate on the suffering of our Lord, on how his enemies “spat on his face; and struck him; and some slapped him” (Mt 26:67).
But Christ has full trust in the Father. He knows his Father loves him and will in the end glorify him. For that, he is ready to obey his Father onto death on the cross. We pray for the courage to stand before the suffering Lord with what the Psalmist calls ‘clean hands and a clean heart’ (Ps 23), desiring not worthless things but blessing from the Lord and reward from our God. Amen.
Second Reading: Philippians 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 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.
Comment
Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians is one of those letters generally referred to as his “Captivity Epistles”, written when he was in one prison or another. The other three are his Letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. Although it is not very clear from where Saint Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi, more and more church scholars now believe he wrote it from Ephesus at the time when he was imprisoned in that city during his third missionary journey around the years 54-57 AD (Acts 20: 1-3).
Philippi was an important city in Saint Paul’s time, both commercially and from a historical point of view. It was in Macedonia and anyone travelling from Asia Minor to Greece would have stopped there. In the fourth century BC, Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, had built a fortified camp there that was named after him. Around the year 168 BC, the Romans took control of it and it became a Roman colony with the inhabitants enjoying the same rights and privileges as those of any Italian city.
The church in that city was the first church Paul founded when he came to Europe during his second missionary journey, around the year 50 or 51 AD (Acts 16ff). He arrived in that city with Silas, Timothy, and Luke and was so successful in his preaching that many Jews came to believe. This led some prominent Jews to bring charges against them in court and after having been flogged and imprisoned, they left for Thessalonica (Acts 16: 19-24).
In this day’s reading, Saint Paul makes clear that Jesus Christ is our God, and was God before he took human form in the Incarnation. As we say in the Nicene Creed, Christ is “the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true God.” Although he was God, Christ did not insist on this dignity but rather took the form of a servant. He chose the way of humility and obedience to his Father to the point of death on the cross for our salvation.
Christ’s humility and obedience to his Father reveals his love for us, for, as Saint John puts it, “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15: 13). That is what Christ has done for us. We pray with Saint Augustine: “Do not abandon me, and do not despise me, God, my Saviour. And do not despise a mortal for daring to seek eternity. For you, O God, heal the wounds of my sin. Amen.”
Gospel: Mark 11: 1-10
When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, 'Why are you doing this?' reply, 'The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.'" So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it. So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!"
Comment
Jesus had visited Jerusalem various times before although he had not always wanted to draw attention to himself. This time is different. He accepts the crowd’s acclaim by entering the Holy City like a pacific king. His public ministry is about to come to a close. He has completed his mission; he has preached and worked miracles; he has revealed himself as God wished he should; now with this triumphant entry into Jerusalem, he shows that he is the Messiah. By shouting “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!”, the people proclaim Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. It is this triumphant entry into Jerusalem that marks Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday.
It inaugurates an important week during which Christians focus on the mystery of their salvation. It is the beginning of a week of the 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 a 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 the story of a crowd that today cries “Hosanna!” to Jesus only to turn around and shout “Crucify him” on Good Friday. It is because of these two different sides of this mystery that we call this Sunday Passion or Palm Sunday. It is a Sunday that combines agony and sadness with joy and ecstasy.
This Sunday therefore sets the tone of the contradiction that we shall live all this week, Holy Week. 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 understand that their suffering is not in vain. It is a suffering that opens 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.
On this Palm Sunday, we are privileged to become immersed in Saint Mark’s great Passion narrative in which the kingship of Jesus emerges with great clarity.
We read that upon being brought before the Sanhedrin, Jesus is asked whether he is the "Christ"—that is, the Messiah—an implicit reference to David. When Jesus calmly responds, "I am," the high priest tears his robes, for he cannot understand how a shackled criminal can possibly be the kingly descendant of David. Upon being presented to Pilate, Jesus is asked practically the same question: "Are you the king of the Jews?" Again, he responds: "You say so." This leads the soldiers to mock him, placing a purple cloak on his shoulders and a crown of thorns on his head.
This week, our minds, hearts, and souls shall be overwhelmed 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 suffering spells out for us, as nothing else can, the infinite gravity of sin, which leads to the death of God himself made man; moreover, this physical and moral suffering that 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, and share later in his triumphal resurrection on Easter Sunday. Amen.
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