Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Opening Gospel: Luke 19:28-40 “Blessed is the king who comes in the Name of the Lord.”

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7 “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”

Psalm: 22  “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?”

Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11 “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.”

Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56  “This is My Body, which will be given for you…This cup is the New Covenant in My Blood, which will be shed for you.”

Today we begin Mass with a Gospel reading from Luke, where Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem on a donkey. “The people were spreading their cloaks on the road…the whole multitude of His disciples began to praise God aloud with joy…they proclaimed: Blessed is the king who comes in the Name of the Lord. Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest.” The disciples must have been high on the acclamation of the crowd, perhaps thinking that Jesus was finally getting the kind of attention He deserved. What a happy way to begin our Mass! We all ought to proclaim “Hosanna!” when we encounter Jesus. This is why we bow when the crucifix and the Book of the Gospels pass us in the entrance procession; we are acknowledging God’s Presence. Jesus is truly Present in the Eucharist, but at Mass, He is also Present in the person of the priest, who is in persona Christi, acting in the Person of Christ. He is Present in the Word of God (the Book of the Gospels), and He is Present in the gathered assembly. Jesus is truly Present in the Mass in these manners. We ought to rejoice at His Presence and give thanks that we have been invited to participate in the Mass.

With the First Reading, we turn from the triumphant entry to the Passion of Jesus. In the First Reading, the prophet Isaiah prophesies the Suffering Servant: the Messiah. First, Isaiah affirms that the Word of God can “speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.” Have you ever been awakened by the Word of God when you were weary? I know that I have! Turning to prayer in my weariness has given me new life, fresh energy, and an abiding peace. Isaiah then details some of the suffering of the Messiah: he will be beaten, his beard will be plucked, and he will be spat upon. Yet, “the Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced…I shall not be put to shame.” It can be difficult in our struggles and persecutions to hold firm to God’s Word, knowing that if you are standing firmly in the Truth, you shall not be put to shame regardless of what others do to you. This is the Way, which is promised to be sure but not easy, correct, but not popular. It is not the broad, smooth road to destruction; no, it is the narrow, hard way to Life.  

Today’s psalmist cries out from the depths of the heart: “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” The psalmist details his sorrows: “all who see me scoff at me; they mock me…they wag their heads.” Suffering others who despise you is a Cross indeed. How can you bear it? “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13) Stick with Jesus, who understands all that you are suffering. The psalmist continues: “they have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones…they divide my garments among them.” Does this sound familiar? Written hundreds of years before Christ, this psalm was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak of the travails that Jesus would undergo. At the end of Psalm 22, there is a cry of confidence in God: “But you, O Lord, be not far from me; O my help, hasten to aid me…in the midst of the assembly I will praise You…revere Him, all you descendants of Israel!” We must heed these words of trust in the Lord and not dwell too much on the beginning of the psalm, those words of abandonment torn from the heart of the Suffering Servant. Though He is in extremis, He sighs with conviction that God is with Him. He is with us, too, in our pain, grief, and troubles. Keep your heart centered on God, especially in the tough times. He loves us and never leaves us.

The Second Reading comes from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. St. Paul speaks of  Jesus’ Divinity and His Humanity. “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave…” That is, He chose to become like us, slaves to death and sin. Naturally, Jesus did not ever sin, and He conquered death, but He did take on a human nature. He thought with a human mind, chose with a human will, worked with a human body, and loved with a human heart. He never lost His Divinity; His is a hypostatic union of human and Divine natures. One Person: the Person of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. Two natures: human and Divine. In His human nature, He “humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.” This was the most degraded and humiliating death the Romans could devise. Jesus went to extreme lengths to show His inscrutable, scandalous love for us. When we gaze upon Jesus on the Cross, how can we possibly doubt His love for us?

St. Luke narrates the Passion of the Lord, and we participate in the reading of the Passion. It’s very moving to stand for this Gospel, feeling as the crowd must have felt as they witnessed Jesus being condemned to death. Some in that crowd perhaps cared nothing; some were antagonistic toward Jesus; others were grieved at this unbelievable, astounding condemnation of our good and gentle Lord.

First, we hear the words of institution: the words our Lord spoke as He established the Eucharist and ordained His Apostles as priests as He bade them to “do this in memory of Me.” Peter earnestly pledges to go to prison or death with Jesus, only to be told, “before the cock crows this day, you will deny three times that you know Me.” What a stinging rebuke! How that must have darted into Peter’s heart! Can we see ourselves in Peter, rash to judgment yet shy of honoring a commitment? In our hearts, we know that we resemble Simon Peter. We find follow-through difficult; we rush in where angels fear to tread. Thank God that Jesus is with us always, and the Holy Spirit gives us the words we need to say if we are open to His graces. Let us slow down and allow room for the Holy Spirit.

Jesus now moves to the Garden of Gethsemane, praying for God’s Will to be done. This is challenging for us: to deny our own will and pray that God’s Will be done. Jesus found it so agonizing that He sweat blood. This very human response to His upcoming Passion helps us to identify with Him: He has felt very real pain, very real abandonment, very real betrayal, and very real sorrow. He can help you when you feel those things as well. Come to Him with your needs: He will never let you down.

Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss: he lied with his body. His action was one of friendship, yet his intent was one of deceit and duplicity. Jesus is not fooled, of course. Do we lie with our bodies, too? Do our actions belie our intentions? This is a matter for an intense examination of conscience. Those contracepting or involved with each other outside of a Catholic marriage are promising to “give everything” to the other while withholding their fertility or the complete commitment which comes with a sacramental marriage. This is widespread in our culture and many people are casual about this lack of total commitment. We must pray for God’s Will to be done in our lives, even – and perhaps especially – when that requires self-sacrifice and self-control.

Jesus is arrested and brought to the Sanhedrin for His first trial. They blindfold Jesus and strike Him, mocking Him by saying: “Prophesy! Who is it that struck You?” Little did they know – and how shocked they would have been to discover – that Jesus could easily have told them not only their names, but their sins as well! When Jesus is questioned, He plainly told the council of elders that He is the Christ. Still they did not believe Him – despite all of the miracles He worked, despite His teaching which deeply touched many, despite His obvious purity and goodness – and they “arose and brought Him before Pilate.”

Pontius Pilate, whose name is recorded in history because of Jesus, knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges brought against him. He wanted nothing to do with Him, so he sent Him to Herod. This man “was very glad to see Jesus…he had heard about Him and had been hoping to see Him perform some sign.” Herod was curious about Jesus but was not open to Him. He and his soldiers “treated Him contemptuously and mocked Him” before sending Him back to Pilate, who agreed to have Him scourged and then set free.

The crowd was stirred up and asked for the release of Barabbas, “imprisoned for a rebellion…and for murder.” Have you ever made such a shockingly bad choice in your life? If you have opted for a mortal sin rather than choosing God, then you have indeed made such a poor choice. Thank God that we have the sacrament of Confession to repair our relationship with God; we have trillions of opportunities to turn back to Him and undo that poor choice.

Jesus was scourged and then made to carry His Cross. Simon of Cyrene was dragooned into helping Him carry that Cross. Are we Barabbas, happy to let Jesus carry the Cross alone? Or are we Simon, shouldering our portion of the burden? Is it not wonderful to look to our side and see Jesus underneath that Cross of ours? Jesus was crucified between two criminals: Dismas and Gesmas. While Gesmas mocked Jesus, Dismas saw in the ragged man on the Cross a king; he declared, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” Jesus immediately rewarded the faith of this “good thief” by averring: “Amen, I say to you, today You will be with Me in Paradise.” Never doubt His Divine Mercy! Our sins are a drop in the ocean of His Mercy, but we must turn to Him with contrition and confidence.

We all kneel after we read, “Father, into Your Hands I commend my Spirit,” for we honor His sacrifice, the sacrifice which saved us from sin and death and opened the Gates of Heaven. Joseph of Arimathea buries Jesus with honor, wrapping Him in a hundred pounds of nard, herbs, and spices before laying His Body “in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried.” Do we treat His Body with the requisite respect when we receive Him in the Eucharist? Have we examined our conscience, been contrite as we recited the Confiteor, and come forward to receive Him, conscious of His Real Presence? Do we thank Him for the great graces we receive when we partake of the Eucharist? Let us treat the Body of Christ with the love and honor He deserves. Let us wrap Him in layers of adoration and lay Him in our hearts, in which no other “god” has been enthroned.

As we leave Palm Sunday Mass, we are subdued, as were Mary and St. John as they left His tomb. We await His Resurrection while we observe Holy Week: Holy Thursday and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper; Good Friday and the Stations of the Cross and the Veneration of the Cross; and then finally the Easter Vigil, when the church lights up gradually as we move from the gloom of the tomb to the bright lights, incense, bells, and joyous singing of the Resurrection. For now, our souls in silence wait during Holy Week.