COURAGE: CHRIST’S TRIUMPHANT ENTRY
Liturgically, Palm Sunday commemorates or re-enacts the courage of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. A historical and bold entry that eventually leads to his passion, death and resurrection. It is not only a fulfilment of the plan or will of God the Father, as Jesus himself indicated to us. It is a demonstration of the love of God to save us at all costs from slavery to sin and Satan.
Therefore, Passion or Palm Sunday ushers us into the holiest week of our faith. A quiet and silent moment of sober reflection on the history, mysteries and memory of our salvation won by Christ Jesus through his passion, death and resurrection.
TRINITARIAN ACTION OF SALVATION: COURAGE TO RISK LOVE FOR HUMANITY
The salvific action of Christ is the fulfilment of God the Father’s will through the action of the Holy Spirit. Congruently, it can infer that the work of Creation, salvation and sanctification is a cooperation of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is the mystery of our faith that makes Holy Week a fundamental celebration of our Christian faith.
THE MYSTERY AND REALITY OF HOLY WEEK: COURAGE TO DO GOD’S WILL
Holy Week is a sacred moment of our faith and Christian life. When we are encouraged or invited to relive, to participate actively and consciously in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Holy week is a holiday time that enables us to engage in our Church’s events and activities. It is not a moment to seek pleasure or a holiday without the living of faith.
Instead, it is a solemn time of silence, contemplation, reflection, and meditation as we participate in the liturgical activities of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.
OUR THEME: COURAGE TO ENTER JERUSALEM
The Church celebrates this sixth Sunday of Lent as both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. The readings invite us to a moment of reflection on the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. The mystery of his triumphant entry to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise to glory and victory as our Lord and Saviour.
This is the time of year we stop to remember and relive the events which brought about our redemption and salvation.
What we commemorate and relive during this week is not just Jesus’ dying and rising but our dying and rising in Jesus, which will result in our healing, reconciliation, and redemption.
Attentive Participating in the Holy Week liturgy will deepen our relationship with God, increase our faith, and strengthen our lives as disciples of Jesus.
Today’s liturgy combines contrasting moments, one of glory and the other of suffering. The royal welcome of Jesus in Jerusalem and the drama of the trial culminated in the crucifixion, death, and burial of Christ.
FIRST READING: ISAIAH 50:4-7
In the first reading of the day, the Prophet Isaiah reminds us of the Song of the Suffering Servant of God who suffers unjustly to save many.
The poetic passage of the prophecy of Isaiah depicts Jesus Christ, who willingly and generously did the Father’s will. He submitted to God’s will, knowing he would come out victoriously without shame.
This song of Suffering Servant of God invites us to contemplate the simplicity and humility of God, in Christ, who underwent pains, sufferings, and humiliation for others to be justified.
PSALM 22
The refrain for today’s responsorial Psalm (Ps 22),” My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” plunges us into the heart of Christ’s Passion. This desperate cry of Christ continues to resound in the world today through the suffering masses. Our brothers and sisters are victims of human poverty, violence, hatred and injustice.
It is a song of a victim and victor who trusts in God through his suffering and pain. We, too are invited by the psalmist to trust in God when things get rougher and tougher around us.
SECOND READING: PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians praises the self-emptying of God’s Servant: Jesus Christ, who died to save his people. A self-giving, self-donation or self-emptying of God: the Son to become slave and accept death on a cross.
That earned Him a Name above every other name in heaven, on earth, and beneath the world and with every tongue acclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God.
In other words, this hymn of the Humble Christ submitting willingly to God to save mankind. It encourages us to reflect on God’s vulnerability and brokenness to save humanity.
THE GOSPEL: LUKE 22: 14-23: 56
Luke is the gospel of God’s mercy. Hence, while edifying Christ’s passion narrative, he underlines Jesus’ mercy and prayer.
However, the passion narrative of Jesus in Luke presents us with Jesus’ ultimate moment in life. His sufferings and death with the expectation of the resurrection are a concrete reminder of Jesus´ submission to God’s Will. To save us through the narrow or difficult way of the Cross. A terrible, painful and agonising way to die for others.
THE GREATEST CONSPIRACY OF EVIL AND THE CULTURE OF SILENCE OF THE GOOD
Jesus’ passion and death were one of the greatest conspiracies of all time when evil men under religious and political pretences and excuses tried to silence an innocent, just and good man. This leads us to one fundamental question: Why did Christ die?
- For the Jewish leaders and authorities, Jesus was an intruder and an impostor they must do away with to keep and preserve their religious traditions and customs.
- The Jewish crowd, who witnessed to Jesus’ teaching, preaching and healing, yet allowed themselves to be manipulated or instigated by envious religious authorities to demand his execution.
- Peter, who denied Jesus with the survival instinct to preserve his life.
- Judas Iscariot, who sold Jesus to twist him to act as a political Messiah against the Romans’ domination.
- Christ’s Disciples, who deserted him with the pretence to live and fight another day.
- For Pilate and Roman authorities, Jesus was the scapegoat who must take the fall, though innocent as he was, for there to be peace and order in the land.
- For the soldiers, Jesus was a victim of obeying the last order or command of superior authority with no moral obligation to their brutality.
- For the Jewish people, Jesus was like any revolutionary figure who came to distort the existing status quo and stability with there was more preferable to this unestablished order of Jesus’ way. So Jesus was the lesser evil to do away with than abusive and manipulative leaders. Sadly, the events of Jesus’ passion and death were ´evitable´, but for excuses of the parties involved. The hostility of all parties was rationalised within the deniability of excuses. It was a conspiracy of evil over good.
- For the High priest Cephas, one man should die in place of the many.
- For the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, High Priest, Priests and Elders, Jesus was a religious blasphemer and impostor that they must do away with in order not to contaminate the religion.
ABUNDANCE OF GOODNESS
Yet, amidst the conspiracy, there were the good people who moved with empathy to help the suffering innocent man.
A. Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus with his cross, though compelled to help out as a stranger.
B. The women of Jerusalem who mourned and wept for Jesus and would accompany him all through to Calvary.
C. Mary, Jesus’ mother and the disciple Jesus loved, though in pain and sorrow, supported Christ’s suffering and death to accomplish in silence.
D. The centurion who amidst brutality and injustice truly acclaimed and professed Christ as “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
E. Joseph of Arimathea, who publicly owned up to belonging to Christ-fold. Sought permission to bring down Christ’s body as well as provide the tomb and materials for a dignified burial.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HOLY WEEK: IT IS
1) A week of remembrance and appreciation
2) A week of thanksgiving
3) A week of repentance and reconciliation
4) A week to keep Christ’s New Commandment of Agape love
5) A week to deepen our Faith and strengthen our relationship with God.
Significance of Palm Sunday: A day to remember two contrasting moments of Christ’s triumph and tragedy.
SOME LIFE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES TODAY:
1) Does Jesus weep over the sinful situation of our souls?
2) Am I a barren fig tree?
3) Will Jesus need to cleanse my heart with his whip?
4) Do I welcome Jesus into my heart as our personal Lord, Saviour and God?
5) Are we ready to carry Jesus like a donkey on Palm Sunday to our homes and workplaces, conveying his love, mercy, compassion and spirit of forgiveness to others?
6) Do we reread our own story in the characters in Jesus’ passion story as well?
Therefore, Passion or Palm Sunday ushers us into the holiest week of our faith. A quiet and silent moment of sober reflection on the history, mysteries and memory of our salvation won by Christ Jesus through his passion, death and resurrection.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, your suffering, passion, and death, though unjust in all ramifications, brought victory and salvation to all who live under the bondage of sins, death, evil and the devil. May we never have the reason to participate in evil under any false excuses and pretences for the ‘’greater good”, out of sympathy or cowardice of standing for the truth and justice no matter the cost. Amen
