Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 2, 2023 - Palm Sunday: At the Mass - ABC
[Isa 50:4-7; Phil 2:6-11; A: Matt 26:14 - 27:66 or 27:11-54 B: Mark 14:1 - 15:47 or 15:1-39 C: Luke 22:14 - 23:56 or 23:1-49,163]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. The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. [Isaiah] 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, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [Philippians[
The imagery in the first two scriptures for Palm Sunday Mass contrast sharply with the gospel scripture that is read at the beginning of the procession with palms. In the latter, Jesus enters Jerusalem with a crowd spreading palm branches on the road in front of the donkey on which he is riding (in fulfillment of a prophecy) and shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest." But in the celebration of the Eucharist, the scripture is taken from the "song of the suffering servant" in Isaiah and from St. Paul's hymn in Philippians which speaks of Christ's obedience to his human destiny "even to death on a cross," - the most humiliating death reserved by the Romans for terrible crime. If we are drawn into the experience of Holy Week, beginning today, we must find ourselves in the crowd with its change of moods from hero welcome to lynch mob.
It would be easy, 2,000+ years later to say, "All's well that ends well," and focus on the resurrection on Easter Sunday. But we cannot separate Jesus' life, death and resurrection from each other and treat the crucifixion as a terrible misfortune that we pass over quickly to move on to Easter joy. To be sure, it is like a liturgical roller coaster to go from the parade into Jerusalem to the trial before Pilate, to agonizing death on the cross, to the empty tomb, to the post-resurrection appearances and then to Pentecost! But these are saving events. The daily scriptures for this next week will feature more of the "Suffering Servant" imagery, climaxing on Good Friday with the graphic description dating centuries before Christ. The gospel scriptures will dwell on the treachery of Judas' betrayal.
With Holy Thursday, we begin the drama of the Eucharist, followed on Good Friday with the suffering and crucifixion. The Easter Vigil, with its baptismal imagery will bring us all to understand what St. Paul says in Romans 6:3-5: "Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life." I pray that we may all enter into this next week conscious of what Christ Jesus accomplished and continues to accomplish for us to have "newness of life." AMEN