Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Mt 21:1-11 (proc.) Is 50:4-7.  Ps 22.  Phil 2:6-11.  Mt 27:11-54

Deacon Jim McFadden

       Every year is a moving experience on Palm Sunday as we go with Jesus towards the Temple, accompanying him on the ascent which leads to the Cross.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem, people then and now throughout the centuries acclaim him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mt 21:9).

            What are we doing when we join the procession?  Is there something going on here that is more than a familiar ritual, a quaint custom that the Church does every year?  Does it have anything to do with the reality of our life in the 21^st century, plagued by such formidable concerns as global warming, the residual effects of the pandemic, the War in Ukraine and other wars that Pope Francis has called cumulatively a 3^rd World War in piecemeal?  Does Palm Sunday speak to our world in 2023?

            To answer this, we have to go back to the first Palm Sunday: what was Jesus’ intention and what actually happened?  St. Paul sets the stage in our 2^nd reading when he says that Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7), which frames Holy Week.  In short, Jesus presents himself as servant: on Holy Thursday, he washes the feet of his disciples;  at the Last Supper, he institutes the Eucharist in which he gives himself completely to us in the form of consecrated bread and wine; on Good Friday he is presented as the suffering and victorious servant (cf. Is 52:13).   Tomorrow, we will hear the prophecy of Isaiah about him: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold” (Is 4:21).  What all of this says is that God saved us by serving us.  We tend to think it should be the other way around;  but, no, he is the one who freely chose to serve us, for he loved us first.

            This love is going to come at a great cost.  It is really hard to love and not to be loved in return, which is exactly what happened to Jesus on the Cross.  Moreover, it is really difficult to follow the footsteps of the suffering servant if we don’t allow ourselves to be served by God.

            Just exactly how did the Lord serve us?  By giving his life for us.  We are so dear to him, that we cost him his life.  Brothers and sisters, make no mistake: Jesus’ love for you is no joke.  His love for you led him to absorb all the sins of the world, to die to sin—for what?  So that you could have eternal life. And, the Lord did all of this to the point of experiencing the most painful situations for those he loved: betrayal and abandonment.

            Betrayal.  Jesus suffered betrayal by his inner circle of disciples, one of whom sold him out to the Pharisees for 30 pieces of silver—the going price of a slave; and, our first pope denied him three times.  And, the people whom he came to save, shouted in unison: “Crucify him!” (Mt 27:22).  He was condemned by the religious establishment who simply couldn’t fathom that Yahweh would become one of us.  So, they joined hands with the Roman occupiers,  who would do the actual crucifixion, but not before Pontius Pilate would wash his hands of Galilean preacher who many purported to be the King of the Jews.  Put yourself in Jesus’ place: how would you react to this extreme rejection and betrayal?  Jesus placed his trust in our hands and he was met with acute disappointment that an ordinary person would be justified to feel “why bother?”  Is all of this worth it?  It is because that’s what Love does and Jesus is Love incarnate.  More to it, being made in the image of the Triune God who is Love, we are born to be loved and to love.  That’s why it had to be painful for Jesus to experience such rejection.  Indeed, most painful thing is to be betrayed by someone who should be loyal to you and close to you.  How painful it was for God who is Love to experience betrayal.  But, that’s what sin does.

            Abandonment.  Compounding the sense of betrayal, Jesus even had to deal with the experience of abandonment.  Jesus says from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (27:46).  These are powerful, inscrutable words.  How could the Son of God feel abandoned by his very own Father?  It was bad enough that he experienced being abandoned of his own disciples who fled out of fear.  Notice that he doesn’t use the familial ‘Abba,” but uses the generic term ‘God,’ and he asks in the most excruciating “Why?”  Why did you abandon me?  Jesus is embracing our human experience to the very depths, which includes that feeling of being alone, of being cut loose.   Jesus is bringing to the fore what we all experience at one time in our lives: that feeling of desolation, where nothing seems to be right.

            Why did all this take place?  Once again, everything Jesus ever did was for our sake, to serve us.  So, when our backs are against the wall, when we find ourselves at a dead end when we’ve lost so much, when there doesn’t seem to be an off-ramp to the turmoil in our lives, when it seems that God himself is not responding, we should remember that we’re not alone.  Jesus knows what we’re experiencing because he has been there himself.  Jesus experienced total abandonment that he had never experienced in his 33 years in order to be with us in everything.  He did it for you, for me, for all of us.  Fast-forwarding 2000 years, Jesus is saying to us today, “Do not be afraid, you are not alone.  We can get through this together.  I experienced your desolation in order to be close to you.” Jesus is saying to each one of us: “Don’t let go.  Keep courage; open your heart to my love because I will never stop loving you.  Eventually, you will experience the consolation of God who sustains you.  I did that when I handed over my Spirit when I took my last dying breath.  You can do the same because you are in me and as our Father reminded us in the parable of the Prodigal Son: “Everything I have is yours.”

            Brothers and sisters, as members of the mystical Body of Christ, what can we do to imitate Jesus?  To begin with, we can refuse to betray him for whom we are meant to be in love now and forever.  We cannot abandon what really matters in our lives.  The goods of the world should not be our Ultimate Concern because they all pass away.  We were put on this earth “to love God with our whole heart and soul and to love our neighbor as ourself” (The Great Commandment).  Palm Sunday reminds us to take seriously what really matters and not to get caught up in those things that matter less.  As we move into Holy Week, we must remind ourselves that our life is not about me, but is about God, whose image we are made.  So, we live how God operates: namely, we embrace a life of self-giving generosity.  To the point, our life is of no use if not used to serve others. 

            So, during these holy days, let us stand before the Crucified One—which is the fullest measure of how much God loves us.  Let us stand before the God who serves us to the point of giving his life, and fixing our gaze on the Crucified Jesus, let us ask for the grace to live in order to serve.  Amen.