Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Rodolf Horst SVD – Christ the King Seminary, Quezon City
Palm Sunday and Commemoration of the Passion of the Lord – B
The liturgy starts with a happy gospel, recounting Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with the death of the One who was acclaimed king a few days earlier.
The same crowd that was cheering him during the parade was jeering at him a few days later. They had been impressed by his sermons, fed with loaves and fishes; many had been healed of their diseases. But as soon as the tide began to turn against Jesus, in no time, did they go with the tide. Their cries of “Hosanna” turned to shouts of a very different kind: “Crucify him!”
Is Holy Week, then, only about violence and humiliation? No doubt, violence and humiliation form part of the scenery. But we should look deeper; we should look beyond this violence and humiliation. Beyond it we discover that the events of Holy Week are much more about love and humility.
That’s why on Palm Sunday we read the powerful hymn in St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It sings of Jesus, who was God, dwelling in heavenly glory, but who freely plunged to the depths of human misery, joining himself to our frail nature. As if this act of humility were not enough, the hymn says that Jesus further humbled himself, accepting the status of a slave.
To share in Christ’s glory we must first walk on his road to glory. And that road is the road to Calvary, the road Jesus walked out of love for us sinners. Bloodied, exhausted, burdened with the heavy crossbeam, he walked that road, step by step. And these words, left unsaid, gave sense to each painful step, “I do this for you, sinners, for I love you.”
“I love you” is not so much something we say as something we have to demonstrate. Diamonds may be a touching testimony to love, but the laying down of one’s life is even more convincing.
Jesus’ gift of his life is a gift so powerful that it can melt the coldest and softens the hardest of hearts.
How is our response to such a profound love? Are we unpredictable like the crowd, today waving joyfully our palaspas (palms) but go back tomorrow to our sinful lives?
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