The Journey of His Passion: From Jerusalem to Calvary!

 (Homily For Palm Sunday, Year B)

     Today marks the beginning of the Holy Week or the “Great Week”, which will be crowned with the Pasqual Triduum, the culminating point of the whole liturgical year. In this WEEK, the Church celebrates in her Liturgy the great mysteries of her redemption (Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord). In the Holy Week God gives us an appointment of an existential and salvific REALITY-SHOW of the ‘Man’ on the Cross. The Cross, therefore, is at the center of this week, but not just as an ordinary instrument, but because of the ‘Man’ on it, who made it a sublime and salvific image. As such, we are called to ‘re-live’ with faith and love these events of our Salvation. In our Eucharistic celebration, we read the passion of the Lord, but prior to that, we celebrated his entrance into Jerusalem (His Triumphant entry), in the midst of acclamations by the people, the shouts of Hosanna that decorously accompanied Jesus, and the road that was decorated with palm fronts. In his triumphant entry we could imagine the presence of people of different calibers, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, all full of expectation, and yet they were not too sure of what was happening, they were pushing and pulling all around him, singing and dancing, shouting and ululating: “Hossanah! Glory to God, hail the King, Son of God, Son of David, Alleluia”. On the other hand, there were also the scribes, friends and opponents who understood better than others where all this would lead to.

     The disciples and the crowd proclaimed Jesus King and he was accompanied majestically, they hailed him as King who comes in the name of the Lord. They hailed Him with Hosanna, because in Jesus’ public ministry, he healed their sick, fed the hungry and performed so many miracles. These wonders he wrought in their midst aroused in them the desire to crown Him King, but afterwards the whole game changed from shouts of acclamation to shouts of elimination. Who would have imagined that the crowd which welcomed Jesus with such excitement and enthusiasm during his entrance into Jerusalem would turn against him with such hostility, as to demand for his elimination and death, from the ululation of Hossanah to the demand of his crucifixion. It is now obvious that those shouts and ululations of Hossanah were superficial.

     The readings of today unify two events: the commemoration of the triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem and the “reality-show” of the Passion of Christ. The first event was remembered with the rite of entrance through the procession with palm fronts; with the proclamation of the Gospel about the entrance of Jesus in the Holy City. And the second event auspicates the reality of Jesus’ Passion. The essence of our reflection and of the events we are celebrating today is not as a result of the desire to remember just the past, but rather to render present today the Event of Christ through and in the liturgical celebration and in our lives. Hence, we are called to enter with Jesus into the drama of his Passion.

     In the first reading (Is. 50:4-7) we see what could be termed the prophecy of Jesus’ Passion: “For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spite” (Is. 50, 5-6). By means of this prophetic passage we are called to reflect on the third song of the Servant of Yahweh, which serves as a prefiguration of the sufferings of the future Messiah. Even the responsorial Psalm prefigures the Passion of Jesus, in the following words, “All who see me deride me. They curl their lips, they toss their heads” (Ps. 22:7).

     The second reading (Phil. 2:6-11) presents the hymn of St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians, which in no small way illustrates the mystery of Christ’s self-emptying in his death and supreme exaltation. St. Paul speaks of the kenosis (self-emptying) of Christ, “who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being” (Phil. 2:7). St. Paul points to his glorification thus: “And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names” (Phil. 2:9).  In this Christological presentation, the identity of Christ was revealed: Jesus is the Son of God, who in order to save man, became man, through an itinerary of suffering, humiliation and death.

     Indeed, the liturgy of the Palm Sunday presents to us a complete chart of the mystery of our salvation. Let us not forget, that we are called to be active in the whole event, because it was for the sake of man and his salvation that the Son of God passed through this heroic adventure. As such, St. Paul sets out to propose a model we all have to imitate, if man is at the center of Jesus’s Passion, he cannot remain only as a passive spectator. Little wonder, the apostle invites: “make your own the mind of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). We are invited therefore, to follow with faith and love the passion of the Lord.

     This year we are called to reflect on the Passion of Christ according to the Gospel narrative of St. Mark (MK. 14:1-15, 47). Jesus through and with his Passion realizes the prophecies and the plan of salvation designed by the Father. The Gospel of Mark is believed to be the first gospel to be written. The Passion narrative of Mark is dry and disconcerting. Jesus does not react, he does not talk, he does not utter any word. However, Jesus was not resigned to his fate, rather he gave himself. Mark opens his account of the event leading to the Crucifixion with a sort of contrast between the malice of the mean Jewish leaders and Judas, and the love for Jesus demonstrated by the crowd, especially by one  unnamed woman. Let us remember that in the context of Mark’s gospel the initial words are the declaration of Jesus as the Christ (Messiah) and Son of God (Mk. 1:1), which are reconfirmed in the profession of faith of the centurion at the foot of the Cross (15:39). For in the gospel of Mark, it is at the point of total annihilation of the Son of man that his identity is revealed. It is plausible to note that some Scholars so far retain that the account of Mark, even though it doesn’t have much theological re-elaboration, appears more adherent to historical reality.

     In Mark’s narrative, the death of Jesus is not so much considered from the point of view of the Innocent Servant of God, but as an agonizing conflict between the powers of light and that of darkness. Though this is considered to be apocalyptic. The cry of Jesus is considered an announcement of the victory of light over darkness. And the rending of the temple veil is a symbol of that victory. Here, we can allude to the hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 in seeing Jesus as the Redeemer who emptied himself (cf. 2Cor. 8:9; Gal. 3:13). His death leads to his exaltation and triumph over the powers of darkness.

     We can ask ourselves many questions in the light of Christ’s Passion and sufferings. Each one of us can read his own life in the light of the Passion, in order to discover those internal incongruences, contradictions and ingratitude towards God. Let us have a flash back to what transpired during his triumphant entry and during the Passion, here we see once again the power of the crowd. And the truth has to be said that sometimes we behave like the crowd that was ululating HOSSANAH and afterwards demand for His death. It is easy to be part of the crowd that attend morning masses and Sunday masses, to take front seats and places of honour in the church, and when Jesus needs us most, we are no where to be found, we are like the crowd that turned against Him and refused to go with Him to the Cross. In all, let us not fail to recognize and appreciate Him for He died on the Cross for our salvation, and He is always ready to welcome us in his Mercy. The immensity of his mercy cannot but propel us to cry for our sins of betrayal, of denial and of abandonment of Him.

     In the Passion, Jesus prays to the Father: “Abba, Father! He said, For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it” (Mk. 14:36), the prayer of Jesus takes him closer to the Father, it raised him up, and he ascended from the desire “to remove the cup” to the desire of “what the Father wills and not what he wills”. This is what prayer does in our life too, it transcends us and takes us closer to God. Prayer helped him to stand his ground before his terrifying Passion and death. Prayer indeed, transforms our sufferings to avenues for blessing. Through His sufferings every suffering of a Christian becomes a SPIRITUAL THERAPY, for through Him, suffering acquires a sublime meaning and signification. Even as we are plunged into this deadly and dreadful virus in the world today, let us unite our worries, our fears, our questions for meaning, our sufferings, in fact, our passion to His Passion. Indeed, humanity today is experiencing a passion, but it is only with the gaze fixed on the event of the Christ, precisely on His Passion that we will be able to come out of this pandemic. His Passion and Death give meaning to our life, our suffering and our death, and even our present passion.

     The Passion of Jesus should be for us an opportunity for repentance (the repentant thief), an occasion to affirm His identity (the Centurion) and not just as an incident that arouses hostility and indifference in us. So, are we like Judas that betrayed him? Like Peter that denied him? Like Pilate that delivered him to death? Like the stubborn thief that insulted Him? Or like the disciples that failed to keep wake with Him? Instead let’s cue in, in the line of Simon of Cyrene who helped him to carry his (our) Cross, of the women of Jerusalem that mourn for him, of the Centurion who strikes his chest and recognizes him as the Son of God, of the good thief that believed and entrusted himself to Jesus. Does His Passion still move us today? It should move and touch us because our sins inflicted those pains on him. Let it not be a momentary touch or feelings, rather His Passion should move us to flee from our sins and abandon our old ways, for through His wounds we are healed (Is. 53:5; 1Pt.2:21) and made whole.

     In all, may His Passion lead us to the rediscovery of His real identity, and here the gesture and proclamation of the Centurion is superb! “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mt.27:54; Mk.15:39; Lk.23:47). The pagan Centurion did not recognize his Son ship because he saw the tomb empty, not because he saw shining light, but he discovered this at the heart of the event of Good Friday: Jesus on the Cross, the reality-show! But all does not end here, we can only read and understand this event if we start from the end. Indeed, the Passion of Christ like the Hebrew alphabet is to be read from the end! Have a Grace-filled Holy Week!!!

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)