04.04.2004 - Palm Sunday - Year C * Luke 19, 28-40
First Reading: Isaiah 50, 4-7 Psalm 22
Second Reading: Philippians 2, 6-11 Gospel Reading: Luke 22, 14 - 23, 56
Today's celebration begins with a significant, joyous rite: we experience the
joy Jesus' disciples felt when he was close to Jerusalem! On approaching the
Holy City all the pilgrims were singing the so-called 'gradual' Psalms. On this
occasion the rejoicing was even greater because the King himself was arriving:
"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord"! Jesus allows
his disciples to call him this, he lets them rejoice, knowing that they could
not fully understand his royalty. However what they were saying was true. In
him the full meaning was fulfilled of the term "king" as representative
of the authority of God for the people. But to help them not create false illusions
he had them fetch a colt of a donkey: in this way they were reminded of Zachariah's
prophecy of a mild and humble King, a king who came not to impose himself, but
to offer himself.
The Pharisees, who did not like the loud rejoicing of the disciples prophesied
the rest with their denial. Their denial anticipated what Jesus would receive
in the city. We can also understand the other prophecies which present the Servant
of God not as one who receives glory from mankind, but persecution and denial.
Already in the first reading, the joy of the procession which accompanies us
to church seems over.
Here Isaiah talks of one who obeys God in the midst of terrible treatment: it
is the Servant of God who will bring the glory of God to us! This reading could
give us a sense of bewilderment as does Psalm 22. Why must the man who is chosen
to represent God for us, suffer so much and because of the men he wants to love?
Why do men pour out such hate and brutality on the man of God?
St Paul helps us to read the facts differently: it is the same Jesus, the Son
of God, who wants to be close to us. And to be close to us there is no other
way than to be below us, to enter that suffering and that death which keep us
slaves of fear. This means humiliation, the humiliation of the cross, the torment
to which he is subjected and which is the manifestation of the evil of those
who order it. God the Father does not prevent His Son from loving humanity which
suffers. He rewards him by exalting him. This exaltation is accorded to all
his children: whoever knows God and loves Him will kneel before Jesus recognising
him as Lord of his life and witness of the Father's love.
With this key to understanding we can listen to the story of our Lord's Passion,
which his disciples experienced and meditated for a long time in trying to understand
his limitless love. The story begins with Jesus confiding in his disciples as
regards the long awaited Easter supper. He knew that it was the last opportunity
he had to talk to them and it became the most import time of their lives. The
whole Church is founded on this moment which helps to understand and accept
the terrible hours that follow it and that see Jesus bathed in blood in the
olive grove, betrayed by one of his disciples to the religious authorities,
who slander, accuse and condemn him to death in atrocious pain and despised
by all.
Our Lord takes the unleavened bread which is used by the people to celebrate
freedom from slavery. He knew that mankind were to fear another kind of slavery
which was worse and more subtle. Who can free them from that kind of slavery?
He does, in offering himself to experience death which imprisons through fear
which makes us egoists: with his love he overcomes the power of death.
The bread he was about to break would continue to be broken in future centuries
by his disciples bringing that same love to the lives of the men and women that
was to bring him to the cross. The chalice which during the Easter rite brings
joy for God's pact with the people of Israel, now becomes the chalice of the
new Pact which is about to take place: the blood of Jesus is used as a worthy
sacrifice for our sins. In drinking it we become one with the Son, we are assured
of the Father's love who loves us as His true children.
Eating the bread and drinking the blood we also offer ourselves as body and
blood of the Son of God, in other words, to carry within ourselves the love
of the Father into the world in which we find ourselves. Eating and drinking
the body and blood of Jesus Christ we become divine and are nourished in a way
that the new life which began with baptism can continue to grow and be manifest
to other men and women who are waiting for the news of a holy love which is
eternally merciful.