First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Matthew 26:14-27:66
No pain, No palm, No thorns, No throne, No gall, No Glory, No cross, No crown
-William Pen
It is a great day today
in our Mother Church as we mark the day of the triumphal entry of our Lord
Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. This day is also known as Passion Sunday
because the Church begins this day to make the sufferings of our Lord a chief
thought. The Church’s liturgy today begins to be a sombre and sorrowful mood
for the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two brothers lived
together in the same apartment. The elder brother was an honest, hard-working
and God-fearing man and the younger a dishonest, the young man never paid any
attention to the advice of his brother. One night the junior brother runs into the
house with smoking gun and blood-stained clothes. “I killed a man, I did not
mean to kill him, I don’t want to die.”
The senior brother had an idea. He exchanged his clothes with the
blood-stained clothes of his killer brother. The police arrested him and
sentenced him to death and his junior brother lived. This is a crime story of
love. Jesus gave up his life for us although he was not a
criminal. A brother felt pity for his brother and surrendered himself to the
police in place of his brother. Similarly, the story of the suffering and
death of Jesus which we heard in the Passion is a story of love that is God’s
love for us.
Our liturgy of the Word
today is comprised of two gospel readings of which the first gospel gives us
the account of the triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem (Mt
21:1-11). Jesus is welcomed with Palms and songs as a fulfilment of the
prophecy of Zecharia in 9:9. Prophet Isaiah is giving us a prophecy for the
chosen servant the Messiah who accepts his suffering and death which is the
price of fidelity to God. The gospel of Mathew which is the second gospel of
today is giving us an account of the passion of Jesus from passion up to his
death. We hear about the institution of the Holy Eucharist, events of
sufferings he endured, death and resurrection.
We have heard the human
suffering and torture which can correspond to the barbaric torture of our own
time. Most of the time we feel and look like failures because of the pain and
isolation from family, friends and relatives. Jesus himself was abandoned by
his close disciple ‘Peter’ then how do we feel if our loved ones abandon us?
Our friendship nowadays is defined by situations and circumstances rather it
should be flourishing in the pain and joys of the day. God is telling us today
that despite sufferings and pains there is a certainty of victory in Jesus.
Jesus was received in Jerusalem with shouts of joy and Palms but the same
voices shout again “crucify him” at the time of his trial.
I repeat the quote of William Pen “No
pain, No palm, No thorns, No throne, No gall, No Glory, No cross, No crown”. These
words summarize what we are celebrating today and give us a picture of what is
going to come which is his death and resurrection given our salvation. Palm
Sunday is a pure reflection on the final week of Jesus’ life. This is the Holy
Week which is opened by this grant celebration. Let us be people of peace which
is symbolized by Jesus riding the colt, Jesus emptied himself to a servant as
St Paul says to the Philippians 2:6:7. St Augustine of Hippo once said, “God
had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering…”
Austin Sayira
III Year Theology
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