Palm Sunday Of The Lord

All Glory, Laud, and Honor: Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion Scripture Readings Procession with Palms (Optional) Mark 11:1-10 First Isaiah 50:4-7 Second Philippians 2:6-11 Gospel Mark 14:1-15:47 Prepared by: Fr. James Cuddy, O.P. 1. Subject Matter •

The procession of Our Lord into Jerusalem and his subsequent Passion seem to be marked by elements that stand in opposition. In him and in his saving action, we see the interplay of triumph and shame, glorification and suffering.

2. Exegetical Notes •

Processional Gospel: Christ’s true identity is gradually being revealed. On other occasions in Mark’s Gospel he warns people to keep silent (cf. 8:30). Now, he allows the crowds to fete him as he enters Jerusalem as a king. The fullness of his identity will not be manifest, however, until he mounts the throne of the Cross. His sending the disciples ahead demonstrates his foreknowledge of what is to come; he enters into his Passion freely and fully.

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First Reading: Isaiah prophesies that the Messiah will be horribly mistreated when he comes. The image of the Suffering Servant’s face is particularly interesting: while being struck and spit upon, he nevertheless steels himself to endure it all, setting his face like flint.

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Second Reading: This Christ hymn summarizes two crucial elements of today’s liturgy: the degradation of Christ (“he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,. . .becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”) and his exultation (“God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”).

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Gospel of Our Lord’s Passion: While Luke and John have the woman anoint Jesus’ feet, Mark has her anoint his head as an acknowledgement of his Messianic dignity (cf. 2 Kings 9:6).

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The Aramaic words for son (“bar”) and father (“abba”) constitute the name Barab bas. He is, “the son of the Father.” When the crowd opts for his release, they are tragically choosing the wrong son.

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The seamless garment that Christ wears recalls the seamless garment that the high priest would wear when he entered the Holy of Holies.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church •

607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. . . .

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612 Jesus prays: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . .” Thus he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. . . . By accepting in his human will that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive.

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616 It is love “to the end” that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life. . . . The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.

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599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan . . .

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. . . which raises the question about the freedom of Judas, Herod, Pilate, et al. To this, the Catechism says: “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination’, he includes in it each person's free response to his grace. . . .” (600).

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614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices. First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities •

St. John Chrysostom Oh! the madness, yea, the avarice of the traitor . . . Judas, taken captive by this madness of avarice, forgets the conversation, the table of Christ, his own discipleship, Christ's warnings and persuasion.

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Venerable Bede The Lord who had foretold His Passion, prophesied also of the traitor, in order to give him room for repentance, that understanding that his thoughts were known, he might repent. Wherefore it is said, And in the evening he comes with the twelve.

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St. Gregory the Great When His Passion was approaching, He is said to have taken bread and given thanks. He therefore gave thanks, who took upon Him the stripes of other men's wickedness; He who did nothing worthy of smiting, humbly gives a blessing in His Passion, to show us, what each should do when beaten for his own sins, since He Himself bore calmly the stripes due to the sin of others; furthermore to show us, what we who are the subjects of

the Father should do under correction, when He who is His equal gave thanks under the lash. •

St. Leo the Great True reverence for the Lord’s Passion means fixing the eyes of our heart on Jesus crucified and recognizing in him our own humanity. . . . No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the Cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to him in repentance.

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Pope John Paul II Christ drew close to the world of human suffering through the fact of having taken this suffering upon his very self. During his public activity, he experienced not only fatigue, homelessness, misunderstanding even on the part of those closest to him, but, more than anything, he became progressively more and more isolated and encircled by hostility and the preparations for putting him to death. . . . Christ goes towards his Passion and death with full awareness of the mission that he has to fulfill. . . . Precisely by means of his Cross he must strike at the roots of evil, planted in the history of man and in human souls. Precisely by means of his Cross he must accomplish the work of salvation. This work, in the plan of eternal Love, has a redemptive character.

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Romano Guardini Jesus’ entire existence is the translation of power into humility . . . into obedience to the will of the Father. Obedience is not secondary for Jesus, but forms the core of his being.

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars •

The Passion accounts (culled from each one of the Gospels) are swarming with saints and sinners, each one worthy of consideration and each one inviting us to take our place in the narrative. While separated by time and space, each individual has a part to play in Christ’s Passion. The congregation’s participation in the proclamation of the Passion as the turba recognizes this fact. (Or as St. Alphonsus Liguori’s writes: My adorable Jesus, it was not Pilate. No, it was my sins that condemned you to die.) His blood is on our hands, but the evangelists offer other characters whose virtues we wish to emulate and whose vices we pray to root out of our lives.

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI •

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Jesus’ power is power based on love, love becoming powerful. It is power that shows us the way from all that is tangible and visible to the invisible and the truly real of God’s powerful love. It is power as the way that has love as its goal setting people on their way: into the transcendence of love. The poverty that Jesus means - that the prophets mean - presupposes above all inner freedom from the greed for possession and the mania for power. This is a greater reality than merely a different distribution of possessions, which would still be in the material domain and thereby make hearts even harder. It is first and foremost a matter of purification of heart, through which one recognizes possession as responsibility, as a duty towards others, placing oneself under God's gaze and letting oneself be guided by Christ, who from being rich became poor for our sake (cf. II Cor 8: 9).

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This king will be a king of peace: he will cause chariots of war and war horses to vanish, he will break bows and proclaim peace. This is brought about in Jesus through the sign of the Cross. The Cross is the broken bow, in a certain way, God's new, true rainbow which connects the heavens and the earth and bridges the abysses between the continents. The new weapon that Jesus places in our hands is the Cross - a sign of reconciliation, of forgiveness, a sign of love that is stronger than death. Every time we make the Sign of the Cross we should remember not to confront injustice with other injustice or violence with other violence: let us remember that we can only overcome evil with good and never by paying evil back with evil. Palm Sunday tells us that the great "Yes" is precisely the Cross, that the Cross itself is the true tree of life. We do not find life by possessing it, but by giving it. Love is a gift of oneself, and for this reason it is the way of true life symbolized by the Cross.

7. Other Considerations •

The proper prayers of the liturgy call attention to two characteristics of Christ: his humility (Opening Prayer) and his selfless love (Solemn Blessing).

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It is interesting to note that when Christ and the Apostles leave the upper room in the Gospel, they do so after singing a hymn (the Great Hallel). At this point in the traditional observance of Passover, there is yet another cup to drink. Their Passover, for which they traveled so far, is incomplete. But the final cup will indeed appear in the events that follow. Christ prays in the Garden of Gethsemane to be spared from this final cup, but in obedience to the Father’s will, Jesus drinks the wine before taking his last breath from the Cross (cf. 15:36).

Recommended Resources A searchable electronic version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a very useful Bible Study based upon the liturgical calendar (and drawing heavily upon the Jerome Biblical Commentary) can be found at the parish website of St. Charles Borromeo in Picayune, MS. http://www.scborromeo.org. Thomas Acklin, O.S.B. The Passion of the Lamb: God’s Love Poured Out in Jesus. Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2006. Pope Benedict XVI, Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI.