Palm Sunday

Is 50:4-7, Phil 2:6-11, Mk 14:1-15:47

 

 

 

Dear Sisters, and Brothers,

 

The second reading today, from the Letter to the Philippians, says almost all that can be said and helps us understand the other two readings, especially the long Gospel of the Passion of Jesus.

Jesus chooses to suffer for us—and not in any kind of sick psychological way, but with the fullness of any human who chooses to give life up for another person. Jesus chooses to die for all of us. The author of the Letter to the Philippians is deeply aware that Jesus is God, that the divine Jesus chooses to become human in order to save the rest of us humans. And the way for a human to suffer is through obedience, even to death. Jesus accepts even that.

We see in the account of his suffering (passion is the Latin word for suffering) all that can go wrong in life. People that he trusted end up betraying him. Even the closest of his followers seem to abandon him. People are willing to lie about him.

In the case of Jesus, he dies because he has been teaching clearly the Word of God.

Palm Sunday begins with us Christians taking up palms to greet Christ joyfully and then we have the account of His death. It seems that we humans are so often like that: full of enthusiasm one minute and ready to let someone die the next. As long as we are not the victims, why get involved?

This is the question that we must ponder in this Holy Week. Why? The readings all tell us that  Jesus chose to suffer and to die because He loves us. That is the very central message of our Christianity.

If you or I were to choose to suffer and die for someone else, that could be a wonderful thing to do and it would surely express love. When it is God who has taken on our human nature and who then chooses to suffer and die for us, the whole world is changed.

Today we begin to celebrate once again this Holy Week in which we meditate over and over again on God’s love for us through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. That suffering and death only take on their full meaning in the Resurrection. But to come to understand the Resurrection, we must  understand as deeply as possible the suffering and death of our Lord.

Let us ask today that we may walk with Jesus through this Holy Week and come to see the depths of His love for us.

Peace and all good!

Fr. Valery Burusu

Parochial Administrator