PALM AND PASSION, GLORY AND SUFFERING
Welcome to the home stretch of Lent.
This week the sacrificial Lamb will give Himself in the Eucharist, pay our debt on the Cross, and break forth from the tomb. But first, we welcome Him with palms and singing.
Today on Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday), we celebrate Palm and Passion, glory and suffering. In a garden reminiscent of Eden where Adam lost his life with God, Jesus willed His to the same Father. That obedience led Jesus to unimaginable pain and a cruel death. But He carried out His mission with the unshakeable trust that Isaiah proclaimed: ‘I made no resistance…’, ‘The Lord comes to my help so that I am untouched by the insults.’ (Is 50:7)
What would make Christ leave His divine state to save people like us? In Paul’s capsule history of Christ (Phil 2: 6-11), he emphasizes Jesus’ ascension and glorification – ‘so that all beings…should bend the knee…and every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord’. God loves and wants us so much He did the hardest thing our Father could do: He let His Son live a hard life and die a horrific death, so that He could snatch His other children back from eternal damnation. He wants us with Him, living forever in joy and praise of Him.
Who are we, in our everyday lives, in that crowd around Jesus? One of the disciples, unable to stand by our faith at critical moments? Judas, betraying others to get what we want? A member of the Sanhedrin, acting out of jealousy or arrogance? Perhaps we’re the Roman guards, carrying out our work duties with no real thought or care, taking advantage where we can? Maybe we’re Pilate, washing our hands of responsibility, passing the buck to avoid censure or discomfort, even when it’s against our beliefs? Or are we people in the crowd: hiding in the majority, not wanting to speak up, desiring only the peace of anonymity?
This is a new Passover, a new Exodus. We wave palms joyfully because Christ is leading us out of our dark Egypt of sin, through the valley of the shadow of death where stands the Cross, into the brilliant light of redemption that will burst from the tomb. But, frail humans, we, too, will proclaim Him in one breath and betray Him in the next. This is not a story 2,000 years past. We, too, are part of both Palm and Passion.
It’s not too late. But we have to want forgiveness. We have to weep like Peter, and despair of our weaknesses like the disciples, and turn to Jesus in contrition like the sorrowful thief.
Then we have to set our faces like flint, pick up our crosses again with the help of our fellow Simons of Cyrene, and never give up. Because He showed us how, and He showed us we can do as He did, if we live by His Word and grow to unshakeable faith. That is the promise of Palm Sunday and of Holy Week.
May God bless the preparation of your hearts and souls to receive His Easter light!
Article by Joyce Norma, HFC Blog Contributor