Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (C)

Is 50:4-7
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Phil 2:6-11
Lk 22:14-23:56 or Lk 23:1-49

"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." These words of Jesus from Luke's account of Christ's Passion and death reveal the compassion of the Suffering Servant. Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion.

Each of the evangelists has a distinctive portrait of Jesus as he walks the way to Calvary. Luke remains consistent to the characteristics he's highlighted all through his Gospel. He especially depicts Jesus' concern for those on the margins of society, shown as the Lord heals in the Garden, comforts the weeping women, forgives his executioners and welcomes the repentant thief.

Many of us, I’m sure, have known people near death who show more concern about the feelings of those around them, than for themselves. We marvel at the self-sacrifice such heroic love involves. Here, in this Sunday's account of the Passion, is the model for all love—the sacrificial love of Jesus, which continues to be available for each of us.

Luke painted this portrait specifically for a Christian community in the latter half of the first century, which faced internal doubts and external persecution. It seems clear that he's urging them—and us, the Church at the beginning of the Third Millennium—to cling fast to the image of the Suffering Messiah, whose example of love ought to guide our personal and communal life as Christians and as the Church.

Scripture:

•I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)

•They have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones. (Psalm 22:17,18)

•Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:7)

•Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” and when he had said this he breathed his last. (Luke 23:46)

Reflection:

•Why does Jesus suffer and die on the cross to redeem humanity?

He triumphs over death by accepting enslavement by it so that humanity can be set free. This is the whole meaning of death and resurrection of Christ, who descends into the most inaccessible depths of suffering and so destroys evil at its roots. There is but one solution to the mystery of evil: the triumphant Cross of Christ. Every explanation becomes unbearable in the face of suffering; every human effort becomes ridiculous in the face of evil. We are unable to bring consolation or explanations to someone in the midst of suffering; all we can do is try to relieve some of his or her suffering. Jesus Christ alone brings victory over suffering of bodies and souls.…We believe that Christ resolves the whole human drama because he alone reaches its ultimate depths. We must avoid leaving Christianity on the surface; it is neither a system of morality, nor a social order, nor a system of metaphysics. Rather it is the fact that what is inaccessible to humankind, what reveals the very mystery of his existence as neither morality nor sociology could do, has been achieved by the Word of God.