This Sunday is called “Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion.” Notice,
there are two halves to it, palms and passion. They stand in jarring contrast
to each other.
1) The palms,
proclaiming Jesus’ kingship.
You might never have caught the kingly aspect of it but
there are multiple clues in the Gospel before the palm procession. First, he
rode on a colt, the animal that was always used for royalty’s entrance into a
city. The disciples spread their cloaks over the colt’s back as they would have
for a king.
Crowds along the way greeted Jesus as their royal hero. They
smoothed their coats on the roadway, then covered them with palm branches cut
from the fields. This was in order to soften the pathway for the kingly one,
and to keep the dirt off of him. They cried out, “Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord.” In the Mass, the people are holding palms during the ritual
procession, just as did those who lined the road long ago.
This opening part of this Mass is more than just an
historical reenactment, it is a proclamation of Jesus precisely as king. It is
the first half of the jarring contrast.
2) The soldiers, mocking
and destroying Jesus’ kingship.
The Mass and its Passion
Reading show Jesus’ kingship specifically mocked and made into a
fool’s tale. The soldiers tie him up and call him “King of the Jews,” ridiculing
this poor, ridiculous captive. They jam a kingly crown on his head, but one made
of painful thorns. They wrap a fake robe of purple around him, the color
reserved for kings because of its rarity. They spit on him. They laugh. They strike
him. They make a tortured fool out of this great “king.”
3) Third, the real
meaning of kingship.
The First Reading had
already told us why this torture happened: because Jesus chose it. “I have not
rebelled, have not turned back,” the reading says; “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.”
You or I would have cried out, "My God, why have you
abandoned me?" The Responsorial Psalm says exactly these words, and Jesus will say them too from the cross.
Are these words of a king? Does such a total surrender represent
kingly action?
Yes. Jesus, the king of kings, did not regard being in the
form of God as something to cling to—for safety or honor or whatever
other reason. As the greatest king of all, he emptied himself out, became like
a slave, obedient even to death on the cross (Second
Reading), in allegiance to God and in service of the people.
The jarring contrast is put to rest because Jesus knew who
he was, even under the worst duress and strife. He was the one who loves, no
matter what.
This might be the opposite of greatness as we imagine it.
But the real basis of kingship and queenship is serving God’s people, no matter
what. The good ruler pulls a kingdom together and makes it safe, a place of
abundance. If a ruler accomplishes such a goal, no kingly suffering could be
too great. Palm/Passion Sunday is a large scale revelation of kingship’s real
meaning.
It is love.
Fr. John Foley, S. J.
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