PALM SUNDAY, CYCLE A

Readings: First: Is 50:4-7; Second: Phil 2:6-11; Gospel: Mt 26:14-27, 66

Theme of the Readings

The whole liturgy is shrouded in a veil of suffering. However, it gives us the impression that the message is not there but in the mysterious and sublime action of God through the most atrocious suffering and distress. In the third song of the servant of Yahweh we hear: "The Lord Yahweh comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults" (first reading). In the Christological hymn of the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, he tells us: "But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names." And in the narrative of the passion, Jesus prays to his Father: "If it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it." And the Evangelist writes that at Jesus’ death: "the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked; the rocks were split," all signs of the manifestation of God at the end of time according to the Jewish mentality. It is important to stress that suffering is not a contradiction, an error of calculation during the act of creation, but that God is the Lord of suffering and it is this that gives it meaning.

Doctrinal message

Even God himself, made man in Jesus of Nazareth, was not spared pain and suffering. This means that pain and suffering are a constitutive part of man’s historicity, his finite reality, imperfect, frail and perishable. They are something inevitable, which every man has to face and accept in his human condition and his faith. It also means that they have an extraordinary value that man must discover: a moral value in the make-up of the human personality. Anyone who knows how to suffer becomes more of a person and of redemptive value in God’s plan. Human suffering contributes to the redemption brought about by Jesus Christ.

The figure of Yahweh’s servant, the subject of the first reading, surprises and shocks us for various reasons. He is innocent man. Although having done no harm to anyone, he suffers outrages, blows and insults. He is a religious man who perceives God’s hand in the midst of all that is happening to him and feels Yahweh’s mighty strength and presence. He is a disciple of God who, getting the better of his suffering, has comforting words for the persecuted and needy.

Isn’t it true that we spontaneously see the best realization of this figure in Jesus of Nazareth, especially during the terrible, portentous moments of his Passion? This is how the first Christians saw and thought of him, and they left an image of him for us in the liturgical hymn that Paul takes up in his Letter to the Philippians. "His state was divine … but [he] emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave … he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross" (second reading). And isn’t the whole narrative of the passion the suffering of wounded, killed innocence that overcomes the guilt and sin of the "murderers"? Isn’t it the sublime expression of long-suffering love of a Father whose mysterious, incomprehensible designs are being fulfilled, "so that man may live"? Isn’t it the supreme act of self-emptying and humiliation, to which the Father responds with the exaltation and glory of the mission accomplished? For the human person, suffering does not cease to have a harsh, gloomy and terrible face, but behind this mask of pain is found the beautiful, serene and joyful face of fruitful meaning, mysteriously mellowed and productive. 

Pastoral suggestions

What is my attitude towards suffering, disasters, civil, moral or religious disorder? What is the attitude of the Christians among whom I live and work? How do they see and face the death of a loved one, of an innocent person? How do they suffer their own misfortunes, e.g., a serious illness, a road or work accident, loneliness and neglect, the limitations of old age? The priest must know as well as possible the "sufferings, trials, anxieties, and troubles" of his own faithful, of those to whom his message is addressed. Am I the good shepherd who knows each and every one of my sheep, and am I close to them, above all in times of trial?

Faith in God’s presence and action in these moments and situations of difficulty and anguish is something very necessary and urgent. In the chaos that suffering can create, in the inner crisis of rebellion it can provoke, in the lack of control it can unleash, faith is the key that prepares and accompanies the Christian, instills serenity in him, opens the door to hope for him and peacefully refers him to the Lord of life and history. This faith in God’s living presence in suffering and in trial must be the subject of preaching (homilies, catecheses); but during actual moments of trial and anguish, it should be made visible in action. At these times the priest is the man of faith who, with his own faith, instills it in others.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].