Our Palm Sunday liturgy today quickly turns from Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem with the crowds welcoming him with great joy to the reading of Jesus’ passion, culminating with Jesus’ death on the cross and his placement in the tomb.
One of the traditions I love during the season of the Lent is the prayer tradition of the stations of the cross. Through our prayer tradition of the stations of the cross, we accompany Jesus during these 40 days of Lent and we remember how difficult his journey really was. Jesus carried his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, crowded with people there to celebrate the Passover feast. Jesus was mocked and derided as he struggled to carry the heavy cross. Jesus’ journey with the cross remains a symbol of Christianity to the world, as we in the world struggle with our own crosses and our own failures, with the challenges of our modern life. At any point in our lives, we carry our own personal cross, we carry these crosses bruised, battered and broken. Through the prayers we lift up in the Stations of the Cross, through the prayers that we lift up on Palm Sunday and throughout Holy Week, we reflect upon Christ’s journey. We unite our journey and our crosses with his. With our crosses and our sufferings, we stand in solidarity with those who are suffering in our world today. We unite our crosses, our suffering, and our prayers with those of our brothers and sisters and with those of Jesus.
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me." We hear this refrain in our psalm today. We hear Jesus cry out in these words as he died on the cross. As we reflect upon Jesus’ passion and on these particular words, we wonder what these words mean. How can we understand this anguished cry, especially with so much desperation in the world today? The Second Vatican Council tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, and that in his incarnation, he is truly human: thinking with a human mind, working with human hands, loving with a human heart. Jesus is fully human like us in all things but sin. On this cross, in his humanity, Jesus suffered as any human being would suffer: physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Crucified with two criminals, Jesus was shamed, rejected and despised by the Jewish authorities, his fellow citizens, his disciples and his friends. His disciple Judas betrayed him. His disciple Peter denied him. His mother and two other women were the only ones who stood by him while he died on the cross. In his humanity, on the cross, Jesus felt abandoned.
Today, on Palm Sunday, we seek to accompany Jesus. We come to Jesus with our own personal sufferings and the sufferings of our troubled and broken world. Many of us may feel alone and abandoned right now. But just as God the Father was with Jesus as he died on the cross transforming him through his sufferings, Jesus is with us today. We are to be open to be transformed through our journey, our sufferings, and our experiences. Not being able to physically attend our Holy Week liturgies this year, this may seem to be a lonely, surreal experience. May Jesus open our hearts and our mind this week. Paul states in his letter to the Philippians that Jesus emptied himself and humbled himself, being obedient to the point of death, to his death on the cross. The Father exalted Jesus. We honor him today as well.
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