Saturday, 12 April 2014

DOCTRINE AND FAITH palm Sunday 2014


( Isaiah 50,4-7; Philippians 2,6-11; Matt 26,14-27,66: Palm Sunday: Year A)


Holy Week begins with this Sunday, which will end with the Paschal Triduum, (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday) the summit of the Liturgical Year. On this day, the liturgy unites two motives: Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and His Passion. The first aspect is remembered by the rite of the blessing of the palms and the procession into the church, as well as, by the reading of the gospel event of Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem. These celebrations are not just to have pious remembrances of, or to imitate, the past events, but to render present today those events through the liturgical celebration and to live it in prayer. Today, we are called to recognize the Godhead (Divinity) of Jesus, his Messiahship, that is to say, his salvific action for the world. Today, we are called to enter into the drama of Jesus’ passion with him and to participate and share in it.  The procession which recalls the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem prepares our minds to listen to the passion of Jesus in the Liturgy of the Word and its sacramental actualization in the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
In the first reading we listen to the 3rd canticle of the Servant of God, which anticipates in an impressionable manner, the suffering of the future Messiah. In the second reading we are presented with the hymn in the letter of Paul to the Philippians, which illustrates the mystery of the annihilation of Christ through death and his supreme exaltation through the work and power of God, the Father. What follows is the narrative of the passion of Jesus according to Mathew. In Mathew’s narration of the Passion of Jesus, Jesus freedom by which he comes out to embrace death comes out very clearly. He did not go to meet death passively or unwillingly, but knowingly and aware that it was the will of God. Also remarkable is the constant reference to the Scriptures: the son of Man is going, as it is written in the Scriptures (Matt 26,24). Through his Passion, Jesus has realized the prophecy and the plan of salvation decreed by the Father, as  is listed in the Scriptures. The Passion of Jesus according to Mathew repeatedly underscores the innocence of Jesus, and, therefore, the greater guilt of the people, from Pilate to the High Priests and Pharisees;  from Judas who betrayed Jesus to Peter who denied him and to many other disciples who abandoned him. 

Listening to the Passion according to Mathew we are invited to enter into in the drama which Jesus experienced, his physical suffering but especially the interior one, with dense (heavy) plot of events and persons in which we found ourselves involved in one way or the other. We have also betrayed Jesus many times ourselves like Judas by our sins. Have we not often pretended not to know him, as Peter did when we should in fact stand behind him and for his cause? Or do we not allow ourselves to fall into slumber of laziness, benumbed by spiritual inertia just as the apostles did in the garden of olives? There are so many questions we have to pose to ourselves so that through the light of the Passion of Jesus, every one of us will read (see) his/her very life and recognize one’s inconsistencies, contradictions and ingratitudes toward Jesus.  But above all, no matter how we feel guilty of the blood of that just person, Jesus, let it be found in our hearts the awareness and knowledge that He, Jesus also died for our salvation and that He is always prepared to welcome us into his loving and forgiving arms. This consideration will certainly cause loving emotions of appreciation to spring from our hearts. May we pray in this Eucharistic celebration to dispose ourselves so that following Jesus in his passion we may share in the graces of his resurrection.
 +John I. Okoye

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