Happy Palm
Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 50,4-7; Phil 2,6-11; Mark 14,1-15.47: Palm
Sunday and the Passion of the Lord; 28th March 2021)
On this Sunday the
liturgy presents to us Mark’s account of the passion of Jesus. This story
itself is, already, a very profound sermon, which moves us interiorly and makes
us contemplate the great love of the Lord. It is not possible for us to comment
here on every episode of the Passion; therefore, we will comment on the Last
Supper, because all the passion is already present in it. From this episode, in
fact, all passion is given a very beautiful and positive orientation.
When he sits at the table with the apostles for the Last Supper, Jesus
knows that his passion is approaching. He knows that Judas has betrayed or,
more precisely, has promised to betray him, to indicate the place where he will
retire that night. Jesus knows all this; therefore, he says first of all: Truly
I tell you, one of you, the one who eats with me, will betray me. He is aware
of this scandalous sin, so contrary to any form of love; Jesus, as well, was
aware of the fact that all the other disciples will also abandon him;
therefore, he says to them: You will all be scandalised, for it is written:
they will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Jesus also knows
that Peter will deny him. This apostle was convinced that he was a generous
man, capable of defending Jesus against his adversaries; so, he had declared to
him: Even if everyone is scandalised, I will not be. But Jesus knows that in
reality Peter will be more scandalised than the others; therefore, he says to
him: Truly I say to you: just today, in this very night, before the rooster
crows twice, you will deny me three times. Jesus was aware of all this. In his
place, every man would have experienced tremendous pain and an inner revolt
against so much injustice that was being prepared against him. The prophet
Jeremiah, who found himself in a similar situation, invoked vengeance against
his adversaries (cf. Jer. 20,12). This, in fact is the spontaneous reaction of the
human heart in the face of evil and injustice: we rebel and ask God to
intervene. Or, the spontaneous reaction is to take up arms and take revenge on
our own. Jesus, on the other hand, knowing all this, at the moment of the Last
Supper makes all his passion present in advance. The Eucharist is just that.
Jesus takes the bread and, after thanking God, breaks it and gives it to the
disciples saying: Take, this is my body. Then he takes the chalice, gives
thanks, gives it to the disciples and says: this is my blood, the blood of the
covenant, shed for many. With these words and with these gestures he makes all
his passion known in advance. It makes this event, that is so cruel and so
unfair, the occasion of greater love. As John says, Jesus, having loved his own
who were in the world, loves them to the end (John 13, 1).
The Eucharist is, truly, an extraordinary transformation of the passion
event, to which Jesus gives an orientation of love, and covenant. The event
itself is an event of rupture, because Jesus is rejected, condemned and put to
death, and this is the greatest rupture that there can be in human existence.
But this event of rupture is transformed in advance by Jesus into covenant
event. We must be amazed by this transformation and the generosity of heart
that was necessary to obtain it! Jesus declares: This is my blood, blood of the
covenant, shed for many. Here an extraordinary transformation takes place, the
fruit of a very generous love. The whole event of the Passion is oriented
towards the covenant, union with God and brothers. Whenever we celebrate the
Eucharist, we should remember that all Jesus’ passion are present in it. All
the things that are told after the Last Supper are under the influence of this
extraordinary transformation wrought by Jesus. Jesus prays to the Father in
agony at Gethsemane. He finds himself in a situation of extreme distress. He
has truly taken on our human nature, and, therefore, also all our anxieties and
fears. He feels this anguish, his soul is sad to the point of death, and he
prays. He asks the Father to intervene, but he does not want to impose anything
on him; therefore, he says: Not what I want, but what you want. On this
occasion, Jesus reveals himself as a model of prayer for us. We too, when we
are distressed and ask God to save us, must always leave it to him the choice
of how to save us. Jesus left the choice of how to save himself to the Father,
and the Father chose the truly perfect way: salvation from death through death.
Jesus was saved in a definitive way for him, because after his resurrection he
dies no more and death has no power over him (Rom 6, 9). It is, therefore, a
complete victory over death, which he obtained with his prayer, completely,
open to the love of the Father, and his positive will. Then the betrayal
occurs. Judas kisses Jesus, to make him known to the soldiers, and Jesus is
arrested. The soldiers sent by the high priests, the scribes and the elders act
towards him as one acts towards a brigand. It is a great humiliation for him, and
Jesus points this out. But again, he abandons himself to the Father's plan and
says: Let them, therefore, fulfill what the Scriptures has foretold.
In the episode of the trial before the Sanhedrin, two very important
elements stand out. The first concerns Jesus’ affirmation. Several testimonies
are brought against him, but only one is mentioned here: the fact that he would
announce the destruction of the sanctuary and the construction of another
sanctuary in three days. The evangelist points out that this testimony is
false, because he attributes to Jesus the words: I will destroy this sanctuary
made by human hands, while in reality he said: Destroy this sanctuary and in
three days I will raise it up (John 2,19). With this phrase he referred to his
body, to his human nature, transformed through death and resurrection. The
other important element in the trial before the Sanhedrin concerns Jesus’
identity. The high priest asks him: Are you the Christ, the Son of blessed God?
Jesus replies: I am!, and announces: You will see the Son of man sitting at the
right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Jesus will be
glorified, sit on the right hand of the Father and intervene as Lord in human
history. This is the decisive answer, which provokes Jesus’ condemnation. In
fact, the high priest immediately after declares: What further need do we have
of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. Jesus knows he must remain on the
cross in order to have faith in him. It is exactly the opposite of what the high
priests, the elders and the scribes think. He does not want to present himself
as a victorious Messiah, but as the Servant of the Lord, who accepts all
humiliations and sufferings for love of the Father and men. The cross arouses
faith in Jesus, because it is the demonstration of his infinite love for the
Father and for men. He says: The world must know that I love the Father and do
what the Father has commanded me (John 14,31); and on the other hand he says:
no one has a greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends
(John 15,13). The cross is the greatest manifestation of Jesus' love. Faith in
him now becomes faith in his love. If Jesus presented himself as a victorious
Messiah, faith in him would be a superficial faith: it would be faith in a
human victory. Instead, 
true faith is that in the divine victory of love. For
this reason, despite all the provocations that are addressed to him, Jesus
remains on the cross and accepted death. Even in the moment of Jesus' death we
find these two aspects. On the one hand, the work of Jesus is manifested in a
symbolic way: the destruction of the sanctuary is announced by the fact that
the veil of the sanctuary is torn in two, from top to bottom. This prophetic
sign indicates that due to Jesus' death the sanctuary of Jerusalem will be
destroyed, and Jesus will replace it with another sanctuary, which is his human
nature resurrected. His risen body will become the true sanctuary, into which
we too can all enter to meet God. On the other hand, in the account of Jesus’
Passion the first declaration of faith in him as the Son of God is made, not by
a Jew, but by a pagan, immediately after his death: The centurion who stood
before him, seeing him expire in that way, he said: Truly this man was the Son
of God! Thus the mystery of the cross is illuminated with two humble but
very precise signs. On the one hand, it is the mystery of the Son of God who
accepts humiliation and suffering to manifest the love that comes from the
Father. On the other hand, the mystery of the transformation of the sanctuary,
which is destroyed and rebuilt in a, completely, new way. The sanctuary made by
human hands is destroyed; but after three days, thanks to Jesus’ passion,
another sanctuary not made by human hands was built: the sanctuary of the risen
body of Jesus, of which we are members.
Paul repeatedly states that we are members of the body of Christ. And Peter, on his part, says that we are part of the house of God built with the resurrection of Jesus, in his mystery of death and resurrection Jesus is the stone rejected by men, but chosen by God, who becomes the cornerstone of the new sanctuary, of which we are the living stones (cf. 1 Pt 2: 7-10). The Passion of Jesus is a tragic event, painful from the human point of view, but positive. There has never been a positive event like this in human history. The Passion of Jesus is the most complete manifestation of God's love.
+John I. Okoye
Graphics by Charles O Chukwubike
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