Palm Sunday
Readings:
Isaiah 50: 4 – 7
Philippians 2:6 – 11
Matthew 26: 14 – 27: 66
Reflection
“At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. As Passionists, we begin our community prayers with these words of St Paul in today’s second reading. I would like to highlight the words, “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”. How free and safe are we to confess His name? Also, how credible are we to confess His name?
Our charism is to keep alive the memory of the Lord’s passion by sharing in His passion. We live in times where confessing the name of Jesus itself means to share in the passion of Christ. Though the charism sounds terrifying and senseless, it is a delight to those who trust in the hope that Jesus promises – the hope of eternal life through the narrow gate. We only have to look up to the Lord to draw strength and walk in his footsteps. The strength of Jesus during his passion will be ours too. What was his strength? His strength was his humility.
“Being found in human form, he humbled himself….” Being humble is to be fully human. Being human is to accept our human limitations and recognise the need to depend on others, especially the One above. Such humility is found in Jesus. His approach to temptations and sufferings, his down-to-earth human interactions and above all, his unceasing divine connection with “Abba”.
If we can strive to be fully human, we can certainly confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord with inner freedom and confidence. May we enter into the Holy Week contemplating on the humble actions of our Lord.
Justin Durai Raj CP is a member of the Passionist community at St. Joseph’s, Hobart.