Daily Scripture

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Scripture:

Matthew 21:1-11
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66 or 27:11-54

 

 

Reflection:

Holy Week in my house has always been a time of great reflection and solemnity. While we do look forward to Easter Sunday’s treats, we take time to focus on journey and the sacrifice that was made for us. My brother and I were always reminded of where our thoughts should be; whether it was handing palms out on Sunday, praying the rosary every night of Holy Week, or marching down the middle of our town with our church as we reflected on the Passion through the Stations of the Cross on Friday. Even though I have grown up and moved on, these are still traditions I continue to carry with me. Through these traditions, I can begin to see the amazing love that was given to us by Christ on the cross. Through the time we have taken during Lent and throughout this week, we can experience the love given to us and though praise and worship of God we can begin to reciprocate that love. The journey to the cross does not begin on Friday but begins here on Palm Sunday.

As Christ rides into Jerusalem, many people greet him, laying out their cloaks and palms and shouting "Hosanna!" We mirror these early believers by taking palm branches this Sunday and holding them up in procession in honor of this moment. Yet most of these people would abandon Him a few days later in his hour of great need. As we look forward to the Triduum we turn our eyes towards the Passion. Today’s readings show us the Passion not just from one but four vantage points. We begin with Palm Sunday and the entrance into Jerusalem. While everyone around him greeted him with great joy and exultation, He knew what was to come, willfully allowing the prophecies to come true:

Say to daughter Zion,
"Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden." Zech 9:9

Have we prepared throughout Lent to accompany Christ on his journey to the cross or will we be fair-weathered and depart when the storm comes?

The psalm foreshadows what is to come, Christ’s pain and suffering on Good Friday. It is so painfully accute yet beautifully written. The response "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me" is something we experience at different points in our lives. We have felt that God is no where near these terrible situations that we are in and may turn our backs on him. Christ says the same in St. Matthew’s recount of the Passion:

And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"which means,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mt 27:46

Since he was fully human, he felt the need to call out to his father in his most painful moment, reminding us of his pain and suffering. He’s allowed himself to be emptied for us. At the end of this psalm, the writer continues to have faith God will deliver him and he continues to praise his name. In difficult times, times of great need, do we continue to see God will deliver us or do we turn away? Do we continue to praise Him?

In the second reading, St. Paul takes us into the future, giving a beautiful and succinct post-resurrection synopsis of our Salvation History. Even though it is only a few verses, it is a very thorough account of the cornerstone of our faith: while it reminds that Christ emptied himself for us, it also tells us how to move forward.

Every knee shall bow…every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  
Phil 2:10-11

How are we living out this calling to profess the glory of God? In the midst of this solemn time are we still passing on the Good Word of God’s great love?

One thing has become very clear during my short time working with the Passionists: their love for Christ and love for their mission of spreading that love to others though the passion of the cross. While we must realize  this is a solemn time, and the readings will continue to lead us to the cross, we must also rejoice in the love given to us, a love so true and mighty he gave of himself so we might live. We must take the time now to reflect on what is to come in the next week so we may accompany Christ on the road to Calvary. While we are getting ready for Easter happenings, dinner, egg hunts, parties, let us also take the time to walk with Christ. He walked this road for us, so our sins would be taken from us, so that we might live. Even through those hard times when we may be abandoned by everyone and denied by those we love, God is there to lift us up with his amazing love. As he always walks with us, so too must we walk with him. Let us take time this week to pray and reflect upon the sacrifice He has given for us.

 

Kim Garcia is on the staff at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center, Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Ezekiel 37:21-28
John 11:45-56

Reflection:

There is only a short space of time at Mass, minutes, between the first reading, which soothes us with its promise of peace, to the reading of John’s Gospel, in which sides are being chosen and death looms.  This "short space of time" seems to be, in and of itself, a metaphor for how quickly in life we can go from unity to divisiveness. We travel from peace to war sometimes at a dizzying speed.

Perhaps like me, you, too, feel weary as you read the news about the outbreak of war or violence in yet another country. The tone of our national politics remains polarizing; local crime is heartbreaking. Personally? I lost my temper with a neighbor this week and am still simmering.

But here is this beautiful promise from God in today’s first reading – that Israel will be restored, her people united, and new life will be breathed into dry bones – a promise that God will set up a sanctuary among us and make us holy. When I hear the passages from Ezekiel, of God’s promise of a covenant of peace, I feel such a sense of longing.

We can all lay down our arms and rest in the presence of God.

Then comes the Gospel, however, and we are plunged into a sense of growing fear.  There is trepidation on the part of the people about their personal and national fate in following Jesus. His death is prophesied and Jesus removes himself from the public eye. We know the Cross awaits him. It’s as if God’s covenant has vanished already! Where once we felt hopeful and safe, now we are looking over our shoulders.

This, I suppose, is one of the terrible balancing acts of being human. We yearn for peace, crave it, but we mess up, get angry, feel fearful, lose our center, and lose our God. Nations go to war, political parties get fired up, individuals snipe at one another and neighbors bark at neighbors. God’s promise of peace still exists – He has not walked away from His covenant with us – it is we who have lost faith in the relationship and wandered away into states of despair or anger.

As we prepare to enter Holy Week, we will probably not see peace on earth. But, God willing, we can see peace restored within ourselves and our community, and from small ripples a greater wave might be born.  Peace is a process, I believe, not a static event, and it is Christ’s very Passion and Resurrection that confirms we are not foolish to believe it is possible and to work towards it, inside our hearts and out in the world.

 

Nancy Nickel is director of communications at the Passionist Development Office in Chicago.

Scripture:

Jeremiah 20:10-13
John 10:31-42

Reflection:

Jeremiah was the last great prophet before the catastrophe that overtook kingdom of Judea: the sacking of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the beginning of the people’s exile in Babylon. These events occurred because the leaders of the people, priests and nobles and a weak king, rejected the message of the prophet. Despite the plots against him Jeremiah is confidant: "the Lord is with me!" and "to you I have entrusted my cause." No matter what troubles and difficulties we face in life we must trust in the Lord.

The Church recalls Jeremiah’s experience at this moment in Lent because the leaders of Jerusalem (for John "the Jews") have rejected the message of Jesus. They "…picked up rocks to stone Jesus".  For the time Jesus faces them down. What gives Jesus such power? He reveals it when he says: "…the Father is in me and I am in the Father." No matter what we face, this will be the source of our power as well. In the mystery of the indwelling of the Trinity in our souls, the Father is in us and we are in the Father.

Finally Jesus "retires" to the place where it all began, the Jordan River and John’s baptism. It was there that the Father revealed himself and sent the Spirit upon him. It was there that his ministry started. The ministry that would bring him to the cross! How appropriate that Jesus has come full circle. This was the calm before the storm.

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Genesis 17:3-9
John 8:51-59

Reflection:

As we draw closer to the most sacred week of the entire Liturgical year we see in our readings today a wonderful parallel between the great Abram, who became Abraham, the father of many kings and nations, and the man called Jesus of Nazareth, who, after suffering death and then the glory of resurrection, would be known forever as the Christ, the Savior, and the Son of God.

Renamed by God himself, Abraham was chosen to enter into a new covenant, a covenant that would lead to the formation of a great people so dear to the heart of God.  This people would become renowned and powerful among all the nations so long as they remained faithful to the promises they made to God and followed in the fidelity of their father, Abraham.  Abraham is called "our father in faith" when we pray the first Eucharistic prayer at Mass and so he truly is, for he is the one who entered into the very first covenant with the Lord himself.

Jesus, the eternal Word of God, is also for us today the most powerful example of one who was obedient, obedient even unto death, death on a cross.  It was through Jesus and his absolute obedience to the Father that we are now sons and daughters of a new covenant.  Yet, it was a covenant that could only be attained through suffering and death.  In all these final days of Lent until the celebration of the Easter feast we are invited to watch intently the obedience of Jesus, constantly surrendering himself to the will of his Father and to the whims of a nation that could barely see the beginnings of a new and mighty covenant with the Lord.

And so, we have Abraham, our father in faith, and Jesus, the Christ, the Lamb of God, the perfect offering who, on our behalf gains for us eternal life.  How rich are these days to come, dear friends!  How wonderful to enter so fully into the greatest mystery of our faith!  Let us walk slowly and attentively as we meditate these days on the Passion and death of Jesus, our Crucified Lord.  After all, we are the recipients of the greatest covenant that can ever exist, a new and eternal covenant that will lead us to the very kingdom of God.

 

Fr. Pat Brennan, CP is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
John 8:31-42

Reflection:

Many of us have probably heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the fiery furnace from our childhood.  It’s a popular story which has a powerful message even to children.  The dominant theme of course, demonstrates honor to those who do what is right.  Secondary themes include how God looks after and protects those who do what is right– and it even acknowledges to children that powerful people have the ability to do bad things.  All of these themes of course are true, but since the Church gives us this reading in the Lenten Season, what does this story mean on our Lenten journey?

Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful king of Babylon, took his seat on the throne around 605 BCE.  During the reign of his next 43 years he spent considerable resources enlarging the boundaries of Babylon creating his empire.  He was a man who could take things by force and could manipulate others.  He was the one who took Jerusalem, destroying the temple and all semblance of the religion of the people of Israel.  And he is the one who deported most of the educated and wealthy people back to Babylon.  This event in Judeo-Christian history is known as the Babylonian Exile.  Nebuchadnezzar is not a king who accepts "No" for an answer.

Yet in the midst of building his empire, he has an encounter with some social demonstrators who choose civil disobedience.  Normally, he would simply eliminate them, and Daniel’s account reveals his attempt at doing this.  As remarkable as it is for the four in the furnace, (an angel has appeared to comfort them)  perhaps more remarkable is what happens to Nebuchadnezzar .  A man who previously always got what he wanted and saw himself as superior to all others, now places himself humbly under "the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego."  In blessing their God and honoring their defiance to himself, he reverences their faithfulness to their deity.  If a person whose heart is as hard as Nebuchadnezzar can experience conversion then we are capable of it too in this Lenten season.

Now this is only going to get stickier.  By Jesus’ day there are several stories of people coming to faith that are outside of the Jewish community of Jesus.  This seems to be a very touchy subject.  Recall in Luke’s gospel, (4:14-29) when Jesus was in his own synagogue in Nazareth. All were singing such praise of him.  Jesus simply mentions two people: Naaman the Syrian, and a widow of Zarephath.  Both are outsiders to this community’s faith context.  Luke says that after Jesus mentions these two, the whole community rose up with indignation wanting to throw him over the brow of the hill. 

Today we are given the contrast.  What happens when the hard hearted King of the Babylonian empire understands the greatness of the Lord, yet the "Descendants of Abraham" which we hear about in the gospel refuse to believe and come to faith?

A question to ponder today: How open are you to allow "outsiders" to reveal to you the mystery of the kingdom of God?

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is on the staff at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

Numbers 21:4-9
John 8:21-30

Reflection:

Jesus said to them, "You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world." (John 8:23)

Outside the chapel of a nearby Catholic High School for girls was a hallway poster that caught my attention. It was a photograph of slender young woman looking into the mirror with a question written underneath: "When did you begin to hate your body?" 

The Gospel passage today can give the wrong impression, incorrectly suggesting that if we love God we must despise the material world. It can dupe us into dismissing our bodies and the world of matter as insufficient or inferior to a higher realm of spirit. It can mislead us to think the world of God is in opposition to the world of majestic mountains, fertile fields, rambling rivers, temperate forests, brown bears and human beings.

Often Christians do not understand that matter matters. We forget that the church has a longstanding protest against the perennial heresy of Gnosticism, the belief that the material world is inherently evil. Gnostics are stuck in a dualism which pits the world of spirit against the world of matter. Historically, Gnosticism had to be refuted in order to reach an orthodox understanding of the incarnation: Jesus is fully God and fully human. "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14).

The incarnation shows us that matter is not all there is. But it also confirms that matter matters. Jesus clearly takes on our molecular structure and enmeshes himself in this physical world. Yet he points to another kind of existence, telling his disciples, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (John 4:32).

The food to which Jesus refers is a new level of consciousness that feeds his material body and human psyche. The Pharisees could not go where Jesus is going because their consciousness was stuck at a lower level. They were caught in the "sin" of separation, trapped in the illusion of what Thomas Merton calls "a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness."

In the northern hemisphere, Lent unfolds at a time when daylight is increasing. It is an opportunity for Christians to cultivate the inner light of a new consciousness. Resurrection does not mean that we escape or flee this world, but that we learn to embrace and live in this world of matter enlightened by an Inner Spirit of wisdom and love. 

Submitted by Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP – executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, KY.

Lent 4.5 is a 7-week faith formation program of conversion to help Christians understand that matter matters. This year over 13,000 people in more than 50 churches and schools are participating in this program developed by the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center. It is designed to teach Christian communities how to use the traditional Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to protect God’s creation, bring forth a just society, and nurture a fulfilling spiritual life. It offers practical opportunities for people of faith to apply the values of Gospel simplicity to their everyday lives and take responsibility for the material world. For more information, go to www.lent45.org.

 

Scripture:

Ezekiel 37:12-14
Romans 8:8-11
John 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

Reflection:

After my husband died suddenly, I remember praying that God would bring him back to life like Lazarus.  I wanted nothing more in all the world. 

Yet, I had to admit it would be rather awkward.  Surely there would be cameras, reporters and an endless crush of people wishing to be in the presence of the miraculous.  Our infant son would forever be labeled as the kid whose dad rose from the dead.  We’d relinquish privacy for the rest of our lives in the fish bowl of questions and expectations.  We would also no doubt endure the anger and bitterness of others whose loved ones remained in the grave. In short, bringing John back to life would take away our life.  Reluctantly, I resigned myself to the fact that no such miracle would happen, and wisely so.  John was dead and would remain that way. 

It forced me, though, to confront deeper questions of my faith.  Standing before the stone that would never be rolled away, could I trust in the God who promises to open our graves?  Could I still embrace Christ as the resurrection and the life?  In the midst of the death and suffering of this world, what action or sign would be proof enough for me to believe that what God says is true?

The honest fact is that even if John were raised from the dead, many people would remain unconvinced. In the gospel, those who "converted" when Lazarus was raised seemed to leave their belief behind all too easily when the going got rough in Jerusalem. Perhaps that’s why Jesus increasingly avoided public signs and wonders, and why he refused to perform them for Herod.  Faith based on signs and wonders is no faith at all.  It is fickle, relying on the satisfaction of human whims with a constant stream of miraculous occurrences.  Besides, Lazarus did eventually die, as John would have if he’d been raised. No "proof", no sign or wonder, no miracle would truly be sufficient. 

In light of that, I am left pondering Martha. She clung to the foundation of her belief through the most difficult of circumstances. She knew enough to ask Jesus for what she wanted, and to wait for an answer. Even when she was upset with him for his action (or inaction), she felt free to let him know about it and express her anger and frustration. I believe that if she hadn’t gotten what she wanted, if Lazarus had remained in the tomb, she would have fallen into the arms of Jesus and found healing and hope in that embrace. Ultimately her unshaken faith was vindicated, not just by the raising of Lazarus, but by the resurrection of Jesus. She discovered the promises were indeed true, that new life was not just for her brother; it was for all who believe.

Since that fateful day when my husband died, I have repeatedly stood on the shoulders of this strong and courageous woman.  I dare to trust in the promise of resurrection, even when there is no evidence whatsoever that it could happen.  Time and time again, the promise proved true.  No matter what entombs me, if I reach out in the blackness and grasp God’s hand, I know that somehow something good will come out of it. No tragedy is too great for the God of life.

I don’t have Jesus standing before me. I have not seen anyone raised from the dead nor witnessed the resurrection. But I have known my own. My experience of the faithfulness of God allows me to stand with Martha and countless others as together we declare, "Yes Lord, I believe."  It is a belief to which I sometimes have to cling by the edge of my fingernails, and it does not spare me from needing to spout my frustration and anger to God.  But I know in the depth of my being that when all is said and done, the final word will belong to God, and God will not leave us in the grave.  God has promised and God will do it.

 

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s  website: http://www.amyflorian.com/.

Scripture:

Jeremiah 11:18-20
John 7:40-53

Reflection:

In John’s gospel we meet error, confusion and even, we might say, the manifestation of an ‘original sin’ in self-imposed isolation. Jeremiah, the Prophet of our first reading experiences these feelings, and they are not unknown to ourselves. We may want to carry the psalm refrain with us today as our prayer in the midst of such feelings, "Lord, my God, I take shelter in you."

There is argument as to where Jesus comes from, division as to whether he is the Messiah. Some, knowing that he comes from Galilee, reject him as Messiah since Scripture says he is to come from Bethlehem. The Pharisees also reject Jesus as a prophet; prophets do not come from Galilee. But the readers of John know already that Jesus was from Bethlehem, and that there were prophets from Galilee, among them Hosea and Jonah. We see the arguments presented against Jesus are flawed by error. But the real issue is not the geographical location of Our Lord. Jesus has come from the Father, that is his place of origin.

Nicodemus is shouted down when he protests that judgement is being passed without listening to the words of Jesus. The temple guards sent to bring Jesus to the Pharisees, return empty-handed. Their excuse is that, ‘no man ever spoke like that before’. It is not the law that the Pharisees are disregarding, but they refuse to listen to Jesus’ word. Nicodemus has listened to this word and it makes him different.

Our final words tell us that the Pharisees went off each to his own house. These words are similar to those of the gospel writer when Judas takes the morsel at the Last Supper, gets up and leaves. We are told that he steps out into darkness, the place of unbelief and sin. The Pharisees leave not in communion but isolation. Jesus who has come from the Father seeks the opposite of isolation. He has come to gather all of God’s scattered children. Jesus has come to lead us to intimacy with the Father. The Pharisees who are judging Jesus choose to move into isolation and division. Nicodemus, who approached Jesus in the darkness is moving in the opposite direction. He has heard the word of Jesus and is coming to the light. He speaks out and in the end will be one of the privileged entrusted with the great act of charity to tend the body of the Crucified. He unites himself with the disciples.

John’s gospel today tells us that Jesus is from the Father. We come to know Jesus by listening to his words. And there is a struggle between isolation and the work of Jesus to make us one in himself with the Father. In the midst of daily errors, confusion and ‘isolation’, let us draw strength from the Good News of John, and let us pray, ‘Lord, my God, I take shelter in you.’ 

 

Fr. William Murphy, CP is pastor of St. Joseph’s Monastery parish in Baltimore, MD.