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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (Year A)

In today’s first reading (Isaiah 50:4-7), Isaiah foretells of the famous Suffering Servant. Speaking in the first person, Isaiah wrote: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help; I am not disgraced” (v. 6-7).

The theme given is redemptive suffering. It is through a suffering accepted out of supreme love that this Suffering Servant figure will redeem (a word meaning “to purchase back”) and restore Israel, which has been divided, punished, and exiled due to Israel’s continued idolatry in the face of a loving and constant God. Isaiah tells us that this redemption is not just for Israel, but for the rest of the nations as well, including you and me.

When the time of fulfillment comes, God will do something extraordinary and unexpected. He will take on human flesh and fulfill the vocation of Israel! God will become the suffering servant, a light to the world, our Savior and Redeemer. It is this time and this great work of God that we continue to ponder and remember in the many other readings of today’s Liturgy of the Word, which begins with the Procession with Palms.

In Philippians 2:6-11, St. Paul gives what is perhaps an early Christian hymn that we know of today as the Canticle of Kenosis. “He emptied himself … coming in human likeness … he humbled himself becoming obedient even unto death.” Kenosis is a Greek word taken from the Greek verb kenoo, which Paul uses in this passage and is rendered in the English as “emptied.” This hymn proclaims how God stooped from the lofty height of the heavens and down into our lowly human condition to save us in Jesus Christ.

If you listen closely to the responsorial psalm and the very long Gospel narrative taken from Matthew 26:14 to 27:66, you will see how St. Matthew carefully shows Psalm 22 to be fulfilled in the Passion of Jesus. So, for example, compare the following two passages:

All who see me scoff at me; they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads: “He relied on the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, if he loves him.” (Ps 22:8-9)

Likewise, the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now is he wants him.” (Mt 7:41-43)

See how the readings fit together seamlessly? Christ is at the heart of the Psalms, which served Israel as its official hymnal in the Temple liturgy. God prepared his family for Jesus through their daily prayer back then. Today, God prepares us for eternal life through the readings and prayers we experience today at Mass. Are you paying close attention with attentive ears?