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The readings of Palm Sunday have always broken my heart. Before Mass, we read St. Mark’s short account of Jesus entering Jerusalem. The pilgrims in front of and behind Christ are joyfully waving palms, lining the street with their cloaks, welcoming him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! … Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Then things take a turn for the worse. In Mass, during the Liturgy of the Word, at the Gospel, we read the full and tragic betrayal, passion and death of Jesus Christ. What a roller coaster of emotions!
Jesus’ triumphant entry into the capital city of Jerusalem has many parallels in history, where public adulation and welcome precedes deep tragedy, betrayal, violence and even death. One such instance in our recent memory might be the famous speech Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered in Washington, D.C., in 1963: “I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.” Months later, President John F. Kennedy would be assassinated, and within a few years, King himself would senselessly be murdered.
Those murderous events of 50-plus years ago, the events in our nation’s capital a few month ago, the events in our own Twin Cities last year, and the events that took place 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem are all rife with hatred and hostility.
There is great hostility in the story of Christ’s passion, and all of it is directed against Jesus. The religious leaders, chief priests, Roman centurions, the criminals being crucified with him, they all condemn and mock him. The common people, who might have joyfully welcomed him to Jerusalem just a few days before, now jeer at him as he hangs on the gibbet of the cross. Moreover, there is the failure of those who had been his Apostles, disciples and friends. They all suddenly abandon him and flee. Most tragically, Judas betrays him for 30 pieces of silver, and Peter publicly denies he even knows Jesus!
Surrounded by such fervent hostility during those dark hours, thankfully there were a few people (St. John, the Virgin Mary and a handful of holy women) at the foot of the cross who continued to faithfully and nobly respond to Jesus.
At the end of this week’s Passion narrative from St. Mark, we read of St. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses, having witnessed Christ’s cruel death, also witnessing his body being placed in the tomb. St. Mark’s account of the Passion calls us all to identify with those few followers at the foot of the cross, those few witnesses at the tomb. They saw Jesus with eyes of faith and followed him with hearts of love. They recognized with their eyes of faith the light and the love of God shining forth amid the darkness and hostility of the cross.
Hopefully, through a fruitful Lent, we too have honed our eyes of faith and deepened the love of God in our hearts. When we now look upon the passion and death of Jesus, hopefully we can see the love of God, and how that divine love is stronger than death, and how it dispels the darkness of sin in our lives.
In St. Mark’s Gospel narrative of the Passion, told in the space of just about 10 minutes, we discover the story of our salvation. Where else in such a short span of time can you have an opportunity to realize how profoundly loved you are? Have a blessed Holy Week!
Father Haugan is pastor of Holy Spirit in St. Paul.
Sunday, March 28
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
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