Holy Week Reflections - Palm Sunday

The readings for Palm or Passion Sunday bring us face to face with a choice we must make: to turn away from Jesus or to adopt a spirit of self-abnegation, annihilating in us anything that is resistant to humble obedience to what he asks of us. Such abandonment represents the most radical truth lived by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who knew in her heart that Jesus thirsted for her as much as she thirsted for him. So convinced was she of this truth that she wrote in her autobiography, “…Now abandonment alone guides me. I have no other compass!”

Living the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s dying and rising turned this young woman away from being an immature fledgling full of faults to becoming a mature woman fearlessly committed to giving her all for God. Her motivation for doing so was that “God gives the hundredfold in this life to those souls who leave everything for love of him.”

The first reading for today from Isaiah 50:4-7 is a Servant Song that Thérèse, to whom the Lord had given “the tongue of a teacher”, would have fully understood. Isaiah depicts the characteristics of the Messiah she loved. Even when his back was beaten and his beard plucked, he did not rebel. Neither did he hide his serene face from buffeting and spitting. Out of love for sinful humankind, he accepted to give his life for the salvation of the world.

Psalm 22 confirms the full significance of such abandoned love. It is truly a lamentation that expresses what it is like in our own lives to have to identify with “the affliction of the afflicted.” Were we there, we might pray with Saint Thérèse, “Jesus…draw me into the flames of [your] love…unite me so closely to [you] that [you] live and act in me.”

In those midnight moments of our life, when we feel abandoned by God and rejected even by those we trusted, we refuse to erase the counter expressions of trust and hope in God’s deliverance and our salvation.

This psalm response opens our heart to the full force of the second reading from Philippians 2:6-11, which portrays the humility and obedience of Jesus, who freely chooses to empty himself and for our sake to choose death on a cross.

Three traits of Christ, highlighted in this reading, are central to the Carmelite tradition: his self-emptying, his humility, and his obedience. In The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, we are told, “Continually offer [God] your sufferings (be empty of self) while asking him for strength to bear them. Most of all, get used to conversing with him often, and try never to forget him. Adore him (be humble) in your infirmities [and] offer him your sufferings…even in the midst of your greatest pain (be obedient)…”

This second reading also gives us a commission desperately needed in our world today: to revere the name of Jesus and to confess that he is Lord. The Father manifested the sovereignty of the Son by raising him from the dead and drawing him into glory.

How this revelation of redemption comes to pass comprises the account of the institution of the Lord’s supper in the Gospel of Luke 22:14-23. We witness the awesome moment when bread becomes his body, given up for us, and when wine becomes his blood. The Eucharist is from then to now an action of thanksgiving for sins forgiven and new life in Christ restored.

An outstanding witness to what it means to adhere in all circumstances to the mystery of transforming love is Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity. In times of physical debilitation and spiritual desolation, she chose to deepen her love for Christ crucified and to identify totally with the Paschal Mystery of his dying and rising. She tells us in words that bear repeating throughout Holy Week: “When everything was dark, when the present was so painful and the future seemed even more gloomy to me, I used to close my eyes and abandon myself like a child into the arms of this Father, who is in heaven.” May we choose to do likewise from now until we celebrate with the whole Church the glory of Easter morn.

Questions for Reflection

1. What in your heart poses as an obstacle to your desire for deeper conformity to Christ, especially when he asks you to carry your cross for his sake?

2. What does abandoned love mean to you, especially in today’s self-indulgent world?

3. What inclines you to maintain trust and hope in God’s promise of deliverance from all that is evil?