Passion Sunday

Reflection

“Then an argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest.  Jesus said to them, ‘I am among you as the one who serves.’”  With Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, we are ushered into the mysteries of Holy Week, culminating in the celebration of the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday.  It is a week full of contradictions and, if we enter deeply into the drama of the liturgies, of emotional whiplash.  Who is this Jesus?  He is the king riding into Jerusalem in triumph, ironically seated on the colt of an ass.  He is the “criminal” hustled out of the city to be executed only five days later.  He is the gentle rabbi managing His own and His disciples’ worst fears and best hopes for Himself and them in the wonderfully intimate Communion feast and long discourses of their Last Supper together.  He is the physically crushed but undefeated Suffering Servant in His Agony in the Garden, in His trials, torments, and dying on the Cross.  We know, throughout it all, that He is the Risen Lord.  All these dimensions of His person are concentrated in those few words: “I am among you as the one who serves.”  In the best of times and in the worst of times, He is among us as the one who serves.

Prayer

Jesus, give me the grace always to be conscious of Your presence among us as the one who serves: to know that success as Your disciple means neither being exalted nor being debased, but simply being there in service to You and to our sisters and brothers in whatever comes our way.  You were not the focus of Your own attention in Your suffering and death, or even in your Resurrection.  You were there for the service of Your Father and the least of Your sisters and brothers.  Help us to maintain that steady sense of purpose in our lives, too.

Fr. David Cray, S.S.E. ’68, Saint Michael’s College Board of Trustees, Superior General of the Society of Saint Edmund

Scripture

Procession Gospel: Luke 19:28-40

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7

Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11

Gospel: Luke 22:14—23:56 or  23:1-49

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website