The Passion of the Lord — Some reflections

The readings of palm Sunday are rich and long. I like to share 3 thoughts based on the readings.

1. The second reading is the beautiful hymn of the kenosis from the letter of Paul to the Philippines. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. How can divine Jesus suffer? He self-emptied himself, which can be understood as emptying of all privileges of the divinity. He experienced pain and suffering as we experience the same in our own life. The climax point of his suffering and agony is seen in him sweating blood on the garden of Gethsemane. Scholars say that this is the sign of the extreme sensitive nature of the person. The first invitation is to appreciate more and more the humanity of Jesus, which in turn leads to appreciate the humanity of others and mine.

2. One of the commonality of the Palm Sunday and the Good Friday is the crowd. They are present in both occasions though their behaviour is quite different. I wish to distinguish between three words — individual, community and crowd. Each of us is an unique individual, children of God having our own unique vocation. We do have a certain relation with other members of our own society. Communities are places where individuality is respected, and relationships flourish. Crowd is a place where individuality is lost and no true relationship exists between them. They follow a leader or an ideology or an emotion. Even our small families or religious communities (or units) has the potentiality to be a crowd.

3. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus is very active; he is doing many things including miracles, teaching etc. This active Jesus become very passive towards the end of his life, especially after his arrest. And agony at the garden, the entire journey of the passion and final hours at the cross are some of his most vulnerable moments. And experiencing some of this and seeing his death, a centurion is making a proclamation, “Truly this man was the son of God”. What made him say so? What of the passion of Jesus made him say that Jesus is the son of God? A good question for a reflection in the holy week.