Mk 14: 1- 15: 47
Today we keep the psalm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. The gospel of the day gives the detailed account of the Lord’s passion and prepares us to celebrate the most significant events of our faith journey. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah narrates to us the suffering servant of Yahweh. He describes the way Jesus would accept his torture. In the second reading, the apostle Paul summarizes the entire salvation history through his hymn of kenosis or the self-emptying of Jesus. Isaiah lived around eight hundred years before Jesus and Paul lived after Jesus. Both of them speak about the hallmark of Jesus’ character, that is, His humility. Isaiah presented to us the humility of the suffering servant of Yahweh. The suffering servant accepted all the torture and harassment without any complaint. Paul starts his canticle by mentioning the greatness of Christ’s humility. “Though He was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God.” In order to save each one of us God abandoned everything, emptied himself to the point of death. The entire cosmos is under his majesty yet he subdues himself to the man who is his own creation in order to save us.
Another remarkable memory of this day is that Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Why did Jesus choose donkey? Kings normally use the horse as a sign of their glory and triumph. But Jesus used a donkey. This symbolic gesture of Jesus speaks volume about his humility. He entered into Jerusalem not as a conqueror but as a peacemaker. As we prepare ourselves to enter into the Holy week let us keep the humility of Jesus in our hearts. Though he was in the form of God, he was humble enough to accept death in order to redeem us.