Palm/Passion Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C) – March 28, 2010

Scripture Readings
First Isaiah 50:4-7
Second Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel Luke 22:14-23:56

Prepared by: Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

1. Subject Matter
• Preparing for Holy Week and the Triduum

2. Exegetical Notes
• “…that I might know how to speak to the weary:” “The Servant declares himself a disciple of
the Lord God from whom he receives the words to sustain the weary. The Servant is shown
as a man full of confidence (in contrast with the rebellious ones denounced in preceding
oracles), and yet he is persecuted, insulted, tried; it is in this situation that he declares that
YHWH comes to his aid.” (The International Bible Commentary)
• “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death:” “Throughout his whole life,
Christ lived out perfectly the demands of human existence before God. Death was not simply
the terminal point of his obedience; it was the inevitable consequence of being both fully
human and totally obedient in a world alienated from God.” (NJBC)
• “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom:” “The criminal has deep faith that
the dying Jesus is truly a king and can dispense the pardon and mercy which only a king can
give.” (NJBC)

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• 560 Jesus' entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom that the King-
Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection. It is
with the celebration of that entry on Palm Sunday that the Church's liturgy solemnly
opens Holy Week.
• 1708 By his Passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He merited for us
the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had damaged in us.
• 1851 It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it,
 that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous
hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and
the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the
disciples' flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this
world, the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness
of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.
• 607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole
life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he
asked, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I
have come to this hour." And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has
given me?" From the cross, just before "It is finished", he said, "I thirst."
• 1820 Through the merits of Jesus Christ and of his Passion, God keeps us in the
"hope that does not disappoint." Hope is the "sure and steadfast anchor of the soul
. . . that enters . . . where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf." Hope is also
a weapon that protects us in the struggle of salvation: "Let us . . . put on the
breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." It affords us
joy even under trial: "Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation."

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities

• St. Leo the Great: “True worshipers of the Lord’s Passion should look at the Crucified Jesus
with the eyes of their heart in such a way as to recognize him as being of their own flesh. Let
the earthly substance tremble in the punishment of its Redeemer. Let the rocks of unfaithful
souls be broken. Let those on whom the tombs of mortality lie heavy break and leap over the
shattered mass of obstacles. Let the proofs of the coming resurrection appear now in the
holy city as well, that is, in the Church of God. Let what must be done in the body come
about in hearts. To no one among the infirm has that victory of the Cross been denied. No
one is there to whom the prayer of Christ will not be an aid. If it benefited many who were
raging against him, how much more would it help those who turn to him? Ignorance is taken
away, difficulties are smoothed over, and the sacred blood of Christ extinguished that fiery
weapon by which the boundaries of life had been confined. Darkness of the ancient night has
yielded to true light. Christian people are invited to the wealth of Paradise, and the way has
been thrown open to all believers for returning to their lost homeland—provided they do not
close off for themselves that way which could be opened to the faith of a thief. As we
celebrate the wonderful mystery of this Paschal Feast, dearly beloved, let us announce—
while the Spirit of God teaches us—whose glory we have been called to share in and into
what hope we have entered. Let us not so anxiously or so proudly busy ourselves in the
occupations of this present life as not to struggle—with the whole affection of our hearts—to
be conformed with our Redeemer through his example. He did nothing and suffered nothing
that was not for our salvation, in order that the strength which was in the Head might also be
in the body.”
• St. Thomas Aquinas: “Our Lord as he suffered felt really, and in his senses, that pain which is
caused by some harmful bodily thing. He also felt that interior pain which is caused by the
fear of something harmful and which we call sadness. In both these respects the pain
 suffered by Our Lord was the greatest pain possible in this present life… The cause of the
internal pain was: all the sins of all mankind for which, by suffering, he was making
satisfaction, so that, in a sense, he took them to him as though they were his own. “The
words of my sins,” it says in the Psalms (Ps 21:2). The special case of the others who had
had a share in the sin of his death, and especially the case of his disciples for whom his
death had been a thing to be ashamed of. The loss of his bodily life, which, by the nature of
things, is something from which human nature turns away in horror… The greatness of Our
Lord’s suffering can be considered in regard to this that the pain and sadness were without
any alleviation. For in the case of no matter what other sufferer the sadness of mind, and
even the bodily pain, is lessened through a certain kind of reasoning, by means of which
there is brought about a distraction of the sorrow from the higher powers to the lower. But
when Our Lord suffered this did not happen, for he allowed each of his powers to act and
suffer to the fullness of its special capacity. We may consider the greatness of the suffering
of Christ in the Passion in relation to this fact that the Passion and the pain it brought with it
were deliberately undertaken by Christ with the object of freeing man from sin. And therefore
he undertook to suffer an amount of pain proportionately equal to the extent of the fruit that
was to follow from the Passion.”
• Ven. Louis of Granada: “The first thing offered for our consideration is the greatness of the
charity of the Savior and the promptness with which he went forth to offer himself for death
for our sake. On this day he wished to be received with great festivity, as a sign of joy which
was in his heart because the hour of our redemption was at hand. It is said of many of the
martyrs that when they are arrested, they went to prison with as much joy as if they were
being led to a banquet. With what greater promptness and joy would he go who had so much
more charity and grace?… The prophecy says even more, for it states that he will come,
meek and mild, seated on a donkey. The God of vengeance, who is seated above the
cherubim and flies on the wings of wind, appears among us meek and mild so that you will
not flee from him as Adam did in the Garden and as the Jews did when he gave them the
Law, but will approach him when you see that the lion has become a lamb. He who up to this
time has not conquered your heart by the force of his might and power nor by the grandeur of
his majesty, wishes to vanquish your heart by the greatness of your humility and the force of
his love. This is the new way of attack which was chosen by the Savior, as is stated by the
prophet: ‘And with this he broke the forces of his enemies and conquered their hearts.’ This
is represented by his solemn entry into Jerusalem, when the entire city revolved around him
and all went forth to meet him with palms and olive branches, singing songs of praise and
laying their garments before him. Some cut olive branches; that is, they despoiled
themselves of their worldly goods and distributed their goods in works of mercy, which are
signified by the olive. Others cast their garments on the road before Christ; that is, by the
mortification of their passions and self-will, by the practice of penance and abnegation of their
flesh, and by death to their bodily desires they served for the glory of this Lord, as did
countless martyrs who tore the tunics of their bodies in confessing their faith in him.”
• St. Teresa of Avila: “What extraordinary ingratitude, my King! What incurable madness, that
we serve the devil with what you, my God, give us! Shall we repay the great love you bear us
by loving the one who so abhors you and must abhor you for ever? After the blood you shed
for us, and the blows and great sorrows you suffered, and the severe torments you endured,
do we, as a substitute for avenging your heavenly Father (since he doesn’t want vengeance,
and pardons the great disrespect with which his Son was treated), accept as companions
and friends those who disrespectfully treated him? Since we follow their infernal captain, it is
 clear we shall all be one and live for ever in his company, if your compassion does not
provide a remedy and bring us back to our senses and pardon us for the past. O mortals,
return, return to yourselves! Behold your king, for now you will find him meek; put an end to
so much wickedness; turn your fury and your strength against the one who makes war on
you and wants to take away your birthright. Turn, turn within yourselves, open your eyes, with
loud cries and tears seek light from the one who gave it to the world. Understand for love of
God that you with all your strength are about to kill the one who to give you life lost his own.
Behold that it is he who defends you from your enemies. And if all this is not enough, let it be
enough for you to know that you cannot do anything against his power and that sooner or
later you shall have to pay through eternal fire for such great disrespect and boldness. Why
is it you see this majesty bound and tied by the love he bears us? What more did those who
delivered him to death do, but inflict blows and wounds on him after he was bound? Oh, my
God, how much you suffer for one who grieves so little over your pains! The time will come,
Lord, when you will have to make known your justice and whether it is the equal of your
mercy. Behold, Christians, let us consider it carefully and we shall never finish understanding
the splendor of our Lord’s mercies and what we owe him. For if his justice is so great, alas,
what will become of those who have deserved that it be carried out and that it shine forth in
them?”
• Bl. Martin of Leon: “‘Look, your King is coming to you in all gentleness.’ This coming of Christ
is for the redemption and salvation of both Jew and Gentile. It is as though he were saying, I,
the King of heaven am no alien but your very own. It is to you he comes, and through the
assumption of your own humanity, in the most intimate manner possible. It is certainly for our
salvation that our King has come and in no sense for his own, since he has no need of help
while we assuredly have, we who are destitute and outlawed and in sore need of the Lord’s
assistance. So ‘he comes to raise the needy from the dust and from the mire the poor.’ To
raise from the earth those who are besmirched with sin—those, that is, without spiritual
resources, from pleasures of the world—and from the slough of vice all who are devoid of
virtue. Nor is it with anger or with threats that this king of heaven and earth arrives to visit us,
but rather with all gentleness and humility, so much so that ‘he did not shrink from the
embrace of death, even death upon a cross.’ Indeed, so utterly did he efface himself for our
salvation that during his passion it even seemed as if God had abandoned him so that he
was impelled to cry out from the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’”
• Antonin Sertillanges, O.P.: “The triumph of Jesus on Palm Sunday was actually a march
toward Calvary, and he knew it. Thus the triumph of the Christian to baptism, confirmation,
first Communion, marriage, the priesthood or religious profession, is and ought to be a march
to Calvary. Happy are they who realize this, consent to it, and find in this very truth their
consolation. If God were to explain himself to us, it would be easy for him to prove the
reasonableness of our trials and the wisdom of his providence. But there is another subject
demanding explanation and a further occasion for wisdom in the fact that he does not explain
himself. The mystics are right in weeping today over the pain of Christ, for it is eternal pain.
The cross is the shadow of Christ, accompanying him everywhere and, as it were,
indistinguishable from him. Jesus Christ calls unto himself those who suffer that they may
find in his doctrine the explanation for their suffering instead of succumbing to the mystery or
contending themselves with miserable interpretations; that they may discover in his teaching
their consolation, rather than allow themselves to be crushed ‘even as others who have no
hope’; that they may understand by his touch that consolation does not consist in the
expectation of a temporal deliverance from pain, but in the confidence which receives it as a
 pledge and recognizes it as love. Jesus puts into our hands his glorious cross, his saving
cross, his cross symbolic of the likeness and the love between him and us.”

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

• Marthe Robin: “A woman of great courage and strength, with a deep love of Christ and the
Church, Marthe Louise Robin was born on 13 March 1902 at Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, near
Lyons in south-eastern France; she died there on 6 February 1981, aged 78, having been
bedridden and almost totally paralyzed or more than half a century. During her lifetime and in
the years since, her message and example and her spiritual fervor and encouragement have
given great inspiration and direction to many men and women, of all ages and from all walks
of life. In October 1930, she received the stigmata, the marks of the passion, and each Friday
thereafter she underwent the most racking and intense pains of his death on the Cross.”

Marthe Robin prayed:

“In the bottomless depths of mercy, pardon and love of the heart of Jesus, I drown
sin, hatred and godlessness.Into his redeeming, sanctifying and divine blood I
plunge guilty, ungrateful and blind souls.I hide fearful, timid and untrusting souls in
his sacred wounds. I submerge cold, obdurate and rebellious hearts in the limitless
ocean of his tenderness.I carry priests—all priests—to the dwelling places
reserved for them alone. I thrust the entire world into his heart that is burning with
love for all. And finally, into this purifying, peace-giving and sanctifying furnace I
cast. O my Father in Heaven, all your creatures, that they may be open to
regeneration, perfection and love; all those who have been led astray, who are
doubtful, who are unbelieving; all the poor sinners; and I beg you to receive them,
to guard them, to transform them, and to consume all of them in your immense
love. O Eternal Justice of the Sovereign and Infinite Holiness of my God, behold
Jesus. Be satisfied by the superabundant merits that he has willed to deposit in
me. Repay yourself infinitely, recompense yourself with the glory you wrested from
Lucifer and all his proud legions and, later, from wicked and unscrupulous souls. O
inexpressible and incomprehensible Love, O supreme and infinite Charity, pierce
souls with the all-powerful flames of his divine heart. Eternally receive, without any
interruption, relaxation, weakening or omission, your Jesus Christ, the Eternal
Infinite in whom I ceaselessly melt away under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and
with Mary my Mother, so that all of your plans of love in the Church and in the
world may be perfectly accomplished. My God, your silence replies better than the
many fervors of my love for you. Take Jesus, all of Jesus, and deign to read for
yourself in his divine thoughts, which are also your thoughts, the untranslatable
characters of fire that your Spirit of Charity has so deeply imprinted upon my soul
and in my whole being, melting into the heart of your Unity, for evermore.”

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI

• Inner freedom is the prerequisite for overcoming the corruption and greed that devastate the
world today. This freedom can only be found if God becomes our richness; it can only be
 found in the patience of daily sacrifices, in which, as it were, true freedom develops. It is the
King who points out to us the way to this goal: Jesus, whom we acclaim on Palm Sunday,
whom we ask to take us with him on his way…He comes in all cultures and all parts of the
world, everywhere, in wretched huts and in poor rural areas as well as in the splendor of
cathedrals. He is the same everywhere, the One, and thus all those gathered with him in
prayer and communion are also united in one body. Christ rules by making himself our Bread
and giving himself to us. It is in this way that he builds his kingdom.
• “In the Palm Sunday procession we join with the crowd of disciples who in festive joy
accompany the Lord during his entry into Jerusalem. Recognizing him as King means
accepting him as the One who shows us the way, in whom we trust and whom we follow. It
means accepting his Word day after day as a valid criterion for our life. It means seeing in
him the authority to which we submit. We submit to him because his authority is the authority
of the truth. The procession of the Palms - as it was at that time for the disciples - is primarily
an expression of joy because we are able to recognize Jesus, because he allows us to be his
friends and because he has given us the key to life. This joy, however, which is at the
beginning, is also an expression of our ‘yes’ to Jesus and our willingness to go with him
wherever he takes us. But with this it is also clear what ‘following’ means for us and what its
true essence is for us: it is an interior change of life. It requires me no longer to be withdrawn
into myself, considering my own fulfillment the main reason for my life. It requires me to give
myself freely to Another - for truth, for love, for God who, in Jesus Christ, goes before me and
shows me the way. It is a question of the fundamental decision no longer to consider
usefulness and gain, my career and success as the ultimate goals of my life, but instead to
recognize truth and love as authentic criteria. It is a question of choosing between living only
for myself or giving myself - for what is greater. And let us understand properly that truth and
love are not abstract values; in Jesus Christ they have become a person. By following him, I
enter into the service of truth and love. By losing myself I find myself.”
• “Year after year the Gospel passage for Palm Sunday recounts Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.
Dear friends, let us join at this moment the procession of the people of that time - a
procession that winds through the whole of history. Together with people across the world let
us go forth to meet Jesus. Let us allow ourselves to be guided toward God by him, to learn
from God himself the right way to be human beings. Let us thank God with him because with
Jesus, Son of David, he has given us a space of peace and reconciliation that embraces the
world with the Holy Eucharist. Let us pray to him that we too may become, with him and
starting from him, messengers of his peace, adorers in spirit and truth, so that his Kingdom
may increase in us and around us. Amen.”

7. Other Considerations
• The good thief sees beyond the cowardice and ruthlessness of the world. Perhaps
something about his own poor choices, resulting now in utter powerlessness, makes him
especially sensitive to the kingship of Christ. More than that, the good thief recognizes the
unique kind of king Jesus is: one who serves. And so, unlike the contemptuous crowds that
demand Jesus prove his kingship by saving himself (an act that would only betray his
kingship), the good thief offers Christ the king the chance to serve. “Remember me when
you come into your kingdom.” The paradise of heaven is promised him because he has
renounced the false paradise of the world. The world can kill Jesus the king, but the new
 covenant of Christ will never die. To this, Joseph of Arimathea testifies as he approaches
Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. Joseph “was awaiting the kingdom of God.” The hope he
places in the body of Christ assures us that the death of Jesus is not too late for us to repent
of our betrayals. It is not too late to be counted among those who stand by Jesus in his trials.

Recommended Resources

Benedict XVI, Pope. Benedictus. Yonkers: Magnificat, 2006.

Biblia Clerus: http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_eng.html

Cameron, Peter John. To Praise, To Bless, To Preach—Cycle C. Huntington: Our Sunday

Visitor, 2000.

Hahn, Scott:
http://www.salvationhistory.com/library/scripture/churchandbible/homilyhelps/homilyhelps.cfm.

Martin, Francis: http://www.hasnehmedia.com/homilies.shtml

http://sc.fhview.com/sc_customplayer/seriesitems/1/119117