{"id":1062,"date":"2020-03-31T14:54:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T14:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2020-03-31T14:54:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T14:54:48","slug":"5-april-2020-a-passion-sunday-palm-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=1062","title":{"rendered":"5 April 2020 (A) Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>A. The Bible as Guide in Life\nand Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>B. Reflection and Dialogue with Questions of the Day:<\/strong><em><strong> The gentleness of Christ urges us on.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A. The Bible as Guide in Life\nand Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Gospel for Entrance\nProcession<\/em> (Matthew 21:1-11). This reading is about Jesus\u2019 triumphal entry\ninto Jerusalem. One may naturally ask what really occurred on that first\noccasion, how did Jesus\u2019 earliest followers understand the event, what message\nhas it for us today. As the narrative stands in Matthew\u2019s gospel it comes at\nthe end of a long journey from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem. At Caesarea\nPhilippi Jesus asked his disciples what the people and what they said he was.\nOn behalf of his disciples Peter expressed the belief that Jesus was the\nChrist, the Messiah, according to Mark and Luke, or Christ the Son of the\nLiving God according to Matthew. Jesus did not deny this, but sternly ordered\nhis disciples not to tell anyone about him. Jesus immediately follows up by a\nprediction of the suffering and rejection he is to undergo (Matthew 16:21).\nCaesarea Philippi was in non-Jewish, pagan or semi-pagan territory. Matters\nwere different at the Mount of Olives, facing the Holy City and the Temple.\nHere sites, landmarks and sacred festivals (Passover) had a language all their\nown; they spoke of prophecy, of Israel\u2019s past, present and future, of the\nMessiah and Messianic times. The ruling Roman authorities knew this as well,\nand for Passover would have their armed forces on the alert. A text of the\nJewish historian Josephus illustrates the situation. During the governorship of\nFelix (52-60 A.D.) a self-styled prophet from Egypt came +to the Mount of\nOlives and promised his followers that at his command the walls of Jerusalem\nwould fall down. When the Roman governor Felix heard of it he sent his soldiers\nto deal with the situation. They slew four hundred of the Egyptian\u2019s followers,\nand captured two hundred others. Jesus\u2019 entry was nothing of this sort. It did\nnot attract attention. But quietly the deep religious significance of the place\nand event was clear to Jesus and his followers, set against the background of\nprophecy. The word of the Lord through the prophet (Zechariah 9:9) had\nproclaimed: \u201cRejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter\nJerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble\nand riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey\u201d. To make the message\nclearer Jesus sent his disciples to fetch a young donkey. We do not know\nwhether Jesus had already arranged with the owner for the loan of the animal.\nThere was an explosion of faith and hope in Jesus as Messiah and the coming of\nthe kingdom of David. Unlike at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus does not reject this\nexpression of faith. But by his choice of the humble entry, not as conqueror,\nhe makes clear which of the prophecies he is fulfilling. He was hailed by the\ncrowds in Jerusalem as the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. He would soon be\nrejected, but only to triumph as redeemer through the Cross and Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>First Reading<\/em> (Isaiah 50:4-7). This is\none of the texts of the second part of Isaiah known as the Servant Songs. As\nintended for the first readers during the exile or shortly after the first\nreturn to Palestine, it is not quite clear how the Servant was to be\nunderstood: whether an individual person or a collectivity such as God\u2019s people\nIsrael, or idealized Israel, envisaged as she should be. In either case the\ntext gives the example of a suffering, patient pers+on, with mind and heart\nopen to God, prepared to suffer and learn from this suffering, and thus enabled\nto bring encouragement to those in a similar condition. Whatever of the\noriginal person intended, the passage is rightly taken as a prophecy and as\nfulfilled in Christ. It is a perfect description of Christ\u2019s patient sufferings\nand of his mission to bring salvation and comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Responsorial Psalm <\/em>(Psalm\n21[22]). <em>God is the king of glory; God\nreigns on his holy throne.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Second Reading<\/em>\n(Philippians 2:6-11). In its original setting in the Letter to the Philippians,\nthis well-known hymn is introduced to illustrate Paul\u2019s exhortation to imitate\nChrist\u2019s humility. He exhorts his readers to be of the same mind, to do nothing\nfrom selfish ambition, to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, set\nbefore them in this hymn as an example. The emphasis is on Christ\u2019s humility\nand humiliation, despite his dignity. The hymn may be c++ontrasting Christ, the\nSecond Adam, with the First Adam. Adam, although human (in human form)\nsuccumbed to the temptation to be like God. Jesus, though in the form of God\n(in some translations \u201chis state was divine\u201d) humbled himself to be as all\nmortals are. The hymn ends with an assertion of Jesus\u2019 exaltation, not just at\nhis resurrection and ascension, but all down through all history. It is a\nprofession of faith in the Kingdom of God and of Christ. To him every knee\nshall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Gospel <\/em>(Matthew\n26:14-27:66; shorter form Matthew 27:11-54). The long Gospel reading gives the\nnarrative from Judas\u2019s plan to betray Jesus on to his death on the cross. It\ntells of the preparations for the Last Supper, the Supper itself with the\ninstitution of the Eucharist, with the bread as his body, the wine as his blood\nof the covenant, followed by the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, the arrest,\ntrials and crucifixion, The shorter text goes from the trial before Pilate to\nJesus\u2019 death. Mark opened his narrative simply as: \u201cThe beginning of the good\nnews of Jesus Christ, Son of God\u201d. From early on in the narrative Matthew\nrecords the opposition to Jesus, and from the profession of faith at Caesarea\nPhilippi in Jesus by Peter and his disciples Jesus predicts on three occasions\nthe sufferings and death awaiting him in Jerusalem. The stark reality of what\nlay immediately ahead of him was clear to Jesus in Gethsemane when he prayed to\nthe Father that the \u201chour\u201d might pass from him (Matthew 26:39), but professed\ncomplete obedience to the Father\u2019s will. Jesus\u2019 passion, its implications and\nmessage, was central to the Christian message from the beginning. The wisdom of\nGod through the scandal of the cross remained central to the Christian message.\nThe narrative of the institution of the Eucharist and of the accompanying\npassion and death of Jesus were apparently the earliest continuous account of\nthe Gospel narrative. But Matthew\u2019s intention is not to give a chronicle of\nevents. The evangelist presents the Passion and death as the completion of the\ngood news of Jesus Christ Son of God. After Jesus had breathed his last,\nMatthew, somewhat similar to Mark, has the pagan centurion and those who were\nwith him exclaim: \u201cSurely this man was God\u2019s Son\u201d (Matthew 27:54). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B.<strong> Reflection and Dialogue with Questions of the Day:<\/strong><em> The gentleness of Christ urges us on<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s readings present ample\nmaterial for reflection. For the greater part they are so clear that they\nhardly need to be explained. The application of the message of the readings to\ncircumstances of our own day can also be rather easily done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The\nfirst and second readings for the Mass itself present the figure of the Servant\nof the Lord, presented as an example to be imitated. He has been given a\ndisciple\u2019s tongue. He can speak from the experience of one who has come to know\nthe human condition. He has learned from what he has suffered and experienced\nhimself, and because of this is in a <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>position to address the wearied.\nThere is today a certain reluctance to endure any suffering, even that which is\npart of the human condition. In certain quarters and countries we hear of the\n\u201cquality of life\u201d as a determining factor in decisions, this \u201cquality\u201d at time\nimplying absence of suffering, as if life had no meaning without such absence.\nThis can in some quarters be advanced as ground for ending life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Another\nlesson coming across from the first reading and the Passion narrative is the\ngentleness of Christ, and its call on all to be kind to one another. Pope\nFrancis has recently stressed this aspect of the Christian, and the Church\u2019s\nmessage, and his approach has been greeted by the media. The Servant of the\nLord, and Jesus meek and humble of heart, have still a message for our own day.\nLet us pray that the message of Jesus, as presented by Pope Francis, and of the\nChurch, may be listened to in our world of so many divergent voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<em>For\nreflections on the Sunday and Feast Day readings <\/em>see Martin McNamara\u00b8 <em>Sunday Readings with\nMatthew<\/em>, Dublin, Veritas, 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A. The Bible as Guide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings) B. Reflection and Dialogue with Questions of the Day: The gentleness of Christ urges us on. A. The Bible &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-readings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}