PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION


Every knee must bend

FIRST READING: Isaiah 50:4-7
He opens my ear that I may hear
THE SERVANT SONGS of Isaiah are profiles in courage. Articulate, obedient, long-suffering, resolute, the Servant ofYahweh is the image from Hebrew prophecy that Jesus draws upon in shaping his ministry. The cornerstone of the Servant’s strength is the “morning after morning” of attentive listening to God’s heart, which informs the rousing word he speaks and the road he walks.

Jesus continually turned aside to pray in his ministry, to rest, be filled, discern, and most of all to listen. In our attention-deficit culture, genuine listening rarely happens. Careful disciples will want to consider the “morning after morning” example of Isaiah's Servant.

SECOND READING: Philippians 2:6-11
Jesus Christ is Lord!
ONE OF MY warmest memories of adolescence is of the charismatic priest who was our high school chaplain. No matter what curve ball life threw his way, he was always shouting, “Praise the Lord!” At first I thought the man was unbalanced, having never seen an adult with such a passionate and overwhelmingly positive approach to life. But eventually his joy won me over to a new way of perceiving what God and faith are about.

Paul bursts forth with the same energetic enthusiasm in this hymn to Christ. Jesus is humbled in this world to be exalted by the One who sent him. So, too, are we called to humbly bend a knee, to share in the exaltation of that proclamation that rings from here to eternity: Jesus Christ and none other is Lord.

GOSPEL: Matthew 26:14-27:66
Tonight your faith in me will be shaken
ALL DISCIPLES come to this same dark night when our faith in the Lord is shaken. There may be earthquakes and explicit denials, troubling dreams and profitable betrayals. Or we may simply fall asleep when our presence is needful, or run away when called upon to risk a stand. We may join with the crowds and call for Barabbas over Jesus, even shout for the blood of the innocent. We may be the ones who jeer and mock, or simply the ones who say nothing in the face of injustice.

The night when our faith is shaken is the bleakest night our soul can know. But the disciples survive it to become the apostles, turning the shame of desertion into the courage of martyrdom. The only one who is not transformed is the one who condemned himself for his failure, fearing God’s justice and forgetting God’s mercy.

Questions for Reflection
    • How do you make yourself available to God’s Word, morning by morning?
    • How does your attitude compare to Christ’s in the example of his humility?
    • How do you behave in crises of faith? What shakes your faith?

Action Response
Practice putting on the attitude of Christ as Paul describes it. Let humility inform your choices this week.


These meditations reprinted with permission from God's Word Is Alive: Reflections on the Lectionary Readings for Sundays and Holydays by Alice Camille, For more information on the book or to order, visit the ACTA Publications website or call 800-397-2282.