Oh, The Irony!
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Reflection of Fr. Earl Valdez for the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Liturgy of the Word
Matthew 21:1-11
Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalm 22
Philippians 2:6-11 Matthew 26:14-27:66
I’m always struck by the fact that every Palm Sunday, we get two gospel readings. Before the faithful process toward the church with their palms raised, we recall the entrance of the Lord in Jerusalem, in which people welcome him as the king, as if he is the VIP, the promised one that the prophets have foretold. We can imagine the joyful atmosphere, as if the crowd has found what the people of Israel have longed for.
And then fast forward to the second gospel reading of the day, which probably most of us have witnessed quite dramatically, we see another set of people brutally screaming “CRUCIFY HIM!” to that Jesus who was just declared as a king. From that glorious moment, we see here something violent, an expression of a collective rage that probably hid some form of disappointment. Because it seems that expectations were left unfulfilled, the crowd turned its ugly face and demanded some form of restitution: Our Lord’s life.
We are not sure if this crowd in Jerusalem was the same crowd that turned up during Our Lord’s trial. And if it were, we would not probably know what happened in between; your guess is as good as mine. However, these two readings somehow bring out a basic reality in our human lives, namely the two faces of who we are in front of the Lord.
Perhaps the first one is more moral in character: while we believe the Lord to be King with our words, our actions would say “crucify him!” Perhaps it also has a rather personal and relational aspect: while we glorify the Lord in good times, we are the ones who first reject the Lord in challenging times, especially when we see in His suffering figure the ugliness of our situations. There are many things that we can contrast between these two readings, and when we bring this together, it all the more brings out the dualities that are part of our lives.
Brothers and sisters, it is not new that we live with these dualities, where we experience the ironies that become part of our lives. We see ourselves advancing in faith, only to regress when we let selfishness and sinfulness take over our lives, in view of our own interests. We strive toward improving our relationships, only to destroy them when we use others to advance our own ambitions. We say “Hail to Our King and Savior!” when at times we actually implicitly say “Crucify Him!”
This fact of life, due to our own tendency toward self-love, calls us to be humbler with our own selves and to be merciful and understanding with others. This also calls us to be accountable for our actions inasmuch as we also demand and aid others in facing the consequences of our actions.
But most of all, may this call us to greater faith in Our Lord, whom we remember in this coming Holy Week, one who understood the contradictions we experience in our lives. But instead of merely letting these pass and allow us to live from a distance from the Father’s love, took all the consequences of our actions, showed us the way forward with goodness and mercy, and most of all offered His life in order to give us a new one in His Resurrection.
Our Lord resolves these contradictions, and faces the ironies of our lives with love. May we cherish this love that He has given to us, in view of becoming as loving and merciful as He is.
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