REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS FOR PASSION SUNDAY, CYCLE C
Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 21: 8-9, 17-18a, 19-20, 23-24; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56
Every Holy Week, we are challenged by the reading of two different narratives of the Passion
within a short period. Today, Palm Sunday, we hear Luke’s account and on Good Friday, we
shall read, as we do each year, John’s account. Luke sets the earthly events of the passion in the
context of an ‘end of times’ battle with Satan. He emphasises that it is the Passover meal that
Jesus shares with the apostles and he brings this into close relation with his entry into the
Kingdom which will be established by his exaltation: “I shall not eat it again … drink wine until the
kingdom of God comes.” For Luke, the significance of the “breaking of the bread” described in
Acts is the way it enables those who participate to share with Jesus in the life of the Kingdom.
But before Jesus can enter his Kingdom he must undergo his final act of surrender and make his
full response to the way of obedience on which he embarked when he rejected the wiles of Satan
in the wilderness. This is the time of crisis. On the Mount of Olives Luke’s emphasis is on Jesus’
prayer that his will may be aligned to that of the Father’s and the prayer itself expresses
confidence in his own constancy, for this is the focal point and climax of Jesus’ obedient surrender
to his calling. Luke’s crucifixion scene is distinctive. What happens at the cross, as Luke tells its
story, is completely at one with his gospel’s presentation of Jesus as he moved determinedly
towards it, with his face set steadfastly in the direction of Jerusalem. For Luke, the cross is the
climax and determining fact of Jesus’ whole ministry which, taken up at the ascension, becomes
God’s outreaching redemptive act. Jesus’ crying “with a loud voice” is not, as in Mark, one of
desolation, but of confidence. Jesus quotes not Psalm 21:1 – “My God, my God, why have you
forsake me?”, but Psalm 30:6 – “(Father) into your hands I commit my spirit”. The agony, which is
real, is caught up into the obedience that enables a secure confidence. Like Mark, Luke has
Jesus “breathe his last”. He records a real outpouring, a complete emptying of himself.
Luke’s picture of Jesus on the cross recalls that of the Suffering Servant about whom we read in
the passage from Isaiah today. This anonymous ‘Servant’, whose attitude in the face of the
grievous assaults, insults and shame inflicted upon him is to pursue his God-given task with
unshakable steadfastness and with the courage of the martyr. The overriding motif is confidence
in God who has called him to this task and who will uphold him.
The response to Psalm 21, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” are words used by
Mark to express the depths of the suffering of the abandoned figure of Jesus. Yet, as in the Isaiah
text, there is, in this psalm of such anguish and desolation, a note of confidence in and even
praise of God.
The reading from Philippians is a hymn used in the early Christian liturgy, confessing belief in
Jesus as Redeemer and Lord. The first part describes the Incarnation as a humiliation and a
voluntary sharing in the limitations of humankind, setting the death of Jesus in the total context of
his human life. The second part describes his exaltation by God, ending with the confession that
Jesus is Lord.
The New Testament explains the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus with
reference to the Jewish festival of Passover, which remembers the slavery in and deliverance
from Egypt. Jesus celebrated it yearly, just our Jewish neighbours still do. On Thursday evening,
when we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we shall see most clearly the parallels between
the Passover and our own Christian Eucharist. In both, a historical event of suffering and
deliverance is commemorated and redemption experienced. Both look toward the future when the
definitive redemption of the whole universe will be accomplished. So let us remember the
Jewish people when they celebrate Passover, which this year, because of the Jewish leap year,
begins only on the eve of April 23rd - and pray that our new dialogue with them, begun during the
Second Vatican Council, will continue to flourish.
Sr Margaret Shepherd nds