Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
This is probably one of the most difficult homilies that I have written in recent times. My focus in this reflection is on 'meaning.' How can we give meaning to our experience of the coronavirus pandemic? I hope that in finding meaning, we will also find comfort. I am choosing to focus on today second reading. I believe that 'meaning' comes from uniting ourselves to Christ - the Christ described in these words:
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
“Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.”
(Philippians 2:6-8)
Here are three points for meaning:
He emptied himself. Jesus’ self-emptying refers to a change of nature. In Christ, divine nature incarnates into the world as human flesh. Jesus did not merely look like a human being. He became human. In doing this, Jesus became who he was not! His self-emptying means that, though God, Jesus entered human history as a human person. It was a supreme saving act of love par excellence. Today as we celebrate Palm Sunday under the shadow of a pandemic, I invite us to unite ourselves with the self-emptiness of Jesus. Many of us are hurting because today, instead of holding palms in our hands, they are empty. But it is not just about palms, is it? We are compelled to empty ourselves of the possibility of gathering as a community, processing as God’s people, together welcoming Christ as our King and Messiah, bearing public witness, and most importantly, expressing our unity with God and others in Communion. Some of us have perhaps lost a loved one! Others have lost employment and dignity. It hurts. It hurts in our soul. How can we find meaning? Perhaps uniting ourselves to the self-emptying of Christ can give our hurt a Christian context. I think of the many people who are self-emptying... doctors, nurses, health worker, grocery shelf stockers, cleaners, disinfectors. I know people who are self-emptying by helping others through grocery cards, donating to pay other people's salaries, buying groceries for the disabled, making masks, and taking care of immigrants and homeless people. Perhaps, we can even make all these form of self-emptying an act of love for Christ who emptied himself for our salvation. Let us find meaning in uniting our self-emptying with the self-emptying of Christ.
Taking the form of a slave. Jesus did not just become human. He did not become an affluent human being. Jesus did not merely become a poor human being. He became the least of human beings – a slave. Here is the problem with slavery – that it denies human person the very quality that defines our humanity – freedom! God became a slave! The contrast is striking! The one who was the highest being became the lowest being! These days we feel deprived of our freedom. We cannot shake hands, we cannot embrace each other, we cannot be six feet of one another, we cannot go out to places we love to go and when we want to go. Some of us cannot go to work, to school, to activities which added meaning to our lives. We are afraid, anxious, separated from one another, and even encounter the possibility of death. Our loss of freedom today is but a miniscule experience of what many slaved experienced in our own nation. Christ freely became a slave, gave up his freedom as the Son of God, to set us free. How can we find meaning? In two ways: First, may our experience of the loss of freedom unite ourselves to those our forefathers subjected to slavery. Second, let us unite our lack of freedom to Him, who became a slave to set us free – Jesus Christ.
He humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Jesus humbled himself. In the New Testament times, humility was the virtue of a slave. The paradox is clear – the slave who is without freedom made a free choice to be without freedom. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death! This means that Jesus’ humility and obedience were not merely an afterthought. Jesus, who shared equality with God, freely and deliberately surrendered his own will to humble himself and be obedient to God and to human authority. Till his very last breath, till the very last drop of blood was shed, from the womb to his tomb, Jesus remained humble and obedient. I am not sure about you, but for me, I have never felt so humbled before. An invisible-to-the-eye virus has brought the world and the Church to her knees. I feel that the Church today is more like Christ on Palm Sunday. She is stripped of her triumphalism. She feels humbled. I know there are many Catholics, bishops, priests, and lay people, who think that we must defy the limitations that have been placed upon us. I for one think that there is value in humility. There is power is obedience. The church and all of us must walk not in arrogance, defiance, or triumphalisism. This is the time to walk in humility and in obedience with the rest of humanity, and in this way, unite ourselves to the humble and obedient Christ.
This Holy Week, let us remember that Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and became obedient unto death, for our redemption. Jesus emptying must inspire our self-emptying. The sacrifice of his freedom must inspire us to cherish the freedom Christ won for us by his self-sacrificing death. His slavery and death must inspire our humble obedience to God. This Holy Week, Jesus redemptive actions compel us bend our knees and confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” In this is our own meaning, redemption and glory!
Fr. Satish JosephApril 5