Jesus Humbles Himself out of Love He Has for Us

03-28-2021Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, C.S.Sp

The passion narrative gives us an insight of what Jesus suffered for us, especially the love He has for us that made Him endure all the insults and humiliation for our sake. Today’s liturgy does not a require long homily, but to allow the events of the passion story to speak directly to us in the silence of our heart. Our meditation is on Jesus’ suffering and death for our sake. He came and gave Himself completely to us by His preaching, miracles, healing and finally giving of Himself in humility on the cross.

Today we recall how Jesus entered Jerusalem in humility to complete the work of our salvation to undergo suffering, denial and finally death for our sake and to rise after three days. Today begins the most sacred week called the Holy Week in our Christian liturgy. One of the ways we can participate actively in this week’s events and enjoy the beauty of the celebration is to maintain some levels of interior silence and quietness. The Church invites us to open ourselves since we have all gathered with faith to commemorate that triumphal entry into Jerusalem. If we participate in this journey with our Lord we are sure to rise with Him on Easter Sunday. Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding on an ass because to ride on a horse for the Jews would indicate a war-king or warlord, but an ass signifies that the person is for peace and wants peace. That is why He reprimands Peter when Peter cuts off the ear of the high priests servant to shields his sword because he came for peace.

The main focus of triumph of Jesus is His triumph over evil, death, sin, and suffering. Jesus as God has foreseen all His suffering and death He was about to undergo how He will be ill-treated by those he has cared for, by those he fed when they were hungry, those he healed of their sickness and cured their infirmities. These are the same people who would insult Him and make all kinds of mockery of Him. One would have expected Him to withdraw back in the midst of all these evils, but since He has come to defeat the power of evil over humanity He remained firmed. He was obedient unto death that even when the passersby made mockery of Him by telling Him if you are the son of God save yourself by coming down from the cross” He remained on the cross, He chose to remain there because He knew, that is the only way to save the world. The devil does not like the cross and wants to take him away from the cross. In our own lives too, we encounter situations whereby we wish to avoid the cross to choose the easy way out. Jesus’ example on choosing to remain on the cross instead of coming down is a clear indication that we should not listen to voices that would want to distract us from carrying our own cross in life when the situation calls for it.

In the same way, anytime we are in the crisis of choosing between good and evil and we choose good then we have allowed God to triumph in that situation. When we are faced with the struggle between giving in to sin or not and we avoid the sin then Jesus has triumphed in that very moment. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem should also be an opportunity to reflect on how often we triumph over sin, negative forces and evil that comes our way in our daily lives. It would be good if we use the Palm Sunday of this particular year to put things straight in our lives.

My prayer is that our participation in the paschal mystery will lead us to ever stronger faith in Jesus, the Blessed Son of God.

Wishing you all a Blessed Holy Week Celebration

Fr. Tony Okolo

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