Readings
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Philippians 2:6-11
Mark 14:1-15:47

Chants

Crowned with thorns, our Lord is lifted up on the cross, where He dies as “King of the Jews.” Notice how many times He is called “king” in today’s Gospel—mostly in scorn and mockery.

As we hear the long accounts of His passion, at every turn we must remind ourselves—He suffered this cruel and unusual violence, for us.

He is the Suffering Servant foretold by Isaiah in today’s First Reading. He reenacts the agony described in today’s Psalm, and even dies with the first words of that Psalm on His lips (see Psalm 22:1).

Listen carefully for the echoes of this Psalm throughout today’s Gospel—as Jesus is beaten, His hands and feet are pierced; as His enemies gamble for His clothes, wagging their heads, mocking His faith in God’s love, His faith that God will deliver Him.

Are we that much different from our Lord’s tormenters? Often, don’t we deny that He is king, refusing to obey His only commands that we love Him and one another? Don’t we render Him mock tribute, pay Him lip-service with our half-hearted devotions?

In the dark noon of Calvary, the veil in Jerusalem’s temple was torn. It was a sign that by His death Jesus destroyed forever the barrier separating us from the presence of God.

He was God and yet humbled himself to come among us, we’re reminded in today’s Epistle. And despite our repeated failures, our frailty, Jesus still humbles himself to come to us, offering us His body and blood in the Eucharist.

His enemies never understood: His kingship isn’t of this world (see John 18:36). He wants to write His law, His rule of life on our hearts and minds.

As we enter Holy Week, let us once more resolve to give Him dominion in our lives. Let us take up the cross He gives to us—and confess with all our hearts, minds, and strength, that truly this is the Son of God.

__________________________

Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740),
from Sermon for Palm Sunday

Have courage, daughter of Zion, do not be afraid. "Behold, your king comes to you, humble and mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden" (Zec 9,9). He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation. He is coming "who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners" (Lk 5,32), coming to recall those who have strayed into sin.

Do not be afraid, then: "God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be shaken" (Ps 46[45],6) Receive him with open, outstretched hands, for it was on his own hands that he sketched you. Receive him who laid your foundations on the palms of his hands. Receive him, for he took upon himself all that belongs to us except sin, to consume what is ours in what is his... Rejoice exceedingly, daughter of Jerusalem, sing and leap for joy... "Be enlightened, for the light has come to you and the glory of the Lord has risen over you" (Is 60,1).

What kind of light is this? It is that "which enlightens every man coming into the world" (Jn 1,9). It is the everlasting light... revealed in time, the light manifested in the flesh although hidden by nature, the light that shone round the shepherds and guided the Magi. It is the light that was in the world from the beginning, through which the world was made, yet the world did not know it. It is that light which came to its own, and its own people did not receive it.

And what is this glory of the Lord? Clearly it is the cross on which Christ was glorified, he, the radiance of the Father's glory, even as he said when he faced his passion: "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him, and will glorify him at once" (Jn 13,31). The glory of which he speaks here is his lifting up on the cross, for Christ's glory is his cross and his exultation upon it, as he plainly says: "When I have been lifted up, I will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12,32).