PALM SUNDAY – A MEDITATION

On Palm Sunday we read the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ written by Mark (Mk 14, 1 – 15, 47). It is good and important for us if during the Holy Week we meditate on the love that led Jesus to come into this world of ours and become man like us (this is the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God) even though he knew that he would suffer persecution and a terrible death in the hands of the men he wanted to save (this is the mystery of our redemption).

I would like to present some points to reflect on.

First, the passion of Jesus according to Mark speaks to us in the light of his resurrection. There are details I find interesting. Judas, leading a crowd with swords and clubs betrayed his Master. Only Mark recorded that, when and they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him, "A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked." Who was this mysterious young man? Some scholars think it was Mark himself. Some say he was a figure of Jesus. It was like a comment from Mark that said: the soldiers arrested Jesus, his body, but not his soul. This could not be arrested nor killed. The linen cloth symbolized Jesus' body, and the young man who ran off naked symbolized the spirit of Christ.

When Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea boldly went to Pilate and asked permission to take the body of Jesus for burying. When permission was given, Joseph went and bought a linen cloth, lowered Jesus from the cross, wrapped him in the linen cloth and placed him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Only Mark tells us that Joseph bought a linen cloth. Why did Mark remember this detail? It seems to point to the sheet that the young man had left in the hands of Jesus' enemies at the time of his arrest.

We meet another young man dressed in a white robe in the tomb where Jesus had been buried. Mark does not say that it was an angel. But the young man told Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome who had gone to the tomb: "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here." Was he Jesus? Mark does not say, and I do not know! However he makes me think that there is a link between the young man leaving his linen cloth behind in the hands of those who wanted to capture him in the Gethsemane, the linen cloth in which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped Jesus’ body, and the young man dressed in white in the otherwise empty tomb. To me these three episodes speak of Easter.

Then, the mission that the young man in white gave to the women at the tomb is quite similar to the mission Jesus gave Mary Magdalene early in the morning of the Passover, as reported by John.  Mary thought Jesus was the gardener, but when he called her by name, she recognized him, and he told her “Go to my brethren and tell them...”.  Mark did not tell us the identity of this young man who told the women "Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you"(Mk 16, 7). These are practically the same words Jesus is reported as saying in Matthew’s gospel “Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." Indeed,  Mark’s rendering of Jesus' passion is bare of details but is wrapped in linen cloth that was finally left neatly folded at the empty tomb. Resurrection!

Secondly, the prophet Isaiah, speaking of Jesus, said, "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." (Isa 53: 7). In Mark's gospel, Jesus did not open his mouth to defend himself. Not when Judas kissed him. Not when his enemies accused him, nor when Pontius Pilate said, "Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you." From the cross Jesus just shouted loudly: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? " These are the words at the beginning of Psalm 22. It was a prayer that expressed his loneliness, abandoned as he was by disciples and friends who deserted him and fled, all of them. He also felt abandoned by God. Indeed, as John the Baptist prophesied, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Paschal lamb, a silent lamb! At the end of his life, Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

Thirdly, I ask, what is the difference between Peter and Judas?  As soon as Peter, for the third time, denied that he knew Jesus, the Lord turned and looked at him. Peter remembered what the Lord had said to him, at the Last Supper, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly. (cfr Lk 22, 61-62). I think that Peter, saddened by his denials, remembered Christ’s words when he found the three apostles asleep when he had asked them to pray with him. He had commented: “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Surely Peter encouraged by these words believed the Master understood, and that he could weep away his sin. After Christ’s resurrection, Peter could sincerely say: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (Jn 21, 17). Peter believed in God’s unlimited mercy!

Not so Judas! Matthew tells us: “When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself” (Mt 27, 3-5). He despaired!

Peter repented and wept over his sin. Judas repented but did not remember, or perhaps he did not believe that God's mercy was greater than his sin. The Father told St. Catherine of Siena: “The despair of Judas displeased Me more, and was more grave to My Son than was his betrayal of Him ... (Judas) held his sin to be greater than My mercy” (Dialogue ch. 37). Peter is a saint, and Judas?

Lastly, it is important for us to remember that among the crowd, only one man, the pagan Centurion who stood facing Jesus and saw him breathe his last, believed and publicly declared about Christ: "This man was indeed the Son of God!" The question arises: Do we have the courage to publicly proclaim our faith in Jesus like this man did? Do We Try to Follow him? Are we trying to do his will? Let us keep trying, even if we are not always able to do his will. Let us remember that the will of God is that we all can have a good life in abundance, even in this world.

Jesus is our friend! Jesus is our brother! He loves us more than we could imagine!