Throughout the country, and even throughout the world, the Churches today are empty. Here at Pluscarden we are blessed to be able still to celebrate Mass, but we do so with no lay congregation whatever. Because of this, and in accordance with instructions from the Holy See, today we had no blessing of Palms, no procession with Hosannas, no singing of Theodulph’s great Hymn Gloria laus et honor tibi sit. It’s Palm Sunday, and the beginning of Holy Week, and Christians everywhere want to gather in crowds, to sing to Christ, to welcome him, to acclaim him, and they can’t. Let today’s strange absence at least remind us of our unbroken bond with our fellow Christians, and our solidarity with all who are suffering now, because of this pandemic and this lock down. And let the absence of our usual ceremonies sharpen also our appreciation for their significance. It’s right, and good, and appropriate for us to recall Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem. He came, as Prophet, Priest and King, to his people, to the holy City, to the Temple. His entrance was solemn, deliberate, triumphant; yet fraught also with paradox, and with sadness. For in spite of the cheering, singing crowds, Jesus came in humility, not in order to triumph over his enemies, but in order to be crucified by them.
And so we have today the account of his Passion and death. St. Matthew’s version of this accords perfectly and beautifully with the rest of his Gospel. Writing as a Jewish Christian for Jewish Christians, Matthew takes particular care to show that what took place was a fulfilment of the Scriptures, both in broad outline and in particular detail. As we follow his narrative, all the time we are confronted by the supremely important question of the identity of Jesus. At the beginning of the Gospel the Angel had already declared to Joseph: He is the one who will save his people from their sins (1:21). His very name means God saves, and God is with us (1:23). At his Baptism a voice had been heard from Heaven: This is my Son (3:17), and Peter later publicly confessed: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (16:16). Now the identity of Jesus is confirmed through many details, which evoke texts in the Scriptures. Anyone who knows them can see how Jesus is the fulfilment and completion of the Jewish Passover, and of all the sacrifices of the law. Then there are so many echoes from the Psalms or the Prophets woven through Matthew’s account. These show that, even as he suffers, Jesus can be identified as the righteous one, the beloved of God, the chosen representative of his people. There is irony as his royal and divine identity is proclaimed anew by Caiaphas, then by Pilate, then by the passers-by at the Cross. These echo the devil in the wilderness when they mockingly cry: If you are the Son of God.
But Jesus truly is the Son of God. He seems to be passive, a mere victim, a helpless sufferer. And God seems to be absent from the scene of his death. The human actors have their way. The 12 legions of Angels do not come. Jesus does not save himself. He does not come down from the Cross, and God does not rescue him (27:42). Elijah does not appear (27:49). But here supremely God is fulfilling his purposes. Here all that Jesus has repeatedly predicted comes to its fulfilment, in precise detail. And here in Jesus God finally and definitively acts to save his people. By the death of Jesus God redeems them from slavery, he consummates his Covenant, he brings about his Kingdom. So from the very Cross itself, the identity of Jesus as King of the Jews is finally confirmed and proclaimed.
Humanly speaking, Christ’s Passion is a desperately, bitterly sad account of betrayal, cowardice, corruption, injustice, illegality, infidelity, failure. It’s a horrible record of pain, humiliation, degradation, destruction. But divinely speaking, it is the supreme working out of God’s justice, mercy, goodness, fidelity, love.
We read St. Matthew’s Passion now in the midst of a global health scare, and we are reminded that in Christ God himself bore our suffering and death. Or as St. Paul will insist, Christians understand suffering and death as privileged means to participate in Christ’s saving Passion. We are reminded too that all of this took place because of our sins. This week especially then is a time for us to confess our sins, to repent, to make firm purpose of amendment, and of new conversion to the Lord. This week is a time for us to renew our determination to follow Jesus, come what may, on the path he marks out for us, towards holiness and life. And it’s a time for us to intercede; that all may come to him, and be saved.