THE TRUTH THAT CONTRADICTS HUMAN PRESUMPTION OF TRUTH

 

With palm leaves in our hands and with the words: ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna’ on our lips we step into the Holy Week, the most sacred time in the year [liturgical year]. Today we have two Gospel readings: one before the palm procession and the other in the usual place of Gospel reading in the mass. The Gospel reading (Lk 19:28-40) before the procession tells us about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as king of the Jews, the Messiah. The Gospel reading in the mass is a passion narrative from the Gospel according to Luke. The passion narrative recalls to our mind what all had happened from Lords’ supper to the burial of Jesus in the tomb. These two Gospel readings help us get into the mood of the Holy Week. Jesus who enters the city of Jerusalem today with all pomp and slogans would be put to death cruelly within few days in the same city, that too in front of this same people who are triumphally shouting ‘Hosanna’. The people who are shouting ‘Hosanna’ may not know what would happen to Jesus after few days, but Jesus knows. To enter a city triumphally without any foreknowledge about one’s near defeat in the city may not be a surprise. But for Jesus who knows what would happen to Him in Jerusalem city within few days – for He had foretold many times to his disciples about His passion, death and resurrection – to enter the city is a great surprise. Anyone who has foreknowledge about one’s danger in particular place would avoid going to that place, but Jesus does not. This refusal to ‘not’ to enter the city that awaits His killing is a mystery. To grasp this mystery we need the help of today’s first and second readings.

The second reading is from the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians. In Phil 2:6-1, Paul sings the Christological hymn that exalts the Incarnation of God in Christ and His glorious redemption of all creation through passion, death and resurrection of Christ. Through the Incarnation of Christ, God is being born – begotten/caused to be born – in the likeness of men. In the book of Genesis we read about God creating man in His likeness (Gen 1:27) now God is caused to be born in man’s likeness. This seems to be contradicting! But it is not. This is not a discrepancy in revelation nor an error in the text. The whole mystery of redemption is concealed beneath this apparent contradiction. When we reconcile Gen 1:27 with Phil 2:7 we grasp the mystery. When God created man in His likeness, He was a complete man. He was like God without any sin, thenceforth worthy to enter heaven directly without any purification or corruption (death). But the entry of sin (first fall) prevented man from entering heaven, the holy of holies with defilement, thus necessitating a purification of one’s body. And so, the sin of man lost the original likeness of God in man. Now when God takes human nature in Christ, He becomes like us, a sinful creature, he becomes part of sinful humanity. As human Jesus is in the likeness of men. This unwraps the truth lay behind the apparent contradiction. God who is rich in power becomes poor in Incarnation. Can we conceive of any rich man or woman leaving his or her mansion and staying in the poor hut? No. the poor may become rich but rich would never freely embrace poverty. The incarnation topples this lifestyle.   

After being born as human, Jesus has to undergo the purification of His human body as all of needed to. The death is necessary for Him to complete His human life. As human creatures we need to enter heaven or gain eternal life with body or else we would be like angels who have no body. The union of body and soul is the uniqueness of our creatureliness. Jesus has already taken vulnerability on Himself by leaving His place in eternity to become man. Now to face death may seem an ordinary course of life for Him as human but to face cruel death is not ordinary for Jesus. He becomes more vulnerable in death. The triumphal entry of Jesus in Jerusalem today is a distraction for Him to decide between His eternity as God and His role as saviour of the world. He can renounce His human form at once and take His eternal place in heaven but Jesus marches ahead to complete His human life despite all sufferings and cruelties that lay forward. His successful completion of human life results in His glorious resurrection. That resurrection gives us a hope that all of us would gain resurrection in life which bestows glorious body for us to enter heaven and take our place with God in eternity. Jesus’ resurrection is the work of the Father through the Holy Spirit for the faithfulness of the Son. In His suffering Jesus places complete trust in His Father that He would not leave Him without any reward or recognition. The first reading (Is 50:4-7) foretells the help of God in enduring suffering and the apparent shame that can distract person from finishing the goal. The suffering makes the fall apparent but perseverance in faith makes that apparent fall into glorious rising.

As we partake in the palm Sunday celebration, let us pay heed to all readings of the day, especially the passion narrative to see the truth that contradicts human presumption of truth, i.e., the apparent fall is only apparent and the apparent triumph is only dubious, not eternal. May we spend this Holy Week with recollection and reflection on the Paschal Mystery of our faith.

Comments