Today’s readings: Isaiah 50, 4-7; Philippians 2, 6-11; Mark 14, 1 - 15, 47

Palm Sunday has a twofold, almost contradictory, meaning: Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem heading for a violent death. It was a short-lived joy for those close to him. Jesus had spoken of the hour of his glorification and surely was not referring to his entry into Jerusalem. He embraced the cross, even if that cross was for the authorities a death sentence meant to silence him. He loved till the end, committed to endure, without condoning, violence.

What we read today from Isaiah about someone who “offers no resistance to those who strike him” is basic to the understanding of Christianity. But it should not lend itself to a misrepresentation of Christianity. We are non-violent. But that does not mean the Christian is passive in the face of violence or there is no way of responding to violence.

Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Oscar Romero’s narratives in no way contradict Isaiah. They personify the Christ we see loving his people and giving up his life for them by embracing the cross. His commitment to go down that road is not weakness but determination not to let evil have the last word. This is the Easter truth.

There is so much around us that crushes this truth and makes evil and violence prevail. Our response to all this can be pivotal to the healing of the world and to show that forgiveness is not weakness but strength; it is not passiveness but an inner force of healing that can bring light where darkness reigns.

The Passion narrative today provides a list of people who, entrenched in their wrongdoing, remained untouched by the response of Jesus. Believing in the way of Jesus is not in itself a guarantee that the world will change its ways. The only certainty we have though, is that violence breeds more violence.

The truth of the gospel message is not evident for all to see and accept. It can only be discerned if Jesus is embraced in the totality of what he stands for. His entire life as narrated theologically in the gospels was all in preparation for this hour. The truth of the gospel as verified in Jesus Christ is a seed that needs the good soil in our heart to grow and mature and give fruit.

Bombarded as we all are by factual narratives mediated to us ideologically, through partisan standpoints and economic interests, does not make it easy for us to keep sane and to dig deep to find what weighs down on us and provokes in our heart anger, hatred, division, negative sentiments and violent emotions. Admittedly, this is the air we breathe these days in our country, a heavy air that leaves no space for the heart to enter serenely in this year’s Holy Week.

Throughout the Passion narrative we will revisit these days, the big truth is in the words of Jesus: “I will lay down my life but no one will take it away from me”. Taking someone’s life is always abusive and violent. It is only giving one’s life that is noble. It pays to wisely discern what can still make us noble nowadays and what is it that can heal our hearts and the world we inhabit.

It is so telling on the apostles that while Jesus was going through his darkest night of the soul, entreating the Father possibly to take this cup away from him, they were asleep. It is the anaesthesia we enter when we live in our bubble, aloof from the humiliations and sufferings of others. Humanity still lives its dark nights in those vilified, victimised, abused, denied their dignity, while we are alienated with our busyness.

The death of Jesus was a moment of truth for his closest friends. Moments of truth, even those we face, normally make us flee for fear from our responsibilities or provoke the best in us. Reading the story of Jesus vilified and humiliated, we can be touched by his nobility and graced to have his strength, his resilience, and the faith to believe unfailingly love is strongest response to violence and death.