• Matthew 21:1-11. (Gospel for the Procession) This account of Palm Sunday emphasizes the divinity of Jesus, the fulfillment of prophecy, the messianic acclamation: “he who comes.”
• Isaiah 50: 4-7. Within this prophecy of Isaiah, the third song of the Suffering Servant quietly establishes the strength and dignity of a disgraced but righteous person.
• Philippians 2: 5-11. Jesus emptied himself of his divine dignity to be incarnated in our midst and suffer the humiliation of the cross as a way to glory.
• Matthew 26:14 – 27:66. The Passion according to Matthew more than Mark’s or Luke’s gospel, dramatizes the narrative, i.e., by ending with an earthquake, by providing more details from popular tradition, as the anecdote about Judas and Pilate’s wife and by meeting the catechetical needs through biblical citations.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

This Sunday celebrates the beginning of Holy Week with Passion (Palm) Sunday. Along with the readings and Passion narrative for this Sunday let us also consider this excerpt from the philosopher Plato in his book “The Republic” which reflects on the social response to the Just Man:

They will tell you that the just man who is thought unjust will be scourged, racked, bound – will have his eyes burned out; and finally, after every extremity of suffering, he will be crucified: Then he will understand that he ought to seem only, and not to be, just. (2: 362)

One of our earliest Christian apologist Justin Martyr was so taken by the wisdom of the philosophers like Plato that he would go on to develop the notion of the “pre-Christian” in which he identifies the divine wisdom of the logos in the writings of certain philosophers and prophets who lived before Christ. In this passage by Plato the “Just Man” is the one who lives a life that fully embodies justice rather than merely appearing to be just. This Just Man is such a challenge to conventional society that the inevitable response is to eliminate him in such a way as to deter others from actually living the virtue of justice.

This week we bear witness to the prophesy of Isaiah and the philosophy of Plato as Christ, the Just Man and Suffering Servant, is placed within the midst of the social forces of his time. The procession reminds us of the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem where Jesus, the itinerant preacher and healer of Galilee, already disturbs the social peace of this city which is the center of power for the Temple and Roman authorities.

And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?” And the crowds replied, “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

No sooner do we celebrate this enthusiastic public response to Jesus’ presence that we are confronted with the readings from Isaiah and Paul where Jesus, the Suffering Servant, is described within the paradox of his Divine mission. Jesus shares equality with God and he is given the skills and wisdom to preach the Word but this awesome dignity and prophetic mission will earn him reproach, torture and a horrific death. The dignity that Christ recognizes is that in sharing equality with God Christ also shares the deep love that God has for all creation. This all encompassing love becomes the motive for true justice. That is why the Suffering Servant in Isaiah can bear all the injustice and not suffer personal disgrace. By finding strength in God the Suffering Servant sees his preaching ministry firmly rooted in the desire to bring the people back to God and if this is to be done by bearing their injustice with love then so be it.

In Matthew’s passion narrative we are confronted with the kairos moment that is used in chapter 26:18.  What we read as the “appointed time” is originally written with the Greek word kairos which refers to one’s destiny or a decisive moment in history. The stage is set for God to break into human history through the Paschal Mystery. In this decisive moment Jesus will commit himself to the final sacrifice that will testify to God’s great love for us. The Kingdom of God will bear upon our human experience with those who first witnessed the Resurrection.  Jesus, the Suffering Servant and Just Man, lives with us and in us through the Kingdom of God that is slowly emerging, bringing forth the redemption of all creation from the power of sin and injustice.

We are invited to share in the paradox of this dignity. No longer can we content with the mere appearance of being just. Justice in truth becomes the standard for us as we follow Christ, the Just Man, in bringing forth the fullness of God’s justice through an all encompassing love that we are to have for one another. God continues to break into our human experience through our own witness of this shared dignity. The challenge of this Christian paradox was described by another Christian apologist who anonymously writes the 2nds century letter to Diognetus.

Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory.             

The financial and economic crisis that has swamped the world points to an urgent need to reform the international financial system to meet the needs of a changed world.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (Bretton Woods Institutions), the core of the world financial system, were designed for a world that no longer exists. In the dying days of World War 2, in a world still ruled by a few colonial powers with their many far-flung colonies, these few powerful nations could dictate the shape of the institutions that would bring ‘order’ to the world.

But that world is no more. The colonial powers have largely lost their colonies, but not their hunger to rule. Those possessions have long since claimed their independence. The colour of the world map has changed dramatically since 1945. Yet still we act as if the few – whether that is the G7 or the G8 or the G20 – is entitled to speak for the rest.

The radical changes of the past 60 years have opened into the 21^st century in which the welfare of both poor and rich, developed and developing nations is interdependent. The rapid contagion of the recent financial collapse of the North that spread to every country shows beyond doubt that ours is an increasingly integrated world economy.

We are not simply speaking high finance. It is a matter of life and death for so many brothers and sisters. The financial crisis is killing people. To stop the bleeding, we need short term measures to stabilise the current situation that has flung millions out of work and into poverty.

But long term measures are needed to replace the old financial architecture that is now unsafe. It is imperative that the views, the needs and the perspective of all countries are taken into account in the massive task of reshaping. More effective regulation of financial markets and control of corporate greed are needed. But also needed is a redesigned structure for the international financial institutions that have so much power to affect, for better or for worse, countries, the domestic policies of governments and the hopes of people in the developing countries.

The global crisis offers us a kairos moment, a moment of grace and possibility. We have a once-in-a-century chance to change the balance of power in our world. The UN, composed of 192 nations – the G192- must be the place where the challenging task of rebuilding a more equal and just world is carried out.

June 1-3 will see the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development has taken place this summer. In the next week I will offer another post related to the discussion of this conference.