Palm Sunday A (2023)

Matthew’s passion emphasises Jesus’ isolation:

betrayed, abandoned, condemned for who he is,

abused, tortured, taunted, executed.

Today’s second reading,

was a hymn, a poem, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians,

a poem that testifies, with considerable clarity, to who Jesus is.    

For me, this poem is the most beautiful expression

of the fundamental truth about God,

the truth shown in Jesus.

Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

He emptied himself,

to assume the condition of a slave,

and being found in human form,

he was humbler yet, even to accepting death,

death on a cross.

He emptied himself.

He emptied himself, for us:

that is the essence of Matthew’s passion which we have just heard.

In Jesus,

God is emptied out, humiliated,

out of love;

love that triumphs over death;

love that raises us up.