Gospel Reflection for April 13, 2025, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
On Palm Sunday we begin our long walk with Jesus to the cross in heightened anticipation of the celebrations of the Great Solemnity to come next Sunday. We cannot, however, overlook the gravity of the week ahead. The plans we may have for this week — and for many of us this week begins a period of vacation or a break from school — should not so cloud our thoughts and actions that we miss what lies before us — the Triduum of the Lord’s Supper, the Observance of the Passion of the Lord, and the majestic glow that emanates from the spark of the Easter fire as it penetrates the darkness.
Throughout the four Gospels, Jesus utters from the cross what have come to be known as the Seven Last Words. This Sunday we hear from the Passion According to St. Luke, in this Gospel we hear Jesus utter from the cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
This great prayer of Jesus serves not only as the prayer of Jesus in that moment of his crucifixion but also characterizes his entire public ministry. This same prayer will be said by Stephen at the moment of his own martyrdom, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
Saint Augustine observed that the cross was not only the gallows upon which Jesus died it was also the great pulpit from which he taught us. We see in the Passion and death of Jesus a myriad of images, words and gestures each of which stands as a profound lesson in living out our Christian life. Many of these lessons are subtle and others duly smack us in the face. The demand to forgive stands as a profound gesture expressed most clearly in the words that Jesus pronounces here.
Like the crowd in the Gospel narrative who are duped by their leaders into calling for the death of Jesus and the release of Barabbas, many people who today oppose the church or the teaching of the Gospel do so not understanding at all what they are rejecting or mocking. Ignorance leads always to hostility, even as it feigns understanding.
While it appears at first glance that the post-modern individual prefers the world of his own ideas over and against any objective truth, they do nonetheless attempt to construct a worldview that explains away everything that contradicts their narrow worldview. We all want to construct the world our own way, yet none of us has the power to do so. To think otherwise is to engage in a psychotic self-deception.
Jesus looks out from the cross and does not see a world jeering at him with crowds of people willfully reveling in his death, rather he sees but a few. Most people who passed by him that day paid him little or no mind. He encountered apathy and complicity in a conspiracy more than he encountered any deeply committed opposition. Jesus forgives the apathetic and those who in their ignorance are complicit.
Forgiveness then is the key.
At the time of Jesus those who did not know him, and even many who were against him, did not really know who he was or the totality of the message. The crucifixion of Jesus looked like the crucifixion of any criminal or rebel of the Roman world. For some this encounter with Jesus was the end. They heard no more or cared no more.
The forgiveness that Jesus utters from the cross is important for two reasons: first there are those standing there, and those who were complicit with his martyrdom, who will come to follow him. He has taken their guilt upon himself and gives them the hope and the promise that what they had done does not hinder, but rather assures, their salvation.
Secondly, in the face of opposition, rejection, and persecution, the disciples of Jesus are shown the path to forgiveness. We see this so often expressed in the lives of the martyrs of the church — who prayed for their persecutors, and even extended care for them even in the face of their own pain and suffering.
Our first response to those or are hostile or who stand in opposition must first be to forgive them. Not in a way that smacks of condensation or superiority, but from the very position of the cross, where we stand with the crucified Christ.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.