"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as You will"

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First reading: Isaiah 50:4-7

The identity of the figure in the Servant Songs of Isaiah remains elusive to modern scholarship. The best is guess is that the Servant stands collectively for that faithful remnant that remains faithful to Adonai even while experiencing suffering - suffering that results from that very fidelity. 

When prophets proclaim the Word of God, they do so in their preaching and in their actions. In some case, prophets behave in an unusual, even bizarre, manner in order to communicate God's will. Commentaries therefore speak of prophetic deeds as well as words. In a number of cases, we must consider the suffering endured by the faithful prophet to be itself a form of prophecy. the prophet witnesses to the trustworthiness of Adonai by an enduring trust in the Lord's promises. 
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The Servant likewise demonstrates a similar steely faith in God in the face of abuse and persecution. That resolve is on display in this passage from Isaiah 50. For Christian believers the Servant, whatever his identity, is a prophetic type for Christ. In the Lord Jesus, we see absolute fidelity and trust in the Father even as He suffers humiliation, torture, and death. He is the Servant and the ultimate martyr - a witness to God's fidelity.

Almighty ever-living God, sanctify these branches with your blessing, that we, who follow Christ the King in exultation, may reach the eternal Jerusalem through him.
​(Blessing of branches for the Palm Sunday procession)

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Responsorial: Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

Psalm 22 had a powerful effect on the early Christian struggle to make sense of the Passion of Jesus - not least because the witness of Mark depicts Jesus Himself quoting this Psalm.
Like the Servant Song from the first reading this individual Psalm of lament depicts intense physical and psychic suffering. Here the presumption is of the innocence and fidelity of the sufferer, but the emphasis is upon the cry for help. This prayer calls out for deliverance to a faithful God. Popular Jewish piety thought that such extreme suffering indicated that the suffering person had offended God. The lament here acknowledges this - "why have you abandoned me?" - while still trusting in the Lord's promised deliverance. Thus the suffering becomes a witness to Divine Providence.
There are few passages in Scripture that remind us with such stark power of the depth of Jesus' suffering - a suffering that is endured in fidelity to the Father and for the sake of the world. 

Second reading:
Philippians 2:8-9

This passage in Philippians is rightly called a "hymn" to Christ. It is cast in poetic form and may have had an existence outside of its use here in the letter. In the larger context of Philippians, Paul is concerned to remind the Christian community there of the importance of humility in the Christian life. The hymn provides the ultimate model of that humility in reminding them of the self offering of Jesus Christ. 
In this, the hymn touches on the very foundations of Christian life - the fulfillment of God's plan of salvation.
If we look to Romans, we learn that Paul understood Christ's self offering in love and trust to the Father as the justifying offering that liberates human beings from sin and death. Paul understood that people would never be able to match God's faithful love by mere human effort. Such was only possible by God's mysterious grace whereby His Son takes flesh and in offering Himself accomplishes for us that which we could not accomplish or merit. 
We also see that this offering is an act of love and that the all powerful God is the one Who acts utterly unselfishly. In fact, the power of God is not a matter of domination or control but the power of love itself. The only possible response to this self emptying love must be to love in return. This poetic portrait of the identity of the Christ becomes the portrait of humanity brought to wholeness and fulfillment. As such, this identity of Jesus offers all human beings a model of their own fulfillment.

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The Passion according to Matthew

"His blood be upon us and upon our children..." Matthew 27:25b
 
This terrible line is a heart-breaking moment in the Matthean Passion account. In recent times, it has engendered considerable controversy. Some commentators suggest that the verse is anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic. They fear that such language helped engender the “blood libel” against the Jews – charging the Jewish people with the responsibility for the death of Jesus. Of course that libel did inspire anti-Jewish feeling and violence in the past - and in our present day. Nonetheless, we must distinguish the sin of this prejudice from the text of the Bible.
 
Even if individuals have misused the text, the Gospel of Matthew is not anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the four Gospels. It was written for a primarily Jewish Christian community and it strives to link the Christ event to the hopes and expectations of Israel. It presents a Jesus Who recalls the foundational figure of Moses and Who counsels His disciples to be rigorous in observing the Law (Matthew 5:18). It is fair to observe that the Gospel relates the real conflict between and among Jews – some of whom believed Jesus to be the Messiah and some who rejected the notion.
 
So then what does this language reveal? We are hearing polemical language – fighting words – and there is a sense of tragedy to the moment. Remember that the Old Testament begins with a tragic story of human beings who reject God’s will and pursue their own ends. The tragedy intensifies across the whole of the Old Testament as the people repeatedly fail in their covenant obligations. The narrative contrasts the inconstancy and infidelity of God’s people with the unfailing nature of Divine Providence. So on this level, the crowd before Pilate stands in that tragic tradition – rejecting God’s Messiah and inviting the same kind of doom that had come upon the people in ages past. However, this represents only the surface layer of the exchange.
 
The more profound message of the Old Testament is the utter faithfulness of the Lord. And the Passion accounts themselves are fundamentally stories of the Son of God returning that pure and utter faithfulness to the Father. Jesus’ offering of Himself is an act of communion with the Father for the salvation of the world. Understanding this, we hear a deeper meaning to the words of the crowd. They might understand their own words as a curse, but His Blood is salvation itself. “let His blood be upon us and our children” is no curse – it is a prayer of blessing. A faithless people now find hope in the faithfulness of this Jesus. His blood, poured out on the cross and nourishing His people in the Eucharist brings redemption and life.
 
The Matthean Passion account follows the Markan order and includes some unique details. But I would argue that it is this unique detail that brings us to the heart of the matter. Here a Jewish Evangelist reveals that Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant and the resolution of the great tragedy of human rebellion. Indeed, let His blood be upon us, for it is our best and only hope.