Holy Week falls between two Sundays, that of Palms (of the Passion) and that of Easter (of the Resurrection). The first is the prelude to the second, a real culmen et fons of the Easter Triduum.
With Palm Sunday, which commemorates the solemn entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; with the prophecy of Zec 9,9, which invites to joy and jubilation for the advent of the king Messiah, today’s liturgy highlights on the one hand the triumph of Christ and on the other his Passion. This makes us understand how true kingship coincides with the gift of life. But not only that, the solemn reading of the Passion manifests above all that God is love. There death, a consequence of sin, has found in love an enemy capable of resisting and defeating it always. The proposed readings highlight the mystery of the cross in its triple dimension: in reference to God, where the cross manifests the filial and obedient listening of Jesus to the Father; in reference to men, because it expresses the unconditional and gratuitous divine fidelity as well as his incredible solidarity; in reference to Jesus, finally, as it is the place of his voluntary self-giving to the Father and to the brothers.
Regarding the cross, however, it is good to remember an acute observation of the theologian Giuseppe Colombo, who notes that «in the Christian imagination the cross seems to prevail over the crucifix, giving free rein to the ambiguous tendencies inherent in the human subconscious. But it is not the cross that makes Jesus Christ great; it is Jesus Christ that redeems even the cross, which is properly to be understood, not rhetorically to exalt». A careful reading of the texts proposed on this day, especially the account of the Second Passion Matthew (26:14-27:66). One immediately realizes that they do not describe only the last hours of the Master’s life. That which is revealed to us in depth is the very history of the Trinity. There is a verb that occurs frequently: “to deliver” (paradídomi). There is Jesus who delivers himself, but the Father also delivers his beloved Son. The cross it is also the story of the Spirit (cf. Heb 9:14). The mystery of Golgotha and the mystery of the Trinity – observed Moltmann – are two aspects of the same reality that God is love. Not to be forgotten in this horizon, is the Passion as a Trinitarian event narrating not only the love of God for the just man (if he ever exists) but for sinful man. In Christ, historical reality of this love, every man can be reborn therefore to new life.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Santa Maria – Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey