Palm Sunday 2025
Luke
One of the oldest texts of the New Testament, the so-called Hymn to the Philippians which we heard as our second reading, provides us with a key into Holy Week and Easter. It does so by following Jesus on his journey from God to us and back.
It begins with freedom: the Son of God does not cling to his celestial glory as to some riches he would possess. He is perfectly free. Jesus is free from all exterior things and from himself. He can empty Himself totally without losing His identity, because His identity consists in receiving Himself from the Father and giving Himself to the Father.
Freedom therefore does not express itself in exaltation. On the contrary, it shows its full power in humility. “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Someone who is really free feels no need to assert himself by making much noise, taking arbitrary decisions, putting himself above others, or trying to become the centre of the universe. True freedom is revealed in service of others and in the ability to help others grow in freedom.
The hymn tells us that out of humility, the Lord, who had freely chosen to become a servant and a slave, made himself obedient. The free Son of God humbled Himself and became an obedient man. His perfect obedience, out of love for the Father, made good the disobedience of Adam. Jesus’ entire life was a Yes to His Father. This is particularly true at Gethsemani, when Jesus takes on the cup of the Passion, and on the Cross, when Jesus’ last word is a prayer His Father: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
For, mysteriously, Jesus was made obedient unto death. Jesus suffered and died out of obedience to His Father. The Cross reveals the freedom of the Son entering the loving design of His Father. The love between the Son and the Father is stronger than death. It is not afraid of death. It can even transform death into an expression of love.
Jesus is royal on the cross, not as a king domineering over slaves, but as the Son of God redeeming Adam’s disobedience and humbly presenting us with the gift of freedom. When His humiliation has reached its summit, and when His obedience is perfect, the victory of His love, too, is complete. The Father rejoices in His Son. He exalts Him, through His resurrection and His ascension, and bestows on Him the name at which every knee in the universe bends, for “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
The journey of Jesus is clear. The map of Holy Week is under our eyes. It is a journey of freedom through and through. By the grace of the Liturgy, the whole Church will relive this journey during the next few days. What can we expect of Holy Week? I would say: a greater sense of the freedom of God’s children, the freedom to say Yes to God’s designs as they express themselves in the circumstances of our life.
Let me finish with a suggestion. This week, one day, just open the family Bible. Switch the phone and TV off and, quietly, read one of the narratives of the Passion. And while you read, pray to the Spirit of Jesus that He suggests to you a step you could take with His help in order to grow in humility, in obedience, and, above all, in genuine freedom to love.