Dear brothers and sisters, today we begin a journey into what is at the very heart of the Christian faith: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This very particular moment begins with “Palm Sunday of the Passion of our Lord.” Saint Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, explains very clearly what we celebrate today: Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). God emptied himself and became our servant. This is a very dramatic event. God no longer wants to shine from his throne of glory, but accepts to humble himself and become a servant—our servant.
In fact, throughout Holy Week, all the readings depict not only how Jesus humbled himself, but also how he chose to serve God the Father and all humanity. On Holy Thursday, Jesus is depicted as a servant who washes the disciples’ feet. On Good Friday, Jesus is presented as the suffering and victorious servant (cf. Is 52:13). Throughout his life and teaching, Jesus serves us; God serves us. Very often, we think that we are the ones who serve God. This is not true. God is the one who freely chose to serve us, for he loved us first. It is difficult to love and not be loved in return. And it is even more difficult to serve if we do not allow ourselves to be served by God. God saved us by serving us.
One may ask: how does God serve us? God serves us by accepting our human condition and becoming man to bear our miseries, our sins, our pains, and our failures—giving his life for us. This is because we are dear to him; we cost him dearly. God saved us by taking upon himself all the punishment for our sins without complaining, but with the humility, patience, and obedience of a servant, and purely out of love. All of Jesus’ life was about service: to love and to serve (amare et servire). However, Jesus’ service and love do not end in recognition or reward, except that of the cross. The Lord served us to the point of experiencing the most painful situations of those who love: betrayal and abandonment. Jesus’ life shows us that those who truly want to love and serve will always face betrayal and abandonment.
Jesus suffered betrayal by the disciple who sold him (Mt 26:14–16) and by the disciple who denied him (Mt 26:31–35). Jesus was betrayed by the people who sang “Hosanna” to him and then shouted, “Crucify him!” (Mt 27:22). Jesus was betrayed by the religious institution that unjustly condemned him and by the political institution that washed its hands of him. We can think of all the small or great betrayals that we have suffered in life. How many times have we experienced betrayal? Betrayal is painful because we were born to be loved and to love, and the most painful thing is to be betrayed by someone who promised to be loyal and close to us. We cannot even imagine how painful it was for God, who is love.
We have also betrayed Jesus. Let us be honest with ourselves in looking at our own infidelities, hypocrisies, falsehoods, duplicities, broken promises, hatred, greed, and lust. However, despite our betrayal, despite our hearts wounded by sin, God accepts to save us. In the book of the prophet Hosea, he says: “I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them deeply” (Hos 14:5). He takes upon himself our infidelities, opens his arms on the cross, and calls each one of us by name as we are, with our wounds, our pains, our sicknesses, our fatigue. So that we can look at the cross and say: “Behold, there is my infidelity; you took it, Jesus, upon yourself.”
Jesus was not only betrayed; he was also abandoned: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). From the garden of Gethsemane to the top of the cross, Jesus suffered the abandonment of his own. All of them had fled. But Jesus was convinced that the Father would always be there for him, even if everyone else ran away. And in the abyss of solitude, for the first time he calls him in his mother tongue, Aramaic: “Eli”. Jesus not only calls on his Father, but he asks him, “Why did you also abandon me?” In fact, Jesus is using the words of the psalmist (Ps 22:1) to ask his Father why all this has taken place.
Jesus is there, in the abyss of loneliness, in the midst of abandonment, and he asks “why?” We may also have such a question regarding our own life, family, job, marriage, or country. Why does this happen? In fact, Jesus once more serves us by showing us that when we have our backs to the wall, when we find ourselves at a dead end, with no light and no way of escape, when it seems that God himself is not responding, we should remember that we are not alone. Jesus experienced betrayal and abandonment in order to show us that there is always a horizon: God. In the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon our hearts, Jesus says to each one of us: “Do not be afraid, you are not alone. Courage, open your heart to my love. You will feel the consolation of God who sustains you.”
Service, betrayal, and abandonment, these are the three things we observe in today’s Gospel. The Father, who sustained Jesus in his Passion, also supports us in our efforts to serve. Loving, praying, forgiving, caring for others, in the family and in society, can certainly be difficult. But the path of service is the victorious and life-giving path by which we were saved.
May God, through the intercession of our Lady, strengthen our faith so that we may live this Holy Week with more devotion in following the paths of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Fr. Mukadi Ilunga, SJ