Palm Sunday, Year A (2026) - Fr Robert Krishna, OP

As St Paul writes to the Philippians, the Passion is the great act of humility of Jesus, who is the Son of God, true God from true God. Jesus, carrying his Cross, takes on himself the role of the suffering servant of the Book of Isaiah, that of the lone psalmist apparently abandoned by God. But as Jesus goes to his Passion and death on the Cross, he doesn’t go alone. Jesus is with his disciples and sends his disciples to a certain man to borrow his donkeys. Thus, this man comes to play a role in the events to come. The donkeys become part of Jesus’ progress to the passion, unspeaking signs of Jesus’ humility. The crowds greet him as the Son of David. And meanwhile, Judas goes to the chief priests and plots with them. The disciples gather round for the last supper. Jesus predicts his betrayal and abandonment. And yet, Jesus is always surrounded right to the end, by Peter, James, and John, then by Peter alone, by Simon of Cyrene, the two robbers at his side, the women. Even as he lies dying, he is surrounded by people, some hostile, some contemptuous, some murderous, some indifferent, a few friendly and sympathetic. And you and I are invited into the passion through these people. We might like to think that we would play a heroic role if we were there. We might stand up for Christ with courage like Joseph of Arimathea, or the women. We might fear, more realistically, that we might abandon him like the Apostles, or worse betray him like Judas, or treat him with disbelief and contempt like the soldiers or the Pharisees. But more likely, over the course of our lives, we play all these people in turn. When we sin and put our own pleasure or power or wealth above doing what is good, when we ignore, ill-treat, or despise God or our neighbour, we despise or ill-treat or ignore Christ. We contribute to his passion. When we turn from our sins and try to do what good lies within our power, we imitate those who eventually acknowledged and stood by Christ.

But we might notice one more thing. As he goes through his passion, Jesus says less and less, until he finally utters the words of the psalm, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”, and after uttering a great cry, falls completely silent. But the centurion, the Roman soldier, acknowledges his divinity. Joseph and the women openly acknowledge the crucified Christ, hated by everyone around him and abandoned by his disciples. God had not abandoned his people but continued to sustain their witness to him, even when it seemed as if all was lost. But the God to whom they bear witness, the God who sustains their witness, has humbled himself to making his own our sense of being abandoned by God and lying dead on the Cross. This is true even today. God’s power is not readily visible in our world. Often it is not clear even to us in our own weakness. Bearing witness to this crucified, humiliated, and self-emptying God will require us to humble ourselves. We have to admit our own sins and weaknesses and reach out to God for help. We have to accept that the Church, the Body of Christ, able to carry out the work of Christ, is composed of the flawed, weak and sinful characters such as we see in the Passion, and reach out to the Church for help. We have to submit, like Simon of Cyrene and the donkeys, to bearing the burden of Christ. Because we come to share in the great strength of Christ, only by sharing with him his humility.

Fr Robert Krishna, OP is undertaking postgraduate studies in Sacred Scripture and currently living in Adelaide, South Australia.