PASSION SUNDAY (PALM SUNDAY) - cycle C 1998

The servant poem , or Song of the suffering servant from Isaiah 50:4-7, begins with

words that we need take to heart: "The Lord has given me a well-trained tongue, that I may know how to speak to the weary a word that will arouse them" This identifies the speaker as 'servant of the Lord.' Another perspective is given by the New Revised Standard Version: "The Lord has given m the tongue of a teacher..." Still another version - The Jerusalem Bible: "Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple's tongue...to give a word of comfort to the weary..." And still another version - the Revised English Bible-. "The Lord has given me the tongue of one who has been instructed..." In any case we understand that the prophet is receptive to God's word as well as to the implications of suffering and humiliation. And the servant relies on God in these circumstances and trusts that all will be well.

From our christian viewpoint, Jesus is the fulfillment of this description of God's servant. This becomes most evident in the Psalm that provides our response,

Psalm 22.

First let me note that this is Passion Sunday, and this year we read the Passion account in St. Luke's Gospel. The story needs no comment. It simply calls for meditation. It is so familiar to us, as are the other three versions.

Perhaps, though, we can get a fresh perspective, a fresh reflection, by using Psalm 22 to assist us. It's opening verse is most familiar, and it is our response verse after our reading from Isaiah - the first of the Songs of the Suffering Servant: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" This is the cry of an afflicted sufferer. Let me comment here that in both Matthew's and Mark's Passion accounts these are the last words of Jesus from the Cross.

Psalm 22 is quoted 13 times in the New Testament, and of these, 9 are in the Passion narratives. This psalm tells of a sense of abandonment in time of suffering, and the prophetic text tells of personal abuse. Yet we note about Psalm 22 that it is a calm prayer, a peaceful prayer and plea for help. There is no anger, no agitation, no irritation, just an overwhelming sense of abandonment.

Phrases of this psalm are very familiar to us. If not remembered from the gospel versions of the Passion, then they are known from one, of the more widely used devotional Stations of the Cross --- that of St. Alphonsus of Liguori.

There are vivid descriptions or profiles of suffering or torture or abuse in the text of Psalm 22, and I quote from more than the verses used in our responsorial psalm. These are verses used in St. Alphonsus' meditations and prayers for the Stations of the Cross:

• "I am a worm, not a man" (vs. 7).
• "They have pierced nry hands and my feet" (vs. 17)
• "My throat is dry, my tongue cleaves to my jaws" (vs. 16).
• "All who see me scoff at me" (vs. 8).
• "They open their mouths against me" (vs. 14).
• "They divide my garments, for my vesture they cast lots" (vs. 18).
• and, of course, the first verse: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
• This psalm, a lament, is without doubt, messianic. We can read it, pray it,

It is also for all of us a calm prayer for deliverance., "Lord, do not stay far from me. . . " (vs. 11 and vs. 19) . "Deliver me ... save (vs. 20 and 21). The final verses of the psalm are a prayer of thanksgiving, which is so common in psalm-laments. The tone changes abruptly. These verses speak of deliverance as already accomplished; and for that God's is proclaimed (cf- vs. 23): "I will proclaim your name to my brethren." Such was the faith of the psalmist. This is a prophetic psalm. It captures the spirit of the ancient servant in the prophecy: "The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced." (Is. 50: 7).

This prayer enables us to contemplate the depths of spirituality, our own SCJ spirituality of abandonment. Not abandonment in a passive sense of just giving in. Rather, abandonment in the spirit of Jesus, a complete surrender to the will of His Father, a commitment to do what was needed for the salvation of us all.

Abandonment for us is living in the spirit of the first beatitude" "Blessed are the poor in spirit." A mid-20th century translation is:"Blessed are they who know their need of God." Abandonment in this sense is being open to God entering Our lives. Abandonmnet is grace that comes to us and challenges that are presented to us by reason of vocational choice, circumstances of life, people, places and time. Abandonment asks involvement of us, as it asked of Jesus. Abandonment is a giving of self to God.

Psalm 22 today: From death it leads us to resurrection; from darkness it leads us to glory, to the glory of the divine assembly. Verse 32, the final verse of the psalm, "The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn, the deliverance you have brought-" or in a translation by Ronald Knox: Children of a later generation "shall speak of the Lord's name these to a race that must yet be born shall tell the story of his faithfulness."