Today at Mass we will hear St. Paul proclaim:
"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross."[1]
Our Lord Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, could have made it compelling for us to believe. We could have, at frightening and overwhelming displays of divine power, brought us to heel and solidify God's reign over all.
But God does not work that way.
As the Persons of the Holy Trinity exist in indwelling selfless love, focused on each other and not on each self, preserving the nature and the unity that makes the Trinity one God and not three, so God also looks upon us His creatures with love, not wishing to compel but to give us every opportunity to come to Him on our own accord. To that end, God came to us in perfect humility.
Today is unique in the Church year in that we read TWO Gospel selections, both illustrating the wonder of that humility. The first is Jesus entering Jerusalem on a humble donkey, in direct contrast to how the current Roman governor, or to earlier Israelite kings. The second is Jesus sacrificing Himself upon the Cross, handing Himself over to us sinners who are so unaware we humiliate and slay the King of Glory in one of the worst possible ways ever devised in our twisted imaginings.
The Gospel says that it was the Jews who handed Him over, His own people, but WE are the Jews. They were a people chosen to be the priesthood of God to the entire human species, OUR representatives before God, interceding for US before the throne as their priesthood did the same for them. WE SHARE in their guilt, because their sin, the sin of humanity, is our sin. It was as our representatives, our priests, that they played that role, and in doing so unwittingly became the acolytes of the Great High Priest Himself as He offered Himself as the Great Passover Sacrifice, this time not to redeem Israel from Egypt, but to redeem us all from Corruption, Sin, and Death.
A kick-butt, take-no-prisoners approach would not have resulted in this Great Paschal Sacrifice, but only humility and acceptance.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem, let us enter with all humility this week with Him, and walk with Him the way to the Cross and our Redemption.
[1] Phil. 2.5-8