Bishop Ajakaye on Palm Sunday

Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)

Year C

10 April, 2022.

Value your peace and as you value your peace, learn to value other people’s peace. – Bishop Felix Femi Ajakaye

‘No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13) God Himself is LOVE. Love is God. God has created us in love, with love and for love. Love is like a burning fire, though it can be painful and tough. It requires sacrifice.

My Brothers, Sisters and Friends, love means giving of self. Love is said to be like flower. Really, if you plant a beautiful flower and you do not tend it, you do not water it, it will wither. Definitely, it will lose its desired quality. It will die. That is, planting and watering a flower for it to survive, demand sacrifice, commitment.

Love needs to be nurtured constantly. With this understanding, love implies sacrifice, sincere commitment. Love is denial of self. Love is endless, love is limitless. Love is enduring. I describe LOVE as Life, Openness, Virtue, Endurance. Martin Luther King, Jr, states: ‘I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear’.

Let us note that those who are dedicated to a once given commitment know that their dedication (out of freewill, not forced) implies sacrifice, self-giving. Married people may think of their mutual commitment in love; Religious Sisters, Brothers, and Priests may also think of their vows, promises; children and parents, if committed to mutual happiness in the family, may think of their daily living under one roof.

Again, my Brothers, Sisters and Friends, love means giving of self for others as Christ did for us. This self-giving is a source of happiness, source of joy, but it entails sacrifice as well.

‘To love is to will the good of the other.’ (St Thomas Aquinas) After Paul has described at length God’s redemptive work in Christ, God’s great love for human beings shown in his sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to save humankind (Romans, Chapter 1 to Chapter 11),

Today, we celebrate Passion or Palm Sunday. This Solemn Celebration is the beginning of the Holy Week. It is to remind us of Christ’s endurance, readiness to suffer and die for us, human beings, leading to joyful ending, Christ’s Resurrection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ’s three activities – Suffering, Death and Resurrection, we were saved from eternal damnation, and we gained Eternal Life.

‘Christ entered in triumph into his own city to complete his work as our Messiah to suffer, to die and to rise again.’ (Procession Rite) The triumphal entry, celebrated at the beginning of the Passion-Week, Holy Week, emphasizes that the three elements mentioned earlier: Suffering, Death and Resurrection, belong together.

My Brothers, Sisters and Friends, Jesus’ death was not a defeat. It was the victory of life over death, victory of light over darkness, the victory of obedience over disobedience. It is the genuine insight of Christianity that the events of Jesus’ earthly life were the execution of God’s saving purpose.

This genuine insight should be ours also concerning our own lives when suffering strikes us. Ours is to learn from the sincere and enduring attitude of Christ. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us to live. Really, no greater life than this! Jesus also teaches us to value our peace and as we value our peace, we should also learn to value other people’s peace.

My Brothers, Sisters and Friends, how do we respond in moments of difficulty? How do we deal with suffering in our lives and when you encounter fellow human beings who die in suffering and distress? In our suffering, trials and tribulations, we are to hold firmly to God in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Paul states: ‘We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that in the same way God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 4:14). In reality, we may not be able to lay down our lives for other people, but we are called to be committed to sacrificing for others in love as we keep our hope active and alive in Christ. To be hopeful in life is to be optimistic.

In the Gospel before the procession into the Church, Luke 19:28-40, like King David and all kings in his culture, Jesus enters the capital riding on the traditional animal. In the midst of the people, he is the Son of David, a Messiah sent by God to give freedom and self-determination to his country.

Contrary to the impression of the people, Jesus is the humble and peaceful King, not in favour of worldly display. He enters Jerusalem, ‘humble and riding on a donkey’ (Zechariah 9:9). Like Jesus, we are to be meek and resilient in our daily struggles of life.

All the four of the Evangelists relate the tradition of Jesus’ humble entry to Jerusalem as an introduction to Jesus’ passion and cruel death. Why? It is to teach us that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, though on a higher level than the people thought.

Jesus is sent by God to establish His reign (Kingdom) on earth. However, his impending suffering and death will not thwart this divine plan, but must be seen as the means to fulfill it, as will be clearly understood after the resurrection. ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?’ (Luke 24:26)

My Brothers, Sisters and Friends, the Lord is our Help, our Saviour and Redeemer, and our attitude towards life must change drastically. It is because of Christ’s surpassing love, his selfless self-giving, for others, that made him to endure utmost humiliation which he suffered on the cross. Significantly, Christ’s exaltation was equally made possible by the Father, God.

By being obedient to God, Christ made up for our sinful disobedience. This is what both the First and the Second Readings – Isaiah 50:4-7 and Philippians 2-6-11 respectively would like us to understand.

Meditating on the Lord’s suffering and death, as Christians do during Holy Week, we should keep both sides of the Christ-event in mind. It is suffering and death which actually constitutes a passage to exaltation. Therefore, let us note that both Good Friday and Easter Sunday belong together even in our lives. Indeed, no pain, no gain. No cross, no crown. No Good Friday, no Easter Sunday.

My Brothers, Sisters and Friends, today’s Gospel at Mass, the Passion Narrative, Luke 22:14-23:56, portrays Christ’s total surrender to God’s will due to his greater love for us. Paul states: ‘For our sake he (God) made the sinless one (Christ) a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus identified himself entirely with sinful man, whom he freed from sin and death. Notably, each of the Evangelists relates the narrative with only a few different memories of the tragedy.

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus’ last words are: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Luke remembers that on the cross Jesus promised paradise to the criminal who repented and that Jesus said: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit’.

Also, all the three Evangelists relate the Lord’s Supper, which Jesus gave us to celebrate as the Memorial of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. This is in continuation of Christ’s greater love for us so that there will never be a vacuum. Christ’s presence is felt forever.

My Brothers, Sisters and Friends, prayerful meditation on Jesus’ Passion should make us ever grateful for what Jesus did. He died for our sake to save us. He himself has said: ‘There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friend. You are my friends’ (John 15:13-14).

Thus, participating in the Liturgy of Holy Week, let us keep in mind that suffering pain and death also mysteriously are part of our passage to a glorious life with our Lord. We must carry our daily crosses and keep commending ourselves to God. Life without cross is life without Christ. Value your peace and as you value your peace, learn to value other people’s peace. It is then you can have true peace of mind.

On behalf of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, I greet and congratulate the Founder of Lumen Christi Catholic Television, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria, Sir Prince Robert Soji Olagunju, Knight of St Gregory the Great, his beloved family and his Team, on the Blessing and Commissioning of Lumen Christi TV Retreat and Media Centre, Lekki, Lagos, yesterday, Saturday, 9 April, 2022, by Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos.

To God be all the glory for everything. May the light of Christ keep radiating in our lives. Amen.

Today’s Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 22)