18 SCRIPTURE
THE CATHOLIC POST SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2021
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thecatholicpost.com
Daily Readings
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Jesus is not merely king, but our Lord and the Son of God
Living the Word
Shawn Reeves
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M
y 6-year-old is often impatient with his sib- lings. Usually, it is during play, when he has imagined a very specific narrative of interac- tion that he expects them to execute with precision. Invariably, they dont, and he becomes perturbed. But his siblings were simply being who they are, with their own imagina- tions and ingenuity, a reality his little,6-year-oldhearthasdiculty understanding and tolerating. Rather than seeing others in the complexi- ties of who they are, we tend to be impatient with them because the truth of who they are does not corre- spond with who we desire (or expect) them to be, quickly leading to our misunderstanding (and even misrep- resentation) of them. Jesus is the victim of grave misun- derstanding, as the Gospel and the procession Gospel narratives illus- trate that it is hard to disentangle the idea of a monarch from cultural expectations, positive and negative. In his instruction concerning a colt, Jesus directs them to declare the Master has need of it, using a word ( kurios ) that could Monday, March 29: Monday of Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-7 Psalm 27:1,2,3,13-14 John 12:1-11 Tuesday, March 30: Tuesday of Holy Week Isaiah 49:1-6 Psalm 71:1-2,3-4a,5ab-6ab,15 and 17 John 13:21-33,36-38 Chrism Mass (in the Diocese of Peoria) Isaiah 61:1-3a,6a,8b-9 Psalm 89:21-22,25 and 27 Revelation 1:5-8 Luke 4:16-21 Wednesday, March 31: Wednesday of Holy Week Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 69:8-10,21-22,31 and 33-34 Matthew 26:14-25 Thursday, April 1: Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper Exodus 12:1-8,11-14 Psalm 116:12-13,15-16bc,17-18 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15 Friday, April 2: Good Friday of the Lord's Passion Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 Psalm 31:2,6,12-13,15-16,17,25 Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 John 18:1 - 19:42
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion/March 28
(At the procession with palms) Mark 11:1-10 or John 12:12-16 (At the Mass) Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-9,17-18,19-20,23-24; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 14:1 - 15:47 alternatively be translated Lord. And when He enters Jerusalem on the colt, an image harkening back to Zechariah 9:9 (your king is coming to you, a just sav- ior . . . riding on a donkey, on a colt), the people see Him merely as an earthly leader, announcing, Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! While they misunderstand the full extent of Jesus identity, at the moment He fits their expectations. But that would soon change. When Pilate demands, Are you the king of the Jews, he is not inquiring if Jesus is a divine mon- arch but a temporal one, thus Jesus ambiguous reply - Jesus is a king, but not the kind of king Pilate is asking about. Jesus is then satirically clothed in royal purple, pierced with a mock diadem of thorns, saluted with the sarcastic praise, Hail, king of the Jews, and mounted on the cross with a sardonic posting that read King of the Jews. In a series of ironies, Jesus identity as a divine king is consistently misunderstood or simply ignored. Even as the prophetic events of our responsorial psalm (Psalm 22) play out fluidly before them, they even misunderstand His cries on the cross - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Reciting the first line of Psalm 22, Jesus prayerfully abbrevi- ates the Psalm which declares kingship belongs to the Lord (Psalm 22:29) and triumphantly associates Himself with its concluding words, I will live for the Lord . . . the generation to come will be told of . . . the deliverance you have brought (Psalm 22:31-32).
RADICALLY MISUNDERSTOOD
Though He was in the form of God, declares our second reading, He did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied him- self. Far from advocating He somehow relinquished Himself of his own divinity, St. Paul is advocating a divine gesture of vulnerability. The Greek verb kenoo connotes a depriving of something, a laying aside, and an outpouring of self. Instead of jealously clutching to the right to have His divinity recognized and revered, He laid aside public appreciation of his glory. Instead of grasping firmly to human acknowledgement of His equality with the Father, Jesus genuinely poured himself into the hu- mancondition,withallitslimitationsanddiculties, emptying Himself of the adoration He is due and making Himself susceptible to being radically misun- derstood. But there was one who understood - the centurion. Keenly aware that a cultural definition of a king is too shallow to define accurately who Jesus is, he humbly announces, Truly this man was the Son of God. He not merely comes in the name of the Lord. He is the Lord. He speak[s] to the weary, proclaiming a word that will rouse them because He is the Word of the Father. Found human in appearance, He is also Christ and Lord. When the centurion saw how [Jesus] breathed His last, he knew Jesus is king but not merely king. He is the Son of God.
SHAWN REEVES has served as the director of religious educa- tion at St. John's Catholic Newman Center in Champaign since 2001. He and his family attend St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Thomasboro.
Saturday, April 3: Holy Saturday At the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter Genesis 1:1 - 2:2 Psalm 104:1-2,5-6,10,12,13-14,24,35 or Psalm 33:4-5,6-7,12-13,20 and 22 Genesis 22:1-18 Psalm 16:5,8,9-10,11 Exodus 14:15 - 15:1 (Psalm) Exodus 15:1-2,3-4,5-6,17-18 Isaiah 54:5-14 Psalm 30:2,4,5-6,11-12,13 Isaiah 55:1-11 (Psalm) Isaiah 12:2-3,4,5-6 Baruch 3:9-15,32 - 4:4 Psalm 19:8,9,10,11 Ezekiel 36:16-17a,18-28 Psalm 42:3,5; 43:3,4 (when baptism is celebrated) or Isaiah 12:2-3,4bcd,5-6 or Psalm 51:12-13,14-15,18-19 (when baptism is not cel- ebrated) Romans 6:3-11 Psalm 118:1-2,16-17,22-23 Mark 16:1-7 Sunday, April 4: Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord Acts 10:34a,37-43 Psalm 118:1-2,16-17,22-23 Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 Sequence: Victimae Paschali Laudes John 20:1-9 or Mark 16:1-7 Monday, April 5: Monday in the Octave of Easter Acts 2:14,22-33 Psalm 16:1-2a and 5,7-8,9-10,11 Matthew 28:8-15 Tuesday, April 6: Tuesday in the Octave of Easter Acts 2:36-41 Psalm 33:4-5,18-19,20 and 22 John 20:11-18 Wednesday, April 7: Wednesday in the Octave of Easter Acts 3:1-10 Psalm 105:1-2,3-4,6-7,8-9 Luke 24:13-35 Thursday, April 8: Thursday in the Octave of Easter Acts 3:11-26 Psalm 8:2ab and 5,6-7,8-9 Luke 24:35-48 Friday, April 9: Friday in the Octave of Easter Acts 4:1-12 Psalm 118:1-2 and 4,22-24,25-27a John 21:1-14 Saturday, April 10: Saturday in the Octave of Easter Acts 4:13-21 Psalm 118:1 and 14-15ab,16-18,19-21 Mark 16:9-15 EDITOR'S NOTE: For a full listing of daily readings, visit bible. usccb.org.
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