Palm Sunday – Second Sunday in Passiontide
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind,
hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to
suffer death upon the Cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his
great humility: mercifully grant that we may follow the example of his
patience, and so be made partakers of his Resurrection; through the same Jesus
Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Priest and sacrifice and temple
We have followed once again the events surrounding the Passion and
Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ. But we do not do so just to remind ourselves
of the story. We do so recognising that there is a deeper level to all of this.
A deeper level than the politics of religion and state for example.
I want to encourage to you to deepen your understanding of the Passion
– the Passion which won for us our redemption. I encourage you by pointing out
3 things about our Saviour and how at a deeper level His awful death won for us
the possibility of salvation.
To help you deepen your understanding I want you to know that Jesus
Christ is (1) priest, (2) sacrifice and (3) temple.
Jesus Christ alone showed forth what was necessary to achieve our
redemption by being the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice; by being in
Himself God and temple.
He is the priest through whom we are reconciled. He is the sacrifice by
which we are reconciled. He is the temple in which we are reconciled. And He is
God to whom we are reconciled.
For it to be possible for us to have salvation we needed redemption.
For redemption we need reconciliation with God through a priest who can
reconcile us, with a sacrifice capable of reconciling us, in the very place
where this must occur. Only in Jesus Christ Himself, true God and true Man, can
priest, sacrifice and temple come together and be united with God.
The Holy Catholic Church continues to offer this very sacrifice by the
priest who is in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) with the bread and
wine offered that becomes Christ Body and Precious blood, in the temple, which
is the Body of Christ, the Church.
The astounding and amazing truth that we celebrate in faith and charity
is that the redemption He won then is brought to us today in the Sacrament of
the Altar.
Psalm 22
Deus,
Deus meus
MY GOD, my God, look upon me; why hast
thou forsaken me : and art so far from my health, and from the words of my
complaint?
2. O my God, I cry in the day-time, but
thou hearest not : and in the night-season also I take no rest.
3. And thou continuest holy : O thou worship
of Israel.
4. Our fathers hoped in thee : they
trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them.
5. They called upon thee, and were holpen
: they put their trust in thee, and were not confounded.
6. But as for me, I am a worm, and no man
: a very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people.
7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn
: they shoot our their lips, and shake their heads, saying,
8. He trusted in God, that he would
deliver him : let him deliver him, if he will have him.
9. But thou art he that took me out of my
mother's womb : thou wast my hope, when I hanged yet upon my mother's breasts.
10. I have been left unto thee ever since
I was born : thou art my God, even from my mother's womb.
11. O go not from me, for trouble is hard
at hand : and there is none to help me.
12. Many oxen are come about me : fat
bulls of Basan close me in on every side.
13. They gape upon me with their mouths :
as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.
14. I am poured out like water, and all
my bones are out of joint : my heart also in the midst of my body is even like
melting wax.
15. My strength is dried up like a
potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my gums : and thou shalt bring me into the
dust of death.
16. For many dogs are come about me : and
the council of the wicked layeth siege against me.
17. They pierced my hands and my feet; I
may tell all my bones : they stand staring and looking upon me.
18. They part my garments among them :
and casts lots upon my vesture.
19. But be not thou far from me, O Lord :
thou art my succour, haste thee to help me.
20. Deliver my soul from the sword : my
darling from the power of the dog.
21. Save me from the lion's mouth : thou
hast heard me also from among the horns of the unicorns.
22. I will declare thy Name unto my
brethren : in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23. O praise the Lord, ye that fear him :
magnify him, all ye of the seed of Jacob, and fear him, all ye seed of Israel.
24. For he hath not despised, nor
abhorred, the low estate of the poor : he hath not hid his face from him, but
when he called unto him he heard him.
25. My praise is of thee in the great
congregation : my vows will I perform in the sight of them that fear him.
26. The poor shall eat and be satisfied :
they that seek after the Lord shall praise him; your heart shall live for ever.
27. All the ends of the world shall
remember themselves, and be turned unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the
nations shall worship before him.
28. For the kingdom is the Lord's : and
he is the Governor among the people.
29. All such as be fat upon earth : have
eaten and worshipped.
30. All they that go down into the dust
shall kneel before him : and no man hath quickened his own soul.
31. My seed shall serve him : they shall
be counted unto the Lord for a generation.
32. They shall come, and the heavens
shall declare his righteousness : unto a people that shall be born, whom the
Lord hath made.
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