For 29 March 2026, Palm Sunday, based on Philippians 2:6-11
(Image: Christ of St. John of the Cross, Salvador Dali)
Though he existed in the form of God,
Jesus did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
10 so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
—–
In a recent BBC report, I learned that 2,000 children in the Gulf region were killed in the first two weeks of the Iran war. I also learned that another 20 percent of the world’s children, 520 million children, live in conflict zones.
Amid this shocking reality of global suffering, we dare to begin our celebration of Holy Week. This week, we endeavor to become one with the suffering Christ; we endeavor with him to become one with our suffering sisters and brothers, the suffering of children, and the pained cry of creation throughout the world.
On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, and again this week on Good Friday, the first reading at Mass will associate Isaiah’s compelling figure of a Suffering Servant with Jesus, whose passion and death we remember in today’s Sunday celebration. Today’s second reading from chapter 2 of Philippians, likely an early Christian hymn, sings of Jesus, who humbled and emptied himself to participate in our humanity as one of us, even to death on a cross at the hands of Empire. The geopolitics of nation-states and empires continues to this day to exact its price of suffering, violence, and even death from so many of God’s children.
In this year’s Passion Sunday narrative from chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel according to Matthew, at the very moment of Jesus’s death, tombs are split open, a new age dawns, and the age of resurrection begins. We are given this glimmer of hope, which enables us to enter with deep appreciation into the Church’s celebration of the holy week ahead.
The liturgies of this week invite us to identify with the self-emptying posture of the Suffering Servant Jesus, who continues to empty himself in a divine participation in our suffering humanity. As we lament children lost to war and traumatized by global conflict, we identify with the suffering of all creation throughout our world and close to home. In acts of prayer and solidarity, we dare to strain forward to participate with Christ in solidarity with suffering, in the hope of restoration and resurrection.
Brothers and Sisters, God calls us into permanent mission with Christ, who has come to share our humanity and to heal and repair a suffering world. In Christ and with one another, we lament the dead, we accompany the suffering, and we celebrate God’s resilient promise of new life. We celebrate Holy Week in hope because God is with us.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 
General editor: Scott Steinkerchner, OP. TheWord is a free service of the Order of Preachers around the world. You can donate via PayPal to support our mission using the QR code or this link.
29 Mar 2026
0 CommentsJesus Emptied Himself
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
(Image: Christ of St. John of the Cross, Salvador Dali)
Though he existed in the form of God,
Jesus did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
10 so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
—–
In a recent BBC report, I learned that 2,000 children in the Gulf region were killed in the first two weeks of the Iran war. I also learned that another 20 percent of the world’s children, 520 million children, live in conflict zones.
Amid this shocking reality of global suffering, we dare to begin our celebration of Holy Week. This week, we endeavor to become one with the suffering Christ; we endeavor with him to become one with our suffering sisters and brothers, the suffering of children, and the pained cry of creation throughout the world.
On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, and again this week on Good Friday, the first reading at Mass will associate Isaiah’s compelling figure of a Suffering Servant with Jesus, whose passion and death we remember in today’s Sunday celebration. Today’s second reading from chapter 2 of Philippians, likely an early Christian hymn, sings of Jesus, who humbled and emptied himself to participate in our humanity as one of us, even to death on a cross at the hands of Empire. The geopolitics of nation-states and empires continues to this day to exact its price of suffering, violence, and even death from so many of God’s children.
In this year’s Passion Sunday narrative from chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel according to Matthew, at the very moment of Jesus’s death, tombs are split open, a new age dawns, and the age of resurrection begins. We are given this glimmer of hope, which enables us to enter with deep appreciation into the Church’s celebration of the holy week ahead.
The liturgies of this week invite us to identify with the self-emptying posture of the Suffering Servant Jesus, who continues to empty himself in a divine participation in our suffering humanity. As we lament children lost to war and traumatized by global conflict, we identify with the suffering of all creation throughout our world and close to home. In acts of prayer and solidarity, we dare to strain forward to participate with Christ in solidarity with suffering, in the hope of restoration and resurrection.
Brothers and Sisters, God calls us into permanent mission with Christ, who has come to share our humanity and to heal and repair a suffering world. In Christ and with one another, we lament the dead, we accompany the suffering, and we celebrate God’s resilient promise of new life. We celebrate Holy Week in hope because God is with us.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.