We begin this celebration of Holy Week with the triumphant shout of praise to Jesus, the son of David But we do so with mixed feelings; for in the passion we recount Jesus' suffering and death.

There has always been a very intimate liturgical relationship between these two events. The reading of the Passion on Sunday as well as Friday; the use of the color red symbolic of royalty and victory as well as bloodshed and martyrdom; the use of palms and laurel in contrast to the stark barren emptiness of the Church on Friday and its rebirth from winter with Easter flowers and trees.

And when we read and hear the gospel next Sunday we come to understand this paradox that Matthew places before us this week His purpose is to demonstrate for us that this Jesus is the Messiah and what it means to be a disciple or follower of His.

Holy Week is not just about external changes in voices and floral decorations. It is about the transformation of who we are. It is about our human nature. Not the nature of the lower creatures like the sun who blushed, or the earth who quacked and gave up its dead. Nor even the animal kingdom who submitted in humble obedience. An unbroken, un-ridden colt of a donkey ridden through a crowd of thousands. Just imagine that.

We say that animals are stubborn; but of all creation is- it not humanity which is most stubborn; which is most insistent on exercising our free will. While in the Passion Jesus through his suffering reaches the ultimate conclusion: Not my will, but Thine be done.

In the first reading from Isaiah, who is this suffering servant who is speaking. It could be Jeremiah or Isaiah himself. As Christians, we see Jesus in this role particularly in the hands of his persecutors. But this voice also belongs to God the Father who has revealed himself as a God of intimacy, of compassion and mercy---as a God who is not unfamiliar with feelings of suffering

Moving to St. Paul's letter to the Philippians we again see a model of God who is just as much God in suffering as in glory. Suffering is not something we merely endure for a time to get through it to achieve glory

Suffering and glory are the natural faces that define God and us as His disciples. This is the Easter mystery and surely it is a mystery. How well can any of us live up too Paul's challenge to make Christ's attitude our own?