Passion Sunday (Year A) 2026
Today we stand before the mystery of the Cross. We have heard the long Passion according to Matthew. We have listened to the suffering, the silence, the betrayal, the cries, and finally the death of Jesus.
But the Church gives us a key to understand all this in the First Reading from Isaiah.
The prophet speaks as the Servant of the Lord:
“The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue… I have not rebelled… I gave my back to those who beat me… I have set my face like flint.”
Here is a man rejected by his own people. His message is not welcomed. The people are weary of hearing him. Yet he does not turn back. He continues to speak because God has given him the word. And he endures suffering with trust, knowing that God will vindicate him.
This is not just the story of a prophet. It is the story of Jesus.
Everything we have heard in the Passion flows from this. Jesus did not suffer by accident. His suffering is the result of His obedience. He proclaimed the Kingdom. He spoke the truth. He revealed the mercy of God. And for this, He was rejected.
But He did not turn back.
Like the Servant, He gave His back to those who struck Him. He did not hide His face from insult and spitting. He set His face toward Jerusalem. He remained faithful to the mission the Father had given Him.
And yet, the deepest moment of the Passion comes in that cry from the Cross:“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
These are not words of despair. They are the opening of Psalm 22. A prayer that begins in darkness but ends in trust and victory.
But still, the cry reveals something very profound. Jesus enters into the full depth of human suffering. Not only physical pain, but the experience of abandonment, of silence, of distance.
He takes upon Himself what it means to be human in a fallen world. He stands where sinners stand. He bears what we could not bear.
As St. Paul tells us in the hymn from Philippians:
He emptied himself… he humbled himself… he became obedient unto death—even death on a cross.
This is the lowest point. The nadir. The place where everything seems lost.
But it is precisely here that God is at work.
Because the Cross is not the end of the story. It is the turning point.
“Therefore God has highly exalted him.”
What looks like defeat is the beginning of victory. What appears as humiliation is the path to glory.
And this is what we must understand.
The Passion is not an isolated tragedy. It is the culmination of Jesus’ whole life. A life lived in obedience, in truth, in love. The Cross reveals what that life truly means.
And it reveals something about our own lives as well.
We too are called to follow Christ. Not only in moments of joy, but in moments of difficulty. Not only when faith is easy, but when it is tested. Not only when we feel God’s presence, but even when we feel His silence.
To follow Christ is to remain faithful, even when the path leads through suffering.
Because we know what the world does not know. We know that beyond the Cross is the Resurrection. Beyond humiliation is exaltation. Beyond death is life.
Today, as we enter into this Holy Week, let us not stand at a distance. Let us walk with Christ. Let us remain with Him.
And when we face our own crosses, let us remember:
The God who did not abandon His Son will not abandon us.