5 April 2020
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
The Apocryphal Life of Adam and Eve is a book that recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from the time after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. Interestingly, it says that Adam did not die peacefully. He was stricken by sickness and pain. His son Seth asked him a question, “What does it mean, father, this illness and pain?” Adam then explained to his son that it comes from eating the fruit from the forbidden tree in paradise. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit, God said that He will bring upon Adam’s body, seventy bodily afflictions, in which Adam’s body will be tormented from his head, eyes, ears down to his nails, toes and in every limb. Because of Adam’s action, his children too have been infected and through Adam’s children, all of Adam’s descendants have been inflicted with the contagions.
Indeed, the Life of Adam and Eve has questionable value and is not recognize as the canonical text. But the official teaching of the Catholic Church shares a similar message with the story. The Council of Trent declared that the sin of Adam (eating the forbidden fruit) is transmitted by propagation and not by imitation and this sin is contracted through generation (The General Council of Trent Fifth Session, Decree of Original Sin – 1546). Basically, the Council of Trent declared that Adam’s sin harmed not only himself but also his descendants. By committing the sin of disobedience, Adam transmitted to all humanity not only the “contagion” of death and sufferings of our physical body but also the death of our soul.
Today we celebrate the Palm Sunday, which is a time for us to reflect on our sin and our salvation. In the Gospel for the procession, we hear that Jesus sent his two disciples to the village and they were to find an ass tied and a colt with her. Then Jesus asked them to untie them and bring them to Him. In St. Thomas Aquinas’s commentary on Matthew’s Gospel explains that Jesus’s command to his disciple is a command about salvation. By commanding his disciples to untie the ass, Jesus basically gave the commandment for them to bring salvation to the people. He asks his disciples to untie all people from the bondage of ignorance by spreading the gospel of salvation. Jesus asks his disciples to untie all people from the bondage of sin by leading them back to him.
Later, Matthew describes how a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road and cut the branches from the trees, and, cried out “Hosana to the Son of David.” St. Thomas Aquinas also argues that the scene reflects the story of salvation. Those people are waiting for Jesus to bring salvation because they know that salvation is coming from the Christ. The word “Hosana” refers to redemption, but it also means “I seek salvation” like “save me, O Lord” (Psalm 11:2). Jesus, as the Son of David, will save them because God promised that “I will raise up from David a just branch…In his days, Judah shall be saved” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). Jesus is not only the Son of David, He is also a new Adam who will liberate the people from sin. The first Adam brought the contagion of sin by eating the forbidden fruit and today the new Adam will flatten the curve of sin by marching towards Jerusalem.
In this time of the coronavirus outbreak, perhaps we can reflect on the ways we can help Jesus to flatten the curve of contagion of sin. Could our actions in some way or another help to transform sin into a new mutation of love? Do you still believe that Jesus has really come to bring salvation to all of us, even in the amidst of the coronavirus pandemic? Whatever you have in mind, speak to Jesus about your feelings, thoughts, and anxiety at this moment, and then let Jesus speak to you, and listen to Him.