Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Readings
Gospel at the Procession with Palms: Luke 19:28-40
Reading 1: Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm: Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Reading 2: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Can you imagine being one of Jesus’ disciples during the scene described by Luke today? People were cheering and clapping and celebrating. They treated him like a rock star! And then a few days later, just a few days later, they crucified him. They stripped him and they nailed him to a cross. They drove nails through his hands and his feet and hung him in the air until he died.
Can you imagine what his disciples were feeling as they watched Jesus dying on the cross? Do you think they were sad? I think they were profoundly sad. Were they scared? Oh yes. Scripture tells us that his closest disciples, those who would become his apostles, were in the upper room hiding – hiding! They were hiding! Yes, I think they were scared. Do you think they were angry? You bet! How could this happen? They thought he was their savior. They thought he was supposed to be their king. This wasn’t supposed to happen! Now what?
Now what?
Death has a funny way of making us feel a hurricane of emotions like sad, scared, angry. Like our Psalmist today, we want to scream and shake our fists to heaven, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”, (Ps 22:2).
When death comes, some of us move on and try as best we can to pick up the pieces of our lives. But some in our families never do move on, do they? In both cases, those who move on without processing what happened, and those who can’t seem to move on don’t understand the message of Easter.
Before we get there, though, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page and to do that, we need to go back to the beginning. In the Garden while Adam and Eve were walking, they encountered a sly and cunning serpent. Can you imagine how that conversation went? He probably told them, “Good? You’re not good! You’re human! You’re so filthy! If you want to be good, then you need to be like God and if you want to be God, then you need to eat the fruit of this tree.”
Jewish scholars tell us that evil entered the world through the first temptation. What was the first temptation? Doubting the goodness of God’s creation. You see, Adam and Even didn’t need to eat the fruit to be good. God made them so they were good just the way they were.
The Original Sin totally disrupted our ability to find God on our own. Humans caused the rift, and only a human could fix it, but no human had the power to bridge the gap between God and us. So, God chose to send His son to us, as a human. St. Paul tells us in the second reading today from Philippians, that, “…though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness…” (Phil 2:6-7).
As a human, Jesus sanctifies humanity. That’s what the incarnation is all about. But to save us – to bridge the gap between God and humanity, requires the ultimate sacrifice. St. Paul goes not to tell us that, “…found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross,” (Phil 2:8). Through his death and by his blood, we are washed clean of our sins and we become whiter than snow (Ps 51:9). And by his resurrection, he conquers death itself! Death no longer has any hold over us.
So, in both cases we discussed earlier, those who move on after death without processing what happened, and those who can’t seem to move on, both don’t understand the promise of the resurrection. All of us disciples, those of us who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, will see our friends and loved ones again! Death is not the end.
Today, the Church celebrates both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. We enter Holy Week and welcome Jesus into our lives, asking him to allow us to share in his suffering, death and Resurrection. Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday are two sides of the same coin. We rejoice as we receive Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior. We weep and mourn as his death confronts us with our sin. But that is not the end, because we look forward with great hope to Easter when we will celebrate the Resurrection.
Homework! As we enter Holy Week, I suggest we reflect on the following questions:
- Am I ready to welcome Jesus into my heart? Am I ready to surrender my life to Him during this Holy Week and welcome Him into all areas of my life as my Lord and Savior?
- Are we willing to follow Jesus, not just to Church but in our daily lives? Are we willing to entrust ourselves to Him even when the future is frightening or confusing, believing God has a plan? Are we willing to serve Him until that day when His plan for us on earth is fulfilled?
I think that reflecting and contemplating these questions this week will further our Lenten exercise of taking the focus off our own lives and opening us up to God’s people. Do you got it? Are you going to do it? Good! May each of us have a blessed Holy Week! The Lord be with you. And may Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. +Amen!