We need to answer 5 questions today:
1) Does Jesus weep over my sinful soul as He wept over Jerusalem at the beginning of His Palm Sunday procession?
2) Am I a barren fig tree? God expects me to produce fruits of holiness, purity, justice, humility, obedience, charity, and forgiveness. Am I a barren fig tree? Or do I continue to produce bitter fruits of impurity, injustice, pride, hatred, jealousy and selfishness?
3) Will Jesus have to cleanse my heart with His whip? Jesus cannot tolerate the desecration of the temple of his Holy Spirit in me by my addiction to uncharitable, unjust and impure thoughts words and deeds; neither does He approve of my business mentality or calculation of loss and gain in my relationship with God, my heavenly Father.
4) Do I 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? Let the palms remind us that Christ is our King and the true answer to our quest for happiness and meaning in life.
5) Are we like the humble donkey that carried Jesus, carrying Jesus’ universal love, unconditional forgiveness and sacrificial service to our families, places of work and communities by the way we live our lives?
1. “Either give up Christ or give up your jobs.”
Constantine the Great was the first Christian Roman emperor. His father Constantius I who succeeded Diocletian as emperor in 305 A.D. was a pagan with a soft heart for Christians. When he ascended the throne, he discovered that many Christians held important jobs in the government and in the court. So he issued an executive order to all those Christians: “Either give up Christ or give up your jobs.” The great majority of Christians gave up their jobs rather than disowning Christ. Only a few cowards gave up their religion rather than lose their jobs. The emperor was pleased with the majority who showed the courage of their convictions and gave their jobs back to them saying: "If you will not be true to your God you will not be true to me either.” Today we join the Palm Sunday crowd in spirit to declare our loyalty to Christ and fidelity to his teachings by actively participating in the Palm Sunday liturgy. As we carry the palm leaves to our homes, we are declaring our choice to accept Jesus as the king and ruler of our lives and our families. Let us express our gratitude to Jesus for redeeming us by his suffering and death, through active participation in the Holy Week liturgy and reconciliation with God and His Church, repenting of our sins and receiving God's pardon and forgiveness from Jesus through his Church.
2. Passion Sunday and the shadow of the cross:
The bishop of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris during the early part of the last century was a great evangelizer who tried to reach out to unbelievers, scoffers, and cynics. He liked to tell the story of a young man who would stand outside the cathedral and shout derogatory slogans at the people entering to worship. He would call them fools and other insulting names. The people tried to ignore him but it was difficult. One day the parish priest went outside to confront the young man, much to the distress of the parishioners. The young man ranted and raved against everything the priest told him. Finally, the priest addressed the young scoffer, saying, “Look, let’s get this over with once and for all. I’m going to dare you to do something and I bet you can’t do it.” And of course the young man shot back, “I can do anything you propose, you white-robed wimp!” “Fine,” said the priest. “All I ask you to do is to come into the sanctuary with me. I want you to stare at the figure of Christ on His cross, and I want you to scream at the very top of your lungs, as loudly as you can. ‘Christ died on the cross for me, and I don’t care one bit.” So the young man went into the sanctuary, and looking at the figure, screamed as loudly as he could, “Christ died on the cross for me, and I don’t care one bit.” The priest said, “Very good. Now do it again.” And again the young man screamed, with a little more hesitancy, “Christ died on the cross for me, and I don’t care one bit.” “You’re almost done now,” said the priest. “One more time.” The young man raised his fist, kept looking at the crucifix, but the words wouldn’t come. He just could not look at the face of Christ and say those words any more. The real punch line came when, after he told the story, the bishop said, “I was that young man. That young man, that defiant young man was I. I thought I didn’t need God but found out that I did.”
3. The six-year-old came home from Palm Sunday
services proudly carrying his palm. Mom and Dad quizzed him on his Sunday school lesson for the day. He responded enthusiastically, "Jesus came to Jerusalem on a donkey. And the happy people waved their palm branches and sang, “O Susanna..."
4. "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?"
Little Johnny was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked why. His father explained, "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved palm branches to honor him; so we got palm branches today." "Aw, shucks,” grumbled Little Johnny. "The one Sunday I can't go to church, and Jesus shows up!"
On Marco Polo's celebrated trip to the Orient, he was taken before the great and fearsome ruler, Genghis Khan. Now what was Marco Polo supposed to do before this mighty pagan conqueror? One false move could cost him his life. He decided to tell the story of Jesus as it is recorded in the Gospels. It is said that when Marco Polo related the events of Holy Week, describing Jesus' betrayal, His trial, scourging and crucifixion, Genghis Khan became more and more agitated, more engrossed in the story, and more tense. When Marco Polo pronounced the words, "Then Jesus bowed his head and yielded up His spirit," Genghis Khan could no longer contain himself. He interrupted, bellowing, "What did the Christian's God do then? Did He send thousands of angels from Heaven to smite and destroy those who killed his Son?" What did the Christian's God do then? He watched His beloved Son die, that's what the Christian's God did then. For that was the way God chose for Jesus to ascend the throne of His Kingdom and to establish His Lordship for all time. Not at all the way we would expect God to demonstrate His might and power, but that's the way it was, and that is how we know what our God is like. In practical terms, that means that this suffering King who rules in love comes to lay His claim on our life. Our entire life is subject to His Lordship, not just a portion of it. To have Christ be our King means that we rely on Him for everything, most of all the forgiveness of sins.
It has been estimated that some 2.5 million people were in or around Jerusalem for the Passover observance. Jesus was mounted on a donkey -- the beast that the prophet Zechariah of old predicted would bear the Messiah. The people were shouting "Hosanna" -- "save us!"-- the traditional cry of the Jewish people to their King. A crowd estimated to be between 100,000 and 200,000 lined the roadsides to cheer an itinerant preacher from Nazareth named Jesus. The palm branches and the shouts harkened back a century-and-a-half to the triumph of the Maccabees and the overthrow of the brutal Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In 167 B.C. Antiochus had precipitated a full-scale revolt when, having already forbidden the practice of Judaism on pain of death, he set up in the middle of the Jewish Temple, an altar to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on it. Stinging from this outrage, an old man of priestly stock named Mattathias rounded up his five sons, all the weapons he could find, and launched a guerrilla war. Old Mattathias soon died, but his son Judas, called Maccabaeus (which means "hammer"), kept on and within three years was able to cleanse and to rededicate the desecrated Temple. "Mission Accomplished"? Well, it would be after a full 20 years more of fighting, when Judas and a successor, his brother, Jonathan, had died in battle, that a third brother, Simon, would take over and, through his diplomacy, achieve Judean independence. That would begin a century of Jewish sovereignty. Of course, there was great celebration. "On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel"(I Maccabees 13:51). So says the account in I Maccabees - a story well known by the crowd in Jerusalem that day.
7. Are you a donkey with a Christian name or one carrying Christ?
An interesting as well as challenging old fable tells of the colt that carried Jesus on Palm Sunday. The colt thought that the reception was organized to honor him. “I am a unique donkey,” this excited animal might have thought. When he asked his mother if he could walk down the same street alone the next day and be honored again, his mother said, “No, you are nothing without Him who was riding you." Five days later, the colt saw a huge crowd of people in the street. It was Good Friday, and the soldiers were taking Jesus to Calvary. The colt could not resist the temptation of another royal reception. Ignoring the warning of his mother, he ran to the street, but he had to flee for his life as soldiers chased him and people stoned him. Thus the colt finally learned the lesson that he was only a poor donkey without Jesus to ride on him. As we enter Holy Week, today’s readings challenge us to examine our lives to see whether we carry Jesus within us and bear witness to Him through our living or whether we are Christians in name only.
B. From Sermons.com
Some years ago a book was written by Gene Smith, a noted American historian. The title was "When The Cheering Stopped." It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.
On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn't believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be all right.
The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace. At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President's health began to break. In the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.
It's a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. There are some exceptions, of course, but not too many.
It happened that way to Jesus...
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"Everyone else is doing it."
Do you remember those words? Do you remember begging your Mom or Dad for permission to do something they would ordinarily not permit by insisting, "But Ma, everyone else is getting to do it!"
The typical parental response to such childish logic usually went something along the lines of, "Well, if everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it too?" (Of course now that grown men and women actually PAY to go bungee jumping off of bridges, that argument might not have as much clout as it used to!)
Still, Mom and Dad's point holds water: Just because everyone else seems to being doing something, or just because everyone else seems to be saying something, doesn't mean it is the right thing to do, or say. In fact, it very often means that a lot of those people have no idea why they are acting as they are acting, or saying what they are saying.
Too often "everyone else is doing it" is a "mob mentality," a "crowd consciousness," that spurs on our most worst actions.
In 2003 yet another new techno-inspired word was coined - "flash mob." A "flash mob" was a wholly e-mailed inspired random group of people who agreed to "show up" and participate in some unified, yet uninformed, communal act. The first successful "flash mob" was in a Macy's department store in the rug department. There a crowd of 200 strangers claimed to be shopping for a carpet for their "group home," and everyone had to agree on the design. Since then "flash mobs" have showed up - by definition randomly - all over. Impromptu gatherings of people with open umbrellas, doing jumping jacks, or having pillow fights. Acting together yet being basically uniformed about the "what" and the "why" is the core of a "flash mob" gathering.
But wait a minute. The first "flash mobs" were not inspired by anonymous e-mails...
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There Is Still Hope
The reality is that, if we figure to survive in this world, we had better have hope. The ancients knew that. Do you remember Pandora? Mythology has her as a lady endowed with every charm...the gift of all the gods. She was sent to earth with a little box which she had been forbidden to open, but curiosity finally got the better of her...she lifted the lid and out from that box escaped every conceivable kind of terror. Pandora made haste to close the box up again, but it was too late. There was only one thing left...HOPE. That was the ancients' way of saying how important hope is. Even when all else is lost, there is still hope.
This was what had sustained the Israelite faithful from generation to generation. This was what energized the crowd along Jesus' parade route that day.
David E. Leininger, Sunday's Coming!
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Creating Turmoil
In his book, The Freedom Revolution and the Churches, Robert Spike recalls an incident from the early years of the turbulent civil rights movement. Flying out of Jackson, Mississippi, Spike overhears the conversation of a Catholic sister, sitting across the aisle from him, with her seat companion. The sister is lamenting all the unrest in Mississippi, and she complains about the "outside agitators," the students and church leaders who have come to her state in support of civil rights, certain that their presence is provoking violence on the part of white racists. "I do not question their dedication, nor even the rightness of their position," said the sister. "But surely it is a bad thing to create turmoil by stirring up people who feel differently." As the sister talks, all the while she is nervously fingering a cross hanging around her neck.
There's a tragic irony in the sister's words and actions, not unlike that of the first Holy Week. For the one whose cross the sister holds most dear, Jesus, would never have taken the risk of going to Jerusalem and proclaiming a new way of living, would never have confronted comfortable patterns and ultimately endured the cross, had he followed the sister's philosophy.
Joel D. Kline, What Did We See in Jesus?
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Life Is Difficult
I remind you of the famous first words in Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled. His first words are, "Life is difficult." Then he goes on to say,
This is a great truth, but most of us can't see it. Instead we moan more or less incessantly, noisily, or subtly, about the enormity of our problem. As if life is supposed to be easy for us, and therefore what has happened to us has never happened to anybody else before, at least not in this excruciatingly painful or insoluble way that it has burdened us.
Peck says that he wrote that not because as a therapist he hears his patients say that, but because he has been tempted to say that himself. You could call it the "Law of Exceptionalism," the idea that this has never happened before, at least not to the degree that it has happened to me. "Exceptionalism."
I like that cartoon I saw a long time ago showing a huge desk, a huge CEO sitting behind the desk, in a huge leather chair. Standing meekly in front of the desk is a man in work clothes, obviously a lowly employee in that corporation. The worker says to the boss, "If it's any comfort, it's lonely at the bottom too."
Life is difficult for everyone. Someone explained to me once why they don't like Lent. They said, "I'm not into suffering." I like that. Like it's optional. Like it's an adopted lifestyle.
Well Jesus was not into suffering either. You remember he prayed, "Let this cup pass from me." But when the time came for him to go on "The Hero's Quest," the text says, "He set his face steadfastly for Jerusalem."
Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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The Tomb Is Easier than the Cross
In just a matter of days Holy Week takes us from the mountain of festive palms to the mountain of Golgatha's despair. And that is why we resist it so. I mean, do we really need the emotional rollercoaster of Holy Week? What's so wrong with just jumping from one parade to the next and skipping all the sacrifice and death stuff? What's wrong with simply moving on to the joy of Easter, with its white bonnets, Easter eggs, family, friends, big ham dinner, and of course the empty tomb.
Well, I think we know the answer to that. For starters, an empty tomb, at face value, is a lot easier to deal with than a dying, bleeding Savior on a cross. Add to that all the pain and suffering that comes with Holy Week, is it any wonder that the human tendency is to try and ignore the events of the week and simply move on to the Easter celebration? But as much as we'd like to skip Holy Week we know that the only way to Easter is through the cross. We know where the parade of Palm Sunday leads and we also know that we're part of that parade. That is to say, we know this intellectually. Our hearts are another story. Our hearts may be more in sync with the disciples and the fear and disbelief that led them to run away. It would seem that 2000 years later Jesus' disciples are still running away.
Jeffrey K. London, And When You Think It's All Over
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You Brought Pavement?
I love the story about a rich man who wanted to take his money with him beyond the grave. When he was nearing death, he prayed fervently about this matter. An angel appeared to him and said, "Sorry, you can't take all your wealth with you after death, but the Lord will allow you to take one suitcase. Fill it with whatever you wish." Overjoyed the man got the largest suitcase he could find and filled it with pure gold bars. Soon afterward he died and showed up at the gates of heaven. St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here with you." The man explained how God had given him special permission." St. Peter checked it out with the angel Gabriel and the story was verified. "Okay," said St. Peter, "You can bring the suitcase in with you, but first I must check its contents." He opened the suitcase to see what worldly items this man had considered too precious to leave behind. "I don't believe it!" said St. Peter. "You brought pavement??"
Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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He Expected Fruit
The disciples come upon a fig tree which is showing a burst of new leaves. But Jesus looks among them, and says that there is no fruit. He expected fruit. It is the condemnation of promise without fulfillment. Charles Lamb told of a certain man in whose life, he said, there were three stages. When he was young, people said of him, "He will do something." As he grew older and did nothing, they said of him, "He could do something if he tried." Towards the end of his life they said of him, "He might have done something, if he had tried." That could be the epitaph of too many Christians...and too many churches.
Donald B. Strobe, Collected Words, www.Sermons.com
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What Is Good For Us Is Hidden
Martin Luther often spoke of this aspect of the theology of the cross, concerning how God works in a hidden way through contrasts. In a series of lectures that Luther gave in 1515 and 1516 on the Book of Romans, he wrote: "For what is good for us is hidden, and that so deeply that it is hidden under its opposite. Thus our life is hidden under death, love for ourselves under hate for ourselves ... salvation under damnation, heaven under hell ... And universally our every assertion of anything good is hidden under the denial of it, so that faith may have its place in God, who is a negative essence and goodness and wisdom and righteousness, who cannot be touched except by the negation of all our affirmations."
Martin Luther had one more observation about why God operates this way - under contrasts and opposites. In another of his sermons, he put it this way: "He thrusts us into death and permits the devil to pounce on us. But it is not his purpose to devour us; he wants to test us, to purify us, and to manifest himself ever more to us, that we may recognize his love. Such trials and strife are to let us experience something that preaching alone is not able to do, namely, how powerful Christ is and how sincerely the Father loves us. So our trust in God and our knowledge of God will increase more and more, together with our praise and thanks for his mercy and blessing.
Otherwise we would bumble along with our early, incipient faith. We would become indolent, unfruitful and inexperienced Christians, and would soon grow rusty."
Mark Ellingsen, Preparation and Manifestation, CSS Publishing
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Lose Yourself
What does a Christ-like mind look like as we live in the world? We can see it clearly in the great saints and martyrs, such as Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer. I'm drawn as well to the idea William Placher suggests in his book "Narratives of a Vulnerable God" as he uses an illustration from the world of basketball. Professor Placher writes, "In basketball the players who are always asking, 'How am I doing? Am I getting my share of the shots?' Those are the ones who never reach their full potential. It is the players who lose themselves who find themselves. And it's that kind of self-forgetfulness that makes the best players." And isn't that the case with all of us in whatever we do?
I read about one of the fastest growing churches in the world, with branches in 32 countries already. It is called the Winners Church, and according to its leaders, it lives by a motto that comes from America's religious culture. Here's the motto: "Be happy. Be successful. Join the winners." People flock to that kind of church, I guess. But it all depends, doesn't it, on how we define winning? I wonder what kind of church you would have if your motto were "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant." Or about this one for a motto, "Those who want to save their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives for my sake, will find them."
I read about one of the fastest growing churches in the world, with branches in 32 countries already. It is called the Winners Church, and according to its leaders, it lives by a motto that comes from America's religious culture. Here's the motto: "Be happy. Be successful. Join the winners." People flock to that kind of church, I guess. But it all depends, doesn't it, on how we define winning? I wonder what kind of church you would have if your motto were "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant." Or about this one for a motto, "Those who want to save their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives for my sake, will find them."
Joanna Adams, A Beautiful Mind
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Passion Sunday: Surprising and Inevitable
At a pre-concert lecture, the conductor of a symphony orchestra was telling the audience about the major work that the orchestra would be performing at that evening's concert. The conductor told the people that if they listened carefully to the music, they would discover that it was both surprising and inevitable. On the one hand, the musical score would take a fair number of rather jarring and unexpected twists. There would be points in the concert when the blare of the trumpet or the sudden rolling of the timpani would seem to come from out of nowhere in a surprising fashion. On the other hand, however, the conductor noted that in the long run, these surprises would themselves become part of a larger coherence. Once listeners heard the entire piece from start to finish, they would find in the music an air of inevitability--how could it ever have been written any differently?
Surprising and inevitable. Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week are both surprising and inevitable. The truth is that we are not completely sure what to make of Palm Sunday...
Surprising and inevitable. Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week are both surprising and inevitable. The truth is that we are not completely sure what to make of Palm Sunday...
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C. Fr Jude Botelho:
Procession: The reading starts on a triumphant note, the celebration of a victory parade. Parades and processions have always been part of worship in Jewish and Christian tradition and they were the most normal way for people to acclaim the victories and triumphs of their heroes and heroines. When the parade is over the heroes fade away and are forgotten and Jesus whom we acclaim in today's victory procession will momentarily fade into his passion and death, but then he will rise again and live on. What is worth noting is the attitude of Jesus as He is about to enter into the final phase of his life. He meets his opponents openly as he triumphantly enters into Jerusalem. He does not merely tolerate and endure the passion rather he wholeheartedly chooses and accepts it. Far from being a defeat his passion starts as a victory, we see Jesus is in command of the situation rather than overpowered by it. He gives orders: Go to the village, find the donkey, if anyone asks say the Master needs it. And he went riding in and they acknowledged him. Hosanna to the Son of David!!! We remember that the palms we carry today will be burned and the ashes for next year's Ash Wednesday will be made from them. The sign of glory and the sign of conversion are made of the same stuff and meet in our flesh and lives.
The first reading from Isaiah describes the attitude and behaviour of the servant of Yahweh who foreshadows Jesus and all those persecuted for sake of justice and God's honour. This is not just a word of comfort and consolation but the rousing word of the good news, the imminent coming of the kingdom breaking into the lives of those bent under the weight of evil. This word teaches us how to resist without violence and how to rely on the strength that is always offered. Their shield that they grasped and held on to was God. Isaiah promised a servant of God, who would have a face like flint, to brave the pummeling, the spit and the ridicule, he would take on everything.
Look at my hand!
A vacationing family drives along in their car, windows rolled down, enjoying the warm summer breeze of the sunny day. All of a sudden a big black bee darts in the window and starts buzzing around inside the car. A little girl, highly allergic to bee stings, cringes in the back seat. If she is stung, she could die within an hour. "Oh, Daddy," she squeals in terror. "It's a bee! It's going to sting me!" The father pulls the car over to a stop, and reaches back to try to catch the bee. Buzzing around towards him, the bee bumps against the front windshield where the father traps it in his fist. Holding it in his closed hand, the father waits for the inevitable sting. The bee stings the father's hand and in pain, the father lets go of the bee. The bee is loose in the car again. The little girl again panics, "Daddy, it's going to sting me!" The father gently says, "No honey, he's not going to sting you now. Look at my hand." The bee's stinger was there in his hand.
As told in today's gospel by St. Matthew, whose account is probably the most authentic representation of what happened, the passion story is recounted not that we might feel sorry for Jesus because of what he suffered but that we might be touched by the love he had for us that motivated him to suffer the passion. As we go through the story we can be spectators or participants, we can look at it as a drama acted out or as something that I am part of right now, with people with whom I can identify. We can be part of the crowd or Pilate or Peter or Jesus.
Would you take his place?
After years of wandering, Clint Dennis realized that something important was missing from his life. He decided to attend Church. As he entered a church for the first time he noticed people putting on long robes. They were tying ropes around their waists and wrapping headdresses around their heads. "Come be part of the mob," a stranger told him. It was Palm Sunday and the church was enacting the Crucifixion in costume. He would be part of the crowd that shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Hesitantly, he agreed. Then another stranger hurried up to him. "The man who is supposed to play one of the thieves on the cross didn't show up," he said. "Would you take his place?" Again, Clint agreed and was shown the cross where he would look on as Jesus died. Just then, though, something about Clint's manner caught a member's eye. He turned to Clint and asked, "Have you ever asked Jesus to forgive your sins?" "No," Clint replied softly, "but that’s why I came here." There beneath the cross they prayed, and Clint asked Jesus to come into his heart. What the church didn't know was that Clint had been in prison for ten years. He was a real thief. Even after his release he had gone on stealing cars and trucks until he realized something was missing from his life.
Jo Hart
The passion narrative starts with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot; in the face of this betrayal Jesus chooses to celebrate the Passover meal and give them his best gift: the gift of himself. When man is at his worse God is at his best! Jesus' way of responding to hurt and betrayal can be ours only when love has become the motive power of our lives. Even when Jesus is confronted by Judas who blatantly asks, "Not I Rabbi, surely?”, Jesus does not condemn him or embarrass him in front of the others. Even in the face of evidence Jesus refuses to judge, so unlike us. It is worth remembering that when we judge others we judge ourselves. After the celebration of the Passover sacrifice as they were leaving for the Mount of Olives Jesus predicts "You will all lose faith in me this night." But Peter is sure that he is not like the rest. There are many times when we can identify with Peter, we feel we are not like the rest of the disciples. We won't make the same mistakes that others make. Let's remind ourselves that our faith journey is not a competition to see who does better than others. The faith journey cannot be accomplished if we rely on our own strengths and capabilities, instead one needs to humbly acknowledge our inadequacies and rely on the Lord to see us through. As we go through the entire narrative of the passion what will strike us is that Jesus died a shameful death, reserved for the worst of criminals. Even though he died willingly and in a manly way, this manner of death would seem to wipe off with one stroke all the good he had done. If Jesus were truly the beloved Son of God, would God have allowed him to be overcome by his enemies? But God turned this human way of thinking completely upside down. By raising Jesus from the dead, God honoured Jesus more than anyone ever could have. He obliterated Jesus' shame with the glory of the resurrection. It is from this standpoint that one needs to reinterpret the passion. While it reports seemingly shameful events like the betrayal, the false witnesses, the trumped-up charges and the like, a careful reading shows that Jesus is master of his fate throughout the story. He knows that he is in the right; he trusts that God will vindicate him. Jesus is like every other innocently suffering person in the history of Israel: absolutely confident that God will set it all right. Today we dwell on the passion in order to draw closer to the person of Jesus and his great love for humanity and unflinching faith in the Father. To be like Jesus we have to be with Jesus. As we draw close to Jesus we are bound to change and become like the Son. “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all to myself!"
The Traveller
Richard Matheson wrote a science-fiction story called "The Traveller." It's about a scientist called Paul Jairus, who is part of a research time that has developed an energy screen to permit people to travel back into time. The first trip is scheduled to take place a few days before Christmas and Jairus has been picked to make the trip. He decided to go back in time to the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary. Jairus is a non-believer and anticipates finding the crucifixion different from the way the Bible describes it. When the historic moment comes, Jairus steps into the energy screen and soon finds himself soaring back into time -100 years, 1000 years, 2000 years. The energy screen touches down on target and Calvary is swarming with people, everybody's attention is focused on three men nailed to crosses about 100 feet away. Immediately Jairus asks the Command Centre for permission to move closer to the crosses, they grant it, but tell him to stay inside the energy screen. Jairus moves closer and as he does, his eyes come to rest on Jesus. Suddenly something remarkable begins to happen, Jairus feels drawn to Jesus, as a tiny piece of metal is drawn to a magnet. He is deeply moved by the love radiating from Jesus, it's something he'd never experienced before. Then contrary to all his expectations, events on Calvary begin to unfold exactly as the Gospel described them. Jairus is visibly shaken. The Command Centre realises this and fears he's becoming emotionally involved. They tell him to prepare for immediate return to the 20th century. Jairus protests, but to no avail. The trip back goes smoothly. When Jairus steps from the energy screen, it's clear he's a changed man.
Mark Link
‘The Passion of the Christ’
In 2004, Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’ created waves worldwide for its pathos and power. On viewing it, many ‘cold’ Christians’ faith was rekindled. James Caviezel who played Jesus said, “I had to prepare myself physically, spiritually, and emotionally for many months before playing the most demanding role of my career…. I couldn’t imagine that someone could endure such unbelievable and unbearable degradation and death for the sake of others.” He added, “All through the production as if ‘Someone’ was watching over me!” Playing Christ was a profound conversion experience for Caviezel. The most wonderful ‘witness’ of the Passion is Fr. Christudas, who on September 2, 1997, was beaten, stripped and paraded naked in Dumka, north India. His ‘passion’ continues since he is unjustly convicted for fabricated crimes. Christudas testifies: “I couldn’t bear the humiliation and pain until suddenly I felt one with Jesus who suffered everything, and even more than myself. Thereafter, I surrendered!” Does that ‘Someone’ who ‘watched over’ Caviezel’s action also ‘part-take’ in these ‘passions’?
Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for daily Deeds’
C. Fr Jude Botelho:
Procession: The reading starts on a triumphant note, the celebration of a victory parade. Parades and processions have always been part of worship in Jewish and Christian tradition and they were the most normal way for people to acclaim the victories and triumphs of their heroes and heroines. When the parade is over the heroes fade away and are forgotten and Jesus whom we acclaim in today's victory procession will momentarily fade into his passion and death, but then he will rise again and live on. What is worth noting is the attitude of Jesus as He is about to enter into the final phase of his life. He meets his opponents openly as he triumphantly enters into Jerusalem. He does not merely tolerate and endure the passion rather he wholeheartedly chooses and accepts it. Far from being a defeat his passion starts as a victory, we see Jesus is in command of the situation rather than overpowered by it. He gives orders: Go to the village, find the donkey, if anyone asks say the Master needs it. And he went riding in and they acknowledged him. Hosanna to the Son of David!!! We remember that the palms we carry today will be burned and the ashes for next year's Ash Wednesday will be made from them. The sign of glory and the sign of conversion are made of the same stuff and meet in our flesh and lives.
The first reading from Isaiah describes the attitude and behaviour of the servant of Yahweh who foreshadows Jesus and all those persecuted for sake of justice and God's honour. This is not just a word of comfort and consolation but the rousing word of the good news, the imminent coming of the kingdom breaking into the lives of those bent under the weight of evil. This word teaches us how to resist without violence and how to rely on the strength that is always offered. Their shield that they grasped and held on to was God. Isaiah promised a servant of God, who would have a face like flint, to brave the pummeling, the spit and the ridicule, he would take on everything.
Look at my hand!
A vacationing family drives along in their car, windows rolled down, enjoying the warm summer breeze of the sunny day. All of a sudden a big black bee darts in the window and starts buzzing around inside the car. A little girl, highly allergic to bee stings, cringes in the back seat. If she is stung, she could die within an hour. "Oh, Daddy," she squeals in terror. "It's a bee! It's going to sting me!" The father pulls the car over to a stop, and reaches back to try to catch the bee. Buzzing around towards him, the bee bumps against the front windshield where the father traps it in his fist. Holding it in his closed hand, the father waits for the inevitable sting. The bee stings the father's hand and in pain, the father lets go of the bee. The bee is loose in the car again. The little girl again panics, "Daddy, it's going to sting me!" The father gently says, "No honey, he's not going to sting you now. Look at my hand." The bee's stinger was there in his hand.
As told in today's gospel by St. Matthew, whose account is probably the most authentic representation of what happened, the passion story is recounted not that we might feel sorry for Jesus because of what he suffered but that we might be touched by the love he had for us that motivated him to suffer the passion. As we go through the story we can be spectators or participants, we can look at it as a drama acted out or as something that I am part of right now, with people with whom I can identify. We can be part of the crowd or Pilate or Peter or Jesus.
Would you take his place?
After years of wandering, Clint Dennis realized that something important was missing from his life. He decided to attend Church. As he entered a church for the first time he noticed people putting on long robes. They were tying ropes around their waists and wrapping headdresses around their heads. "Come be part of the mob," a stranger told him. It was Palm Sunday and the church was enacting the Crucifixion in costume. He would be part of the crowd that shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Hesitantly, he agreed. Then another stranger hurried up to him. "The man who is supposed to play one of the thieves on the cross didn't show up," he said. "Would you take his place?" Again, Clint agreed and was shown the cross where he would look on as Jesus died. Just then, though, something about Clint's manner caught a member's eye. He turned to Clint and asked, "Have you ever asked Jesus to forgive your sins?" "No," Clint replied softly, "but that’s why I came here." There beneath the cross they prayed, and Clint asked Jesus to come into his heart. What the church didn't know was that Clint had been in prison for ten years. He was a real thief. Even after his release he had gone on stealing cars and trucks until he realized something was missing from his life.
Jo Hart
The passion narrative starts with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot; in the face of this betrayal Jesus chooses to celebrate the Passover meal and give them his best gift: the gift of himself. When man is at his worse God is at his best! Jesus' way of responding to hurt and betrayal can be ours only when love has become the motive power of our lives. Even when Jesus is confronted by Judas who blatantly asks, "Not I Rabbi, surely?”, Jesus does not condemn him or embarrass him in front of the others. Even in the face of evidence Jesus refuses to judge, so unlike us. It is worth remembering that when we judge others we judge ourselves. After the celebration of the Passover sacrifice as they were leaving for the Mount of Olives Jesus predicts "You will all lose faith in me this night." But Peter is sure that he is not like the rest. There are many times when we can identify with Peter, we feel we are not like the rest of the disciples. We won't make the same mistakes that others make. Let's remind ourselves that our faith journey is not a competition to see who does better than others. The faith journey cannot be accomplished if we rely on our own strengths and capabilities, instead one needs to humbly acknowledge our inadequacies and rely on the Lord to see us through. As we go through the entire narrative of the passion what will strike us is that Jesus died a shameful death, reserved for the worst of criminals. Even though he died willingly and in a manly way, this manner of death would seem to wipe off with one stroke all the good he had done. If Jesus were truly the beloved Son of God, would God have allowed him to be overcome by his enemies? But God turned this human way of thinking completely upside down. By raising Jesus from the dead, God honoured Jesus more than anyone ever could have. He obliterated Jesus' shame with the glory of the resurrection. It is from this standpoint that one needs to reinterpret the passion. While it reports seemingly shameful events like the betrayal, the false witnesses, the trumped-up charges and the like, a careful reading shows that Jesus is master of his fate throughout the story. He knows that he is in the right; he trusts that God will vindicate him. Jesus is like every other innocently suffering person in the history of Israel: absolutely confident that God will set it all right. Today we dwell on the passion in order to draw closer to the person of Jesus and his great love for humanity and unflinching faith in the Father. To be like Jesus we have to be with Jesus. As we draw close to Jesus we are bound to change and become like the Son. “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all to myself!"
The Traveller
Richard Matheson wrote a science-fiction story called "The Traveller." It's about a scientist called Paul Jairus, who is part of a research time that has developed an energy screen to permit people to travel back into time. The first trip is scheduled to take place a few days before Christmas and Jairus has been picked to make the trip. He decided to go back in time to the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary. Jairus is a non-believer and anticipates finding the crucifixion different from the way the Bible describes it. When the historic moment comes, Jairus steps into the energy screen and soon finds himself soaring back into time -100 years, 1000 years, 2000 years. The energy screen touches down on target and Calvary is swarming with people, everybody's attention is focused on three men nailed to crosses about 100 feet away. Immediately Jairus asks the Command Centre for permission to move closer to the crosses, they grant it, but tell him to stay inside the energy screen. Jairus moves closer and as he does, his eyes come to rest on Jesus. Suddenly something remarkable begins to happen, Jairus feels drawn to Jesus, as a tiny piece of metal is drawn to a magnet. He is deeply moved by the love radiating from Jesus, it's something he'd never experienced before. Then contrary to all his expectations, events on Calvary begin to unfold exactly as the Gospel described them. Jairus is visibly shaken. The Command Centre realises this and fears he's becoming emotionally involved. They tell him to prepare for immediate return to the 20th century. Jairus protests, but to no avail. The trip back goes smoothly. When Jairus steps from the energy screen, it's clear he's a changed man.
Mark Link
‘The Passion of the Christ’
In 2004, Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’ created waves worldwide for its pathos and power. On viewing it, many ‘cold’ Christians’ faith was rekindled. James Caviezel who played Jesus said, “I had to prepare myself physically, spiritually, and emotionally for many months before playing the most demanding role of my career…. I couldn’t imagine that someone could endure such unbelievable and unbearable degradation and death for the sake of others.” He added, “All through the production as if ‘Someone’ was watching over me!” Playing Christ was a profound conversion experience for Caviezel. The most wonderful ‘witness’ of the Passion is Fr. Christudas, who on September 2, 1997, was beaten, stripped and paraded naked in Dumka, north India. His ‘passion’ continues since he is unjustly convicted for fabricated crimes. Christudas testifies: “I couldn’t bear the humiliation and pain until suddenly I felt one with Jesus who suffered everything, and even more than myself. Thereafter, I surrendered!” Does that ‘Someone’ who ‘watched over’ Caviezel’s action also ‘part-take’ in these ‘passions’?
Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for daily Deeds’
