It\u2019s such a contrast. the two Gospels we heard this morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph. They had all heard about the raising of\nLazarus and his other miracles. And so, Jesus\nis heralded by a crowd proclaiming: \u201cBlessed is the king who comes in the name\nof the Lord\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But just a little while later, things have changed. Now the crowd shouts \u201ccrucify him\u201d over and\nover again. And Jesus is subjected to\nthe most cruel and inhumane treatment. He\nis sentenced to death on a cross. What\nhappened? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, make absolutely no mistake about it, Satan was alive\nand active in the world sewing seeds of descension; orchestrating evil deeds; waiting\nand lurking for any opportunity to make things worse; looking to corrupt those\nwho are vulnerable; and playing on pride, greed, and all the other sins of the\nheart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened is really very simple. The people of Jerusalem lacked real Faith. They believed in a God who rewarded them for\nkeeping the law, but their faith was weak and vulnerable. They were happy to\npraise Jesus as long as he worked miracles and fed them abundantly. They also\nexpected this miracle worker to get rid of the Romans for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when Jesus came, he preached in the temple. He preached things the authorities didn\u2019t\nwant to hear. And when he attacked the\nmotives and methods of their leaders; when Jesus offered a new and better way, one\nthat would require them to change; and when it became clear he wasn\u2019t\nchallenging the Romans; well, then the worst qualities of human nature took\nover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus did not follow the detailed p\u2019s and q\u2019s of the law. He even drove money changers out of the\ntemple, ridiculing their motivation to make money. You have to wonder what the common folk felt\nwhen they saw this. Because rather than\n\u201cgetting right\u201d with the Lord in a simple pigeon or dove offering, they were\nbeing told that it takes more than that; it takes a conversion of the heart; an\noffering that is a real sacrifice; not just some token offering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, Jesus called into question the motives of both the\nleaders and the people, and even identified their hypocrisies in the process. Their self-image was hurt; they fell victim\nto pride. I can hear it now: \u201cI\u2019m not as\nbad as all that\u201d. And the miracles he\nworked just made the matters worse, diminishing the leader\u2019s reputation even\nmore. The Jewish authorities became\njealous and angry. They were ready to do\nanything to get rid of this \u201cimposter\u201d. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there was Judas. \nJesus was not bringing a revolution to bear against Roman rule as Judas\nhoped he would do. Jesus\u2019 revolution\nmeant changing the heart not the government. \nAnd so, Judas was upset and impatient with Jesus and his greed for money\nand control took over, so he betrayed Jesus. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, Satan had a welcome audience- vulnerable people who\nwere so taken with their own self-interests that they would do anything to get\nrid of Jesus. They wanted this voice of conscience\nout of the way. And Satan was all to\nready to whip them into a frenzy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our readings today talk about suffering in general. Isaiah\u2019s prophecy addressed the suffering of\nthe entire Jewish people during the Babylonian exile. But it also predicted the sufferings of\nJesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our second reading is a first century hymn incorporated by\nSt,. Paul into one of his epistles. It\nsummarizes Jesus sacrifice for all of us quite well. Here is God made man, humbling himself in the\nmost extraordinary way. A totally\ninnocent man who gives freely of his own life to save all of us and offer us a resurrected\nlife in the kingdom of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, God highly exalted Jesus- and that is what\nChristianity is all about. We are to follow\nin the footsteps of this God-made Man so we too can share in everlasting life\nand joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But wait a minute; there is a catch. It seems that all of us need to share in the\nsufferings of Christ. Yes, all of us are\ngiven a life of challenges where we have to face choices- choices between\ncomfort and suffering; choices between right and wrong; choices between\nstanding up for what is right or taking\nan easier more comfortable road; choices between doing things in the light of\nday or doing them in the deceptive cover of night. All of us are confronted with these types of\nchoices. Only the strength of our faith\nand the graces that come with it can sustain us in these situations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gospel of the passion is uncomfortable for us to hear. It is even more uncomfortable when it is effectively\ndramatized, as it was in Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cPassion of the Christ\u201d. And there are even more challenging descriptions\nof the Passion than that which we can voluntarily look at, like \u201cThe 24 hours\nof the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ\u201d by Luisa Picareta, which is an hour by\nhour chronicle of the horror of the passion. \nThe purpose of these vivid descriptions is for us to appreciate just\nwhat Jesus Christ did for us. It was not\njust physical suffering, but intense mental and spiritual suffering as well- more\nsuffering than any of us could possibly bear. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that is the point. \nGod was willing to send His son to do that for each and every one of us. We surely can endure the sufferings that each\nof us has been called to endure for the sake of our Faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palm Sunday and Holy Week are that time each year when each\nof us is called to reflect on all of this. \nAnd to make our commitment to believe- really believe. And really believing means putting your faith\ninto action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of you here are making that choice on Easter Sunday. God bless you all and your Faith. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s such a contrast. the two Gospels we heard this morning. First, Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph. They had all heard about the raising of Lazarus and his other miracles. And so, Jesus is heralded by a crowd proclaiming: \u201cBlessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord\u201d. But just a little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[575],"tags":[576],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1124,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions\/1124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}