B Cycle – Palm Sunday 24

Mk.14:1-15;47

It is not unusual for any of us to have days where all is going well and suddenly something tragic happens that is tragic or totally upsetting.  How many couples have received a phone call informing them their child has died in an accident or they were seriously injured by someone.  How many couples expecting a child have had their joy destroyed by a sudden and unexpected miscarriage?

Palm Sunday was and remains one of those days.  We begin mass with the gospel providing us with the details of Jesus’s joyful entry into Jerusalem.  We end the Liturgy of the Word with Jesus’s passion. This past week’s prayer had me meditating on both of those events and the joy and turmoil experienced by the disciples and those who followed Jesus.  Jesus knew what would transpire that day would end on Calvery.  Jesus knew as He shared the Passover meal He would be betrayed and handed over to the authorities.  He knew the horror of crucifixion was awaiting Him as He pleaded with His Father to “let the cup pass.”    

As humans we would do anything to avoid pain and suffering.  Jesus embraced both the joy of His triumphal entry and the brutal journey to Calvary.  What was it like for Jesus hearing the shouts of hosanna knowing they would turn from shouts of joy to shouts to crucify Him.  What was it like knowing Judas would betray Him?  A disciple He invited to follow Him.  What is it like today knowing how easy it is for us to betray Him by our own hesitation to acknowledge Him and our unwillingness to stand up for what we believe? 

We should not let this day or the week to pass without us pondering those and other questions about the gift of Jesus Christ. What we are celebrating each time we gather as a community.  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what He did to remove the barrier of sin between us and God.  It is easy for anyone of us to deny Christ by the choices we make.  If we were honest with ourselves, each of us would acknowledge we do follow at a distance and how easy it is to be free with our worship when we gather each Sunday.

But we must also acknowledge how easy it is for us to go along with the crowd when acknowledging Jesus would have them mock us or reject us. We avoid the reality of what is demanded of us as believers because we want an easy comfortable faith. We do not see how, like Peter we do deny our discipleship with the Lord.

Little did the disciples know all the joy of their entry into Jerusalem would turn into fear and they would run to protect their lives.

Jesus knew the significance of the Passover meal He shared with them that evening.  Jesus knew shedding of blood was necessary for their freedom from the penalty of sin.  It began hundreds of years earlier when God chose them and set them free.    Jesus knew how the annual celebration of the Feast of Atonement prepared the Israelites to understand this moment.  On that feast day one lamb was to be sacrificed for the removal of all the sins of all the Israelites (Lev.16:21). 

Jesus knew for John the Baptist declared Him to be the “lamb of God.”  Jesus knew that one day He would be the sacrificial lamb sacrificed for us to be free from the penalty of our sin and the oppression of whatever holds us in bondage. 

This day we celebrate the fulfillment of the promise of God making it possible for us to make a choice to live free from those ups and downs of life because we know we will be strengthened by God.     

During this week I invite you to place yourself into Jesus’s passion.  Imagine yourself as one of individuals involved in the journey of Jesus from joy to passion.  Imagine yourself as Peter sleeping while Jesus was pleading with His Father in the garden.  Or will you be Peter denying Jesus and slouching away in shame.  Will you be John at the foot of the cross, watching or will you be the centurion who declares Jesus to be the Son of God (Mk. 15:39). 

Perhaps you might put yourself into the shoes of Judas or Pontius Pilate who found nothing on which to condemn Jesus but acquiesced to the crowd demands.  This week I will be in that crowd shouting to crucify Jesus because it is where I had failed and do fail more often than not.   

Perhaps you can place yourself in the position of any one of the other disciples who fled from Jesus but later returned to that upper room trying to understand what it all meant.  Do we understand today what that day really did for us? 

Spend the week seeking to embrace what God did for us on Calvary and be prepared to celebrate the Triduum knowing you are worth the price paid by Jesus as He reconciled us to the Father.   

Have a blessed week and be bold enough to enter the period between Easter and Pentecost asking God to fill you with the transforming power of the cross and of the Holy Spirit.