Missing the Signs - Palm Sunday Year C

"How different the cries, 'Away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him,' and then, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest!' How different the cries are that now are calling him 'King of Israel' and then in a few days time will be saying, 'We have no king but Caesar!' What a contrast between the green branches and the cross, between the flowers and the thorns! Before they were offering their own clothes for him to walk upon, and so soon afterwards they are stripping him of his, and casting lots for them" (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on Palm Sunday, 2, 4).

No doubt we have all heard something like the above passage more than once in a Palm Sunday homily, and certainly there is some truth to it. Today's scene of triumph will give way to profound mourning later in the week, followed by utter joy at the Resurrection of Jesus. However, if we look closely at the readings today we can get a glimpse into the fact that Jesus' disciples missed the signs Jesus was giving them - and if we are not careful we can fall into the same trap.

Prior to Jesus entering Jerusalem he weeps over Jerusalem, knowing that he goes to be rejected by the people His Father has chosen to see him. Jesus' disciples, however, see this entry as the opportunity to proclaim Jesus as the political Messiah everyone is expecting and to overthrow the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel. Jesus commands his disciples to bring him a colt or a donkey on which to ride into the city. In ancient times the choice of a steed on which to enter a city was a conscious choice by a military or political leader. To ride on a horse signaled a time for war or rebellion, while the choice to ride on a donkey was intended to signify himself as a prince of peace, not war. This procession into the city was designed to signal the ultimate act of peace - the death of Jesus for the sake of the human race so that we might be at peace with God and one another.

The other readings for today's Mass highlight this theme as well. The first reading from Isaiah highlights the fact that the future Messiah is not a political rebel, but one who will offer himself as the suffering servant of the people. While such suffering was regarded as a disgrace and a sign of sin in a person's life, instead God makes it the mark of the Messiah and by extension the distinction of discipleship. In the midst of such suffering we rejoice and offer praise to God. As St. Bonaventure prayed, "O Jesus, foreseeing the multitude that was coming to meet you, you mounted an ass and gave a wonderful example of humility amid the applause of the people who were coming to you, and were cutting down branches and strewing the street with their garments. While the crowd sang songs of praise, you, ever mindful of compassion, lamented over the destruction of Jerusalem. Rise now, O handmaid of the Lord, and go in the procession of the daughters of Zion to see your true king...Accompany the Lord of heaven and earth sitting on the back of the colt, follow him with olive branches and palms, with works of piety and triumphant virtues" (St. Bonaventure, The Tree of Life, 15).

Paul's famous hymn to Christ in the letter to the Philippians underscores the great humility Jesus had throughout his entire life. Jesus the Son of God became a human being and lived a life of simplicity, poverty, and service to others even to the point of dying on the cross like a common criminal and slave. Jesus is Lord not because of his divinity, but because he chose to become human, to be humbled, and to die for us. It is by imitating Jesus the Lord that we come to share the banquet of the Messiah in the kingdom. It is because the disciples missed all these signs throughout Jesus' ministry and on Palm Sunday that they fled, denied, and betrayed him later in the week.

May we avoid the example of the disciples and instead recognize the signs Jesus gives us in calling us to follow him in all things. We unite our prayer to the entire Church: "Almighty, ever living God, you have given the human race Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility. He fulfilled your will by becoming man and giving his life on the cross. Help us to bear witness to you by following his example of suffering and make us worthy to share in his resurrection" (Opening Prayer).

My Son, You are Here with Me Always - 4th Sunday of Lent Year C

A few years ago Pope Benedict XVI was meeting with the Jewish community of Rome and in his address the Holy Father referred to the Jewish people as "our older brothers in faith." Some Jewish groups in the United States objected to this phrase, recalling that the older brothers in the Old Testament were wicked: Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Joseph's older brothers. In response to these criticisms, the pope referred to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the gospel for today's Mass, as the true understanding of the relationship between Christians and Jews. He reminds us all that both sons were forgiven by God, and that such forgiveness is the cause of our joy. Hence, today's Mass is traditionally referred to as "Laetare Sunday", since the theme of the Mass texts are all concerned with joy. This joy, in each of the readings, has to do with homecoming.

In the first reading, the people of Israel have finally arrived at the Promised Land, the home God promised them forty years earlier in Egypt. Imagine the joy of a people who wandered aimlessly in the desert for forty years, searching and longing for what God has promised. They suffered hunger, thirst, pestilence, and all sorts of humiliations in the desert, and yet all of it was the result of their stubbornness and sin. They relied on their own devices and powers, not on the help of God, in their quest for what truly satisfies. Thus, to hear the words of God, "Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you" must have been a joyous sound to their ears.

In the same way, St. Paul reminds his audience of Corinth that now with the coming of Christ our old lives of sin have passed away and we must live as a new creation. We have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation that was the mission of Jesus on earth. As Jesus has forgiven our sins through his death and resurrection, so we must bring reconciliation to our relationship with God and our relationships with other people. It is only through forgiveness of sins and a deep relationship with God that we can find joy and happiness in our lives. Modern society seeks happiness in the inventions of human ingenuity, only to find emptiness in the bottom of the box. As Pope Paul VI stated, "Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the occasions of pleasure, but finds great difficulty in giving birth to happiness. For happiness has its origin elsewhere: it is a spiritual thing. Money, comfort, hygiene, material security, etc. may often not be lacking, but nevertheless, despite these advantages, boredom, suffering, and sadness are frequently to be found supervening in the lives of many people" (Pope Paul VI, Exhortation, Gaudete in Domino, 1, 9 April 1975).

The prodigal son comes to realize that material possessions and pleasures cannot make him happy. He squanders the fortune his father gave him only to come to the most extreme level of depravity and want. Many individuals - even entire societies and cultures - sink to the same level of depravity and degradation and never come to their senses. This son receives the great grace of realizing his status before God and the human community. It causes within him a great repentance and resolution to make a new life serving his father. In returning to his father's house we find great rejoicing in the father and the household, but also in the forgiven son who could not have imagined being forgiven for such grievous sins. The same love and forgiveness shown to the younger son is also extended to the older son, who is indignant and cannot understand the joy of the household. We may find ourselves in a state of joyless Christianity, and so this Gospel should help us recover the joy of the authentic Christian life, so that we can utter the words of Blessed John XXIII: "I am, alas, the prodigal son who wasted your substance, your natural and supernatural gifts, and reduced myself to the most miserable state because I have fled far from you who are the Word by whom all things were made, and without whom all things turn to evil because they are nothing in themselves. And you are that most loving Father who welcomed me with a great feast when, repenting of my transgressions, I came back to your house and found shelter under your roof, in your embrace. You took me in again as your son, yet set me once more at your table, made me share in your joys: you called me once more to take part in your inheritance. Here I am in your heart! What then would you have me do?" (John XXIII, Journal of a Soul 1900, p. 68-69).

Homeland Security - 3rd Sunday of Lent Year C

Ever since the attacks of September 11, 2001 our nation has yearned for security - safety from terrorism and threats to our peace and livelihood. These hopes are certainly important, unless they dominate our thoughts and cause us to forget the commands of God and we come to treat innocent people unjustly. The security of our national homeland is important, but not as important as the security of our eternal homeland of heaven. Today's readings give us pause to reflect upon our eternal security.

The first reading is familiar enough to everyone: Moses encounters God in the burning bush. God has heard the suffering prayers of his people and has come to rescue them from the slavery of Egypt. Moses no doubt was overjoyed at that part of the theophany, but Moses was not prepared for what would come in the future. Nevertheless, he trusted entirely in God and accepted the mission of liberating God's people from captivity and leading them to the Promised Land. We know the rest of the story: the Israelites will not be faithful to God, and God will abandon them to their own devices. Unless we remain faithful to God as Moses did, we will fall into the same fate.

St. Paul repeats that message to a generation of Christians who felt secure in their salvation. The Corinthian community had the idea that since they had faith and accepted Jesus as their Savior that they could live as they pleased. Paul writes to them in order to correct them of that notion. Yes, we are privileged people for having Christ and His sacraments available to us, but our lives must reflect the faith we claim to profess. As a noted spiritual writer put it, "To belong to God's people, to have access to the living water of grace, the spiritual food of the Eucharist, and all other sacraments is no guarantee of salvation if we do not embark upon an intense effort at conversion and total adherence to God. No one can take this for granted, neither in virtue of his position in the Church, nor on the basis of his own virtues or good service rendered" (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy, vol. 2, p. 52).

The message of Jesus in the Gospel text continues the same theme. Jesus gives two examples from his own times to teach this lesson to the crowd. The crowd believed that these calamities occurred to the Galileans because their sinfulness was worse than others. Jesus corrects that notion and forces us to accept a truth difficult to accept: there is only one conscience we are fit to examine and it is our own. Only God knows fully the hearts of another person, and while we may see individual acts of others as damning to that person, Jesus wants our focus to be on our own sins and not those of others. Each one of us has plenty of chores to do in his or her own house; we need not look for work in another's.

To bear abundant fruit we must deny ourselves, sacrifice our own preferences to serve others, and to accept the cross of Christ and die daily to ourselves. As Pope Paul VI taught, "What would become of a Gospel, of a Christianity, without the Cross, without pain, without the sacrifice of pain? It would be a gospel, a Christianity, without Redemption, with no Salvatio: a Redemption and Salvation of which - and we ought to recognize it with unmitigated sincerity - we stand in absolute need. The Lord has saved us with the Cross; with his death. He has given us hope again, the right to life" (Pope Paul VI, Address, March 24, 1967).

Our salvation - our eternal homeland security - rests upon hope, which the Catechism states, "responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement, it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity" (CCC, #1818). May our prayer this week be that of holy Mass today: "God of all compassion, Father of all goodness, to heal the wounds our sins and selfishness bring upon us you bid turn to fasting, prayer, and sharing with our brothers. We acknowledge our sinfulness, our guilt is ever before us; when our weakness causes us discouragement, let your compassion fill us with hope and lead us through a Lent of repentance to the beauty of Easter joy. We ask this through Christ our Lord."