Today at Holy Mass the Universal Church commemorates Palm Sunday…The day Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem…..When we read the Gospel today, the many flaws and weaknesses of mankind are on full display……Such behaviors have not changed to this very day…..These behaviors are apart of our fallen human nature and this is why Jesus walked the earth….This is why Jesus founded a Church…And this is why Jesus entered Jerusalem knowing full well he was to be killed…..Only love can propel one to do this…..”For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us”…….While the drama of Jesus’ entry played out - The people who witnessed his entry into the city seemed the “miss” the significance of the moment at hand…How much do we miss at Mass? - How much do we miss when we sit before the Blessed Sacrament? - How much do we miss in the many opportunities given to us daily to love our family and neighbors more deeply?……Catholics today all over the world will go to Mass - We will sit through the long Gospel narrative, hear the words spoken, words we have heard so many times, year after year, Holy Week after Holy Week - But ask yourself this today - What are we missing?……The veil that separates heaven from earth prevents even the best of us from seeing clearly…….Who is this man from Nazareth? - Can anyone say we know the mind and heart of God? - What we know and “see” is but a shadow of what will one day be revealed………….Now think from a moment what Jesus saw as he entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday…..What he saw in the many faces of the people, who both cheered him and also probably cursed him…..Jesus saw these people clearly - He knew them better than they knew themselves - And he went through with his Passion regardless of what he saw in them - The thought makes me shudder!….….”Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”
“I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you”
As Jesus was dying on the Cross, the crowd looked on…They did not know what they were going to “see”…Keeping in mind the many miracles that Jesus performed and the many things that he said - Jesus was clearly a mysterious figure to the people of his day….And as he died, some were expecting the unexpected……."Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him”………But Elijah did not come….And what the crowd expected to happen did not happen………To this day the salvation narrative continues…The Church that Jesus founded moves forward into history and we as Catholics move with it….I believe its very important to keep in mind that we do not “see” as we ought - Even the best of us - Those closest to God still are behind the veil that separates heaven from earth…Just like the people of Jesus’ day, who watched him enter Jerusalem and watched him die - They saw but a “shadow” of who Jesus really was…And because today we are still “behind the veil”, we must trust the Church explicitly, which is an extension of Jesus’s body…….Where the Church goes, we must go - Trusting!…..”Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”…….St Paul tells us that the greatest among us “took the form of a slave”….That he “emptied himself”…..If we are to follow Christ as we are called to as Catholics - What is read to us in the second reading from St Paul at Mass should give us the needed direction to propel us forward…”I must decrease while he must increase”….This is how we shall one day “see” God as he truly is - When the veil between heaven and earth is no more………….”And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus feared greatly when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, and they said, "Truly, this was the Son of God!”…….JMJ
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