March 29, 2015: Palm Sunday B
Click to hear Audio Homily
Now days, many folks have Facebook accounts, even grandparents and great grandparents use Facebook to keep up with the activities of grandchildren. One thing that I find interesting about the Facebook posts is that the posts that get repeatedly shared are those that contain personal stories of triumph over tragedies, stories of conversion, or stories that mirror our own lives. We want others to know about these stories because we believe, in some way, that others will be touched by it too.
Today we heard a true story that happened a long time ago. We re-present the story because it is a story that involves not just some distant past persons, but a story that involves each of us in a real way. We witnessed, not as a bystander or observer but as a disciple, Our Lord Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem, offering himself freely to those who mock him and crucify him, and hanging on the cross asking forgiveness from Heavenly Father for those who "do not know what they are doing.”
Were you touched? Did you see yourself as one of the persons in the narrative? Perhaps you saw yourself in Peter, who was to be the rock, deny his Master out of fear and weakness. Peter later broke down and wept, bearing witness to the power of repentance and of the divine mercy. Perhaps you saw yourself in Mary Magdalen who anointed Jesus on the night of the Last Supper and accompanied him faithfully to Calvary. Did you feel, as you witnessed Jesus' suffering and death, a renewed resolve to recommit yourself to conform your life to him, to pour yourself out completely and unreservedly, out of love for the Heavenly Father?
Jesus, his person and his mission, demands a decision. Are we going to remain as bystanders or are we going to follow Jesus on that narrow path to Calvary? St. Andrew of Crete offers this advice to us disciples:
Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches, or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him...Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children's holy song: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel."
Now days, many folks have Facebook accounts, even grandparents and great grandparents use Facebook to keep up with the activities of grandchildren. One thing that I find interesting about the Facebook posts is that the posts that get repeatedly shared are those that contain personal stories of triumph over tragedies, stories of conversion, or stories that mirror our own lives. We want others to know about these stories because we believe, in some way, that others will be touched by it too.
Today we heard a true story that happened a long time ago. We re-present the story because it is a story that involves not just some distant past persons, but a story that involves each of us in a real way. We witnessed, not as a bystander or observer but as a disciple, Our Lord Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem, offering himself freely to those who mock him and crucify him, and hanging on the cross asking forgiveness from Heavenly Father for those who "do not know what they are doing.”
Were you touched? Did you see yourself as one of the persons in the narrative? Perhaps you saw yourself in Peter, who was to be the rock, deny his Master out of fear and weakness. Peter later broke down and wept, bearing witness to the power of repentance and of the divine mercy. Perhaps you saw yourself in Mary Magdalen who anointed Jesus on the night of the Last Supper and accompanied him faithfully to Calvary. Did you feel, as you witnessed Jesus' suffering and death, a renewed resolve to recommit yourself to conform your life to him, to pour yourself out completely and unreservedly, out of love for the Heavenly Father?
Jesus, his person and his mission, demands a decision. Are we going to remain as bystanders or are we going to follow Jesus on that narrow path to Calvary? St. Andrew of Crete offers this advice to us disciples:
Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches, or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him...Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children's holy song: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel."
