March 29th, 2015 Palm Sunday Homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI
Is.
50:4-7, Phi. 2:6-11, Mk.14:1-15:47
For Readings
How many of you have witnessed the victory
procession of a political election winner? Have you noticed the enthusiasm,
screaming, dancing and shouting of the crowd as they move slowly through the
street? That is the reception and praise usually a leader of an earthly winner
gains from the followers. How many of
that crowd will remain till the end of his office term? Why does he loose many
of them? The answer is obvious. He didn’t fulfill their expectations. Once
Jesus also encountered with similar experience. Jesus didn’t fulfill the
expectations of the many.
We celebrate today both Palm Sunday and
Passion Sunday. We observe and remember
Jesus’ solemn entry into Jerusalem and the Passion He suffered for the human
race. Jesus wanted to enter the city as a messenger of peace in a most humble
way. But people, who had seen his miracles and teachings, tried to make him a hero
expecting more earthly, political gains and gave him a very solemn entry to the
city. The big crowd also had included people with heavenly expectations. Some
saw his royal image, a transcended glory beyond his earthly reality, for a
short period. Within a few days many of them including one of his disciples,
turned the story into a tragic one, joining with jealous Jewish leaders. They
shouted and yelled out to crucify him. Still the group with real heavenly
expectations stood with him, expressing love and commitment, sharing in his
sufferings.
Today the question arises: What do we
expect God to do for us? And when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we
want Him to, how do we react? What is our own response? We know the answer. We
have seen it in others; perhaps we have even seen it in ourselves. We get mad
at God. We turn and walk away both from Him and from His Church. The
uncomfortable truth is, that Judas models our own turning away from Christ.
Let’s face it. We all have some fickleness in our hearts. Not only that, we may
also join the thinking of the crowd around us by what is popular and fail to be
fixed on what is right.
During this holy week
we commemorate and relive Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. Not only
that, our commemoration must include our own dying and rising in Him, which
results in our healing, reconciliation, and redemption. Jesus laid down His life for the salvation of
the human race, cooperating with the will of the Heavenly Father. Just as Jesus did, we too must lay
down our lives freely, by actively participating in the Holy Week liturgies,
reading the Bible and prayers. In doing
so, we are allowing Jesus to forgive us our sins, heal the wounds in us caused
by our sins and the sins of others and transform us more completely into the
image and likeness of God.
Last year, in his Palm Sunday homily Holy Father Pope
Francis said, “But this week continues in the mystery of Jesus’s death and his
resurrection. We have just listened to the Passion of our Lord. We might well
ask ourselves just one question: Who am I? Who am I, before my Lord? Who am I,
before Jesus who enters Jerusalem amid the enthusiasm of the crowd? Am I ready
to express my joy, to praise him? Or do I stand back? Who am I, before the
suffering Jesus? We have just heard many, many names. The group of leaders,
some priests, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, who had decided to kill
Jesus. They were waiting for the chance to arrest him. Am I like one of them?”
Today's first reading is about a mysterious
figure whose suffering brings about a benefit for the people. The second
reading is an ancient Christian hymn representing a very early Christian
understanding of who Jesus is, and of how his mission saves us from sin and
death. In the sixth century Clovis, the
king of the Franks and a recent convert to Christianity once wept after hearing
the story of Jesus' crucifixion and death. "If my soldiers and I had been
there," he shouted, "they would never have killed Jesus." Today Jesus calls us to intervene. How?
During this week of passion, each of us is called to remember the Christ of
Calvary, and then to embrace and lighten the burden of Christ, whose passion
continues to be experienced in the hungry, the poor, the aged, the sick, the
homeless, the rejected and the lonely.
In today’s liturgy we see two contrasting
moments of glory and suffering, the solemn welcome of Jesus into Jerusalem and
the drama of his trial culminating in his death on Cross. What these
contrasting images can mean to us, are both deeply personal and cosmic in
scope. The story of Palm Sunday also stimulates the recognition that there
exists a royal archetypal reality behind the earthly reality of our own lives.
Sometimes it shines through onto our worldly stage of existence -- we have our
moment of glory – but often it is obscured in this material world. We often
suffer revilement and condemnation, when we do not meet others worldly
expectations.
God’s love for us is infinitely strong,
unwavering, resolute, and more powerful than all that the demonic forces of
Hell can throw at us. In the light of human history, a history filled with
infidelities, betrayals, violence, and unspeakable evils, God’s love and mercy
are our hope for peace in our souls, and the triumph of love. Let us now join
ourselves into Christ, and there be swept up onto the heart of God. God bless
you.
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