This week is holy because of love -- the reconciling love of God for us.

Palm Sunday  A  2020

Today begins the most sacred week of the Church’s entire liturgical year.   We   will walk with Jesus through Holy Week in the pattern of his death and resurrection.  Once again we renew the commitment that was made on the day of our baptism, perhaps many moons ago, when our parents and godparents desired that we become disciples of Jesus and enter into the mystery of our sharing in the dying and rising of Jesus.  The week we call holy invites us to enter into the heart of our faith. 

Even with our confinement and social distancing, may we enter into the mystery of the dying and rising of Jesus during these days of Holy Week.  .

In our sharing of the paschal mystery of Jesus, I invite you to think about dying.  I don‘t mean this in a morbid sense, but I invite you to reflect on a most important  component of our spiritual journey.  God wants us to die before we die.  The dying we embrace during these days is the dying to our demons, our sinfulness, and our self-centeredness.   For us to share in the risen life of Jesus, we need to die to all that is in us that does not reflect the Gospel message of Jesus.  Plain and Simple, how do I live more fully in the service of others, how do I wash the feet of God’s poor?

In the midst of our grappling with this pandemic that has turned our life upside down, may we have the grace to die to our fears and anxiety so that we can live trusting in Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our life.

St Paul in the second Scripture reading reveals who Jesus is: “Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality to God something to be grasped, rather he emptied himself taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself.”

Who are we as the disciples of Jesus?  Our God wants us to embody the humble actions of Jesus:  The God who emptied himself, the God who humbled himself, the God who sat on a donkey.

Traditionally during Holy Week, we focus on the sufferings of Jesus.  But it is not suffering, not even the sufferings of Jesus, that makes this week holy.  Rather it is holy because of love -- the reconciling love of God who has come to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ.  For me, where I stand, God’s love is the only thing that stands between utter chaos and an attempt to stand whole and complete in the middle of this pandemic crisis.  God’s love is the only thing that makes sense out of suffering, conflict and tragedy. God’s love does not do away with suffering; the very fact of the cross should teach us that.  God’s love makes it possible to deal with suffering, to remember it, to share in it, and, yes, even to celebrate it.  God’s love is the essence of the story of salvation.

In the passion account, Jesus looks like a victim.  He is not triumphant as we understand triumph.  Instead he appears to be a failure.  Judging by one set of standards, Jesus has not met our expectations.  But according to another standard – the standard of unconditional love –he has far surpassed our expectations.   At once regal and lowly, he brought healing and holiness to others through his own pain and brokenness.  He would claim victory by being defeated; he would establish his reign by serving and by dying.  His crown would be a weave of thorns.

As we gather in prayer on this day, may we be very conscious that Palm Sunday is not about ancient history.  It is about NOW.  As we reflect upon the Passion account, we see the first apostles, despite their closeness to Jesus, do not stand by Him in His suffering. 

They wrestled with the truth that Jesus refuses to save the world by what we recognize as power.  He still does not use divine power to wipe out disease, poverty, crime, oppression, injustice or error. 

Yes, our life has been turned upside down by Covid-19 but as the disciples of Jesus the mission given to us by Jesus Himself has not changed.  We still need to be faithful to this mission and so we ask:  Will we the followers of Jesus be still willing to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile and forgive seventy times seven times?  Will we the followers of Jesus evoke from our contemporaries a comment like that was paid to our ancestors in faith: “See how they love one another.”  Will our parish community be a beacon of God’s merciful love in the community of Penfield and Webster?

On the first Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with palm branches being spread on the road. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil: “Who is this?” people asked.  In Jesus, God is the one who identifies with and enters into the experience of the people He loves.  Today God is sending a message through Jesus in this Palm Sunday celebration that states that Jesus once again accompanies us in these days of the pandemic.  God wishes to be in solidarity with us.  All of life –even the confinement of our social distancing – is so precious that God wishes to be in solidarity with us.  God will embrace and transform our sufferings so that we may enter more fully into the risen life of Jesus.

Have a blessed and safe day.