Sunday, April 29, 2012
IV Sunday, Easter, Year B
Good Shepherd Sunday, Vocations
Brenham, TX
Act 4:8-12
Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28
1 Jn3:1-2
Jn 10:11-18
My brothers and sisters of Brenham: As our academic year is finishing this week, I am sad to say that this is my last weekend here in Brenham. I am incredibly grateful for all the love and hospitality that you have shown me in these past few months. It has gone by incredibly fast and I wish I could stay longer. When I first came here, I desired to have my assignment here for more utilitarian reasons: to improve my Chinese and to eat ice cream. However, as I have been coming here about twice a month, my desires changed: I started to get to know you, to work with you and to serve you. My seminary studies in Houston keeps me fairly busy during the week and one would think it a burden to drive out here twice a month. By the time I have to head back to seminary, I don’t feel exhausted or even tired, but rejuvenated, reinvigorated, energized. Every time I have come, it has been a great pleasure to serve you and to worship with you and you have shown me tremendous love and hospitality. Believe it or not, I have learned much from you and I stand here today as a product of your generosity and care.
Like Peter in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, I stand before you today to testify that all the good that you see in me and the good that I have done is because of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone rejected by the builders that has become the cornerstone and that there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.
We have all known rejection. We have all known how it feels to be discarded or used by either those around us or our friends and family, by the ones we love. Jesus knows that feeling all too well. He was rejected, persecuted, accused, tortured, and finally crucified. We do not have a God that does not know what it means to go through the trials and tribulations of life. And now, the tables have turned. Through the Resurrection in this Easter time, we exclaim His praises and glory in His triumph over sin and death. He has radically changed the face of this world and all creation looks to Him now. He is now the cornerstone, the most important piece, the solid rock, upon which to build our lives. As the psalm today says, It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man,… better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. We, sometimes through own sinfulness or fault, deserve punishment and unfortunate consequences. However, sometimes the greatest tragedies are the most difficult to pin fault. Yet again and always we turn to Him to lift us up out of the dregs of sorrow and suffering.
For myself, I have had a good life and been provided for; it has been comfortable and I can’t really complain. Compared to other people, I had no dramatic conversion, no spectacular miracles for God to scoop me up out of iniquity. I was actually pretty behaved in college. But my non-Christian friends were surprised that I called myself a Catholic Christian because they did not see Christ dwelling in me. But I did everything I was told to do in college. I went to Mass every Sunday and all days of obligation, I prayed when I was in trouble, and I did the bare minimum. By the world’s standards, I was a fine upstanding young man.
That was not enough. I still felt far away from God. But it was not He that moved, but I was the one who was falling away by not trying to get closer to Him. When I realized this, I rededicated my life – not trying to do the bare minimum, but to fall in love with Him each and every day of my life. If the Christian faith that I professed truly meant something and were not just words that I said each Sunday, that meant I would really have to live it out and change my life. It didn’t happen overnight, but over the course of months and years. He was patient with me and guided me along the way. I still made mistakes but as long as I kept trying to hear His voice I would never go astray for too long. Almost seven years ago, I felt a strong call to the priesthood. It’s not a story I can tell here because it would take too long. But let’s just say that it has radically changed my life for the better. Therefore, I stand before you today to witness to you that Jesus has done, will do, and will continue to do the same for you as He has for me.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd as we hear in the Gospel today. He is the Good Shepherd that lays His life down for His sheep. He guides His sheep caring for them and His flock listens to Him. He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. He cares for us as if we were His flesh and blood.
That is why I love the passage from First John today; See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. If God is the Father and Jesus is the Son, and if we are baptized into Christ, do we not also become the sons and daughters of God? Are we not also of the same flesh and blood when we eat His flesh and drink His blood in the Eucharist? That is called Communion: that oneness of Body is not just a warm fuzzy feeling, it’s a reality that is truly expressed as we read it today in the Holy Scriptures. WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN NOW and though we may not see everything now, it will be revealed to us in the end. We are God’s children, we are His sheep, we are His flock, and Jesus is the Good Shepherd that leads us to eternal life.
Our Lord also speaks of the hired man – who is not a true shepherd because He works for money. He has ulterior motives and does not seek the sheep for the sheep’s sake, but seeks his own life and has no concern for the sheep. This is why we have men and women who go out to evangelize with the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. These three vows show to the world that they, following the example of the Good Shepherd, serve the people given to their care with true motivations and honest intentions. In the priestly vocation, men offer their obedience to their bishop, live chaste celibate lives, and though they do not take a promise of poverty, live as simply as possible not seeking material wealth. This shows to the world that they are here for you, giving their life to serve you, to worship with you, to bring you closer to God, and if they must… one day die for you.
Today is known as Good Shepherd Sunday and is also known as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The Good Shepherd is an excellent analogy for us to realize the connection between the Good Shepherd that is Our Lord Jesus Christ and the bishops, priests, deacons, and religious men and women that serve us, our diocese, and the whole world. The passage of the Good Shepherd is about reminding us that God is in control; that God will provide for us; that He has even laid down His life for us. The Good Shepherd does not send a hired man but He sends bishops and priests in His Person, alter Christus, to shepherd His flock and keep them until He comes again. The Good Shepherd reminds me what I am called to do now as a deacon and in a month’s time as a priest: that I must serve you, the people of God, with my complete self, my whole being, and with my life if I have to --- that I must be the Good Shepherd out of His love that He shown to me and out of His love for you, leading you back to Him.
Please pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. We need them, we need Good Shepherds in our parishes and leading the faithful to God.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
I Wednesday Easter, Year II
Acts 3:1-10
Ps 105
Lk 24:13-35
Jesus is made known to them in the breaking of the bread. We know this story so well and we can easily take this to be a metaphor for the Eucharist. And we can spiritualize it and romanticize about how awesome it was that Jesus is revealed in the breaking of the Bread and that we can also finally Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist. But let us see how all of these events transpire, two things must happen before they recognize him:
The two disciples knew everything that had transpired in the past three days and they recounted it almost like reading a book aloud. They knew all the facts – even the most recent development: that the women had seen the empty tomb – and yet they could not recognize the Lord when he walked among them. This tells us that even if we know all the facts of the greatest story ever told, we still can lack the eyes of faith to see the Lord.
The Lord takes the scriptures and interprets them to these two men, showing them how the Old Testament, - from Moses onward and all of the prophecy is fulfilled – outlining the minutia and spelling it all out for them. It almost sounds like a little homily that Jesus is giving, fulfilling and synthesizing the scriptures.
And finally, they open their home and their hospitality to Him and they see the Lord in the Breaking of the Bread – the Eucharist. The disciples recount how their heats were burning as the Scriptures were opened. We need a Holy Heart Burn. In the Mass we have the Liturgy of Word and Eucharist. Both are needed. But even more importantly for us as future homilists, we must preach to give people a Holy Heart Burn so that when you consecrate the bread and wine, Jesus may be revealed and the people may see Him with eyes of faith. In this Holy Octave, may we avail ourselves and rekindle the burning in our hearts to know the risen Lord even more closely in the most Holy Eucharist.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Holy Thursday (2012)
Ex 12:1-8, 11-14
Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc,17-18
1 Cor 11:23-26
Jn 13:1-15
Three years Jesus and His disciples have been traveling together. They have journeyed through the good times and the bad. They have been through stormy seas and green hillsides. They have been chased out of towns and they have been surrounded by followers. It has come to Jesus’ final hours on this earth. And we, who have journeying with him in these 40 days of Lent, have come to this Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday – this incredible night when the Church was born.
Isn’t it interesting that the less time we have on earth, the more we try to live on forever? The threat of something or someone going away only makes you want it more; because once it is gone it is gone forever. If you had only a few hours left with your closest friends and loved ones, what would you say or do? Of course we would want to try to do something that would be remembered forever. Usually people remember famous last words, not famous first words. People’s last words are usually a summation of their entire life, all that defines them: in a pithy little sentence or phrase – their finitude stretching to infinity.
The very foundation of our faith, the focal point of our Christian life is centered on what Christ did this very night. Tonight is indeed different from any other night: it is a night in history that lives on for eternity. Tonight we celebrate now what had happened 2000 years ago, what continues to happen and what will continue to happen for all time. When Jesus celebrated his last meal with his closest friends, he brought about three things that have radically transformed the world: the priesthood, the Eucharist, and the new Commandment. In these three things, Jesus was and is able to capture all of salvation history – fulfill the Old Testament – and to concretize it to what is Christian worship today. Tonight Jesus brings his twelve disciples into a unique relationship with Himself. Jesus gives His very self to His disciples in the Holy Eucharist and thereby institutes a new priesthood in His example – simple ordinary men ordained into Jesus Christ’s Priesthood.
According to our Lord’s instruction, the Eucharist and the Priesthood are to be tied intimately together – one cannot be without the other. When Christ said, Do this in memory of me, He instituted the priesthood and the Holy Eucharist. With the priesthood, the Eucharist has been celebrated constantly for 2,000 years. This seemingly simple meal that Jesus shared with His closest confreres represented the unbloody sacrifice that Jesus was about to perform for the whole entire world, His bloody sacrifice and do more than all the bloody sacrifices would have ever done. He would make satisfaction to intercede for fallen humanity and for us to remember His sacrifice with the daily offering of an unbloody one. What we partake tonight is His Body, His Blood. Through the actions of a priest who has been ordained by a bishop who received his ordination from another bishop, and his from another, and so on – all the way back to the first apostles to Jesus Christ Himself to this very night where we remember the Last Supper of Our Lord. Brothers and Sisters, the Holy Mass is not a show that is performed and we are simply observers watching. Tonight, of all nights, and the days following take us back 2,000 years to a small upper room in Jerusalem. Don’t just imagine it or picture yourself there, you are REALLY there as He says, Take this and eat of it. Take this and drink of it.
In the same way, it takes Jesus Christ Himself to say those words to make the ordinary substances of bread and wine to become His flesh and blood. No ordinary man can do this and that is why it is an ordained priest that has the power to do so. The power does not come from Himself, but from Jesus Christ. The priest is truly Jesus Christ in the celebration of Mass. He is at one time merely a human collaborator and also the God made Man in the person of Jesus Christ. His position is at the same time humble and exalted above all creation. The priest is at the time a sinner needing forgiveness and one to absolve and forgive others’ sins. The priest is to be holy beyond reproach and yet understands that he can do nothing without the help of God. When a priest celebrates the Mass he assumes an incredible position between God and man through Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The role of the priest is a servant and intercessor for all his faithful both here on earth and those that have gone before us. St. John Vianney writes this about a priest during the celebration of the Eucharist:
Traditionally, tonight is called Maundy Thursday. The Maundy is an English corruption of the Latin word Mandatum, which means “commandment” and is from tonight’s Gospel: I give you a new commandment to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do... Love one another. It is interesting that you would think tonight is mainly focused on the celebration of the Lord’s Supper; of course made so famous by Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting. And yet it is traditionally called Maundy -- again meaning Commandment -- Thursday.
You must realize that up to the time of Jesus and there has always been an intimate tie between the Jewish people and the Law or the 10 Commandments. The commandments, the Law of Moses was essential to Jewish living and based on how you lived those commandments gauged your relationship with God and how good of a person you were. Now Jesus takes the Old and renews it, giving us a new commandment: Love One Another – the call to Christian charity, which can be most easily seen in the washing of the feet tonight.
But what about the priesthood and the Eucharist? Why is it nicknamed Maundy Thursday as opposed to saying priesthood or Eucharist Thursday? Aren’t those the most important things? Let us not forget our Lord’s words: Greater love has no man than this, that to lay down one’s life for his friends. In all His acts that would stretch on to eternity, it is Love that underpins and is the foundation of all things that Christ has done. Christ became man out of love for us. Christ healed us, preached to us, shares Himself with us out of love for us, and finally He died out of love for us.
But there is more… we look at the washing of the feet. The priest follows the new commandment to wash the feet of his disciples, does this humbly and with great care. He recalls how Jesus lovingly washed the feet of those he loved and so the priest will do imitate this act to the members of those he has been called to pastor. The dirtiest and most humbling act of washing somebody’s feet, reserved for slaves and servants is done by the Master Jesus Christ. If Jesus, whose hands were pierced by nails with blood flowing out washed the feet of His followers, surely a priest of Jesus must do the same. The sacred hands of the priest are anointed with Sacred Chrism at his ordination. They are holy hands anointed to hold and consecrate the precious body and blood of Jesus Christ. In the washing of the feet, those same hands will also make holy the act of charity and service. Fr. Ivey, who is in the person of Christ, ordained to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, will through the washing of the feet show the intimate connection of Christ’s sacrificial love in the Eucharist and Charity.
The Eucharist is food, spiritual food and we are spiritually fed. However, it is not just for ourselves but to bring others to Christ and Christ to others, which is physically manifested through our love and charity to one another. What good is it to just receive Christ by our mouths and not carry out the work of charity in our hands? Christ gives us the model and if we do not follow it, we are a bunch of freeloaders – selfishly hoarding all of God’s gifts to ourselves.
The Eucharist is our sacramental connection with Christ and the Commandment to love one another demonstrated in the washing of the feet is our bodily connection with Christ. Tonight we not only see a priest do what Christ commanded his disciples to do at the Last Supper and thereby instituting the Eucharist. We also see how the priest – in the person of Christ – washes the feet of his disciples to show how we are to love one another. Both the Eucharist and the virtue of Charity are intimately connected to why Christ came: because God is love, His love is the gift of Himself completely, totally. He gives Himself physically and spiritually and this is asked of us to do this until the end of time. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc,17-18
1 Cor 11:23-26
Jn 13:1-15
Three years Jesus and His disciples have been traveling together. They have journeyed through the good times and the bad. They have been through stormy seas and green hillsides. They have been chased out of towns and they have been surrounded by followers. It has come to Jesus’ final hours on this earth. And we, who have journeying with him in these 40 days of Lent, have come to this Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday – this incredible night when the Church was born.
Isn’t it interesting that the less time we have on earth, the more we try to live on forever? The threat of something or someone going away only makes you want it more; because once it is gone it is gone forever. If you had only a few hours left with your closest friends and loved ones, what would you say or do? Of course we would want to try to do something that would be remembered forever. Usually people remember famous last words, not famous first words. People’s last words are usually a summation of their entire life, all that defines them: in a pithy little sentence or phrase – their finitude stretching to infinity.
The very foundation of our faith, the focal point of our Christian life is centered on what Christ did this very night. Tonight is indeed different from any other night: it is a night in history that lives on for eternity. Tonight we celebrate now what had happened 2000 years ago, what continues to happen and what will continue to happen for all time. When Jesus celebrated his last meal with his closest friends, he brought about three things that have radically transformed the world: the priesthood, the Eucharist, and the new Commandment. In these three things, Jesus was and is able to capture all of salvation history – fulfill the Old Testament – and to concretize it to what is Christian worship today. Tonight Jesus brings his twelve disciples into a unique relationship with Himself. Jesus gives His very self to His disciples in the Holy Eucharist and thereby institutes a new priesthood in His example – simple ordinary men ordained into Jesus Christ’s Priesthood.
According to our Lord’s instruction, the Eucharist and the Priesthood are to be tied intimately together – one cannot be without the other. When Christ said, Do this in memory of me, He instituted the priesthood and the Holy Eucharist. With the priesthood, the Eucharist has been celebrated constantly for 2,000 years. This seemingly simple meal that Jesus shared with His closest confreres represented the unbloody sacrifice that Jesus was about to perform for the whole entire world, His bloody sacrifice and do more than all the bloody sacrifices would have ever done. He would make satisfaction to intercede for fallen humanity and for us to remember His sacrifice with the daily offering of an unbloody one. What we partake tonight is His Body, His Blood. Through the actions of a priest who has been ordained by a bishop who received his ordination from another bishop, and his from another, and so on – all the way back to the first apostles to Jesus Christ Himself to this very night where we remember the Last Supper of Our Lord. Brothers and Sisters, the Holy Mass is not a show that is performed and we are simply observers watching. Tonight, of all nights, and the days following take us back 2,000 years to a small upper room in Jerusalem. Don’t just imagine it or picture yourself there, you are REALLY there as He says, Take this and eat of it. Take this and drink of it.
In the same way, it takes Jesus Christ Himself to say those words to make the ordinary substances of bread and wine to become His flesh and blood. No ordinary man can do this and that is why it is an ordained priest that has the power to do so. The power does not come from Himself, but from Jesus Christ. The priest is truly Jesus Christ in the celebration of Mass. He is at one time merely a human collaborator and also the God made Man in the person of Jesus Christ. His position is at the same time humble and exalted above all creation. The priest is at the time a sinner needing forgiveness and one to absolve and forgive others’ sins. The priest is to be holy beyond reproach and yet understands that he can do nothing without the help of God. When a priest celebrates the Mass he assumes an incredible position between God and man through Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The role of the priest is a servant and intercessor for all his faithful both here on earth and those that have gone before us. St. John Vianney writes this about a priest during the celebration of the Eucharist:
O Holy and Eternal Father, let us make an exchange. Thou hast the soul of my friend who is in Purgatory, and I have the Body of Thy Son, Who is in my hands; well, do Thou deliver my friend, and I offer Thee Thy Son, with all the merits of His Death and Passion.The priesthood and the Eucharist cannot be separated. Christ intended that these two sacraments be this way and we carry on this tradition handing it on to new generations. No priest, No Eucharist. No Eucharist, No priest. And tonight we remember the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist.
Traditionally, tonight is called Maundy Thursday. The Maundy is an English corruption of the Latin word Mandatum, which means “commandment” and is from tonight’s Gospel: I give you a new commandment to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do... Love one another. It is interesting that you would think tonight is mainly focused on the celebration of the Lord’s Supper; of course made so famous by Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting. And yet it is traditionally called Maundy -- again meaning Commandment -- Thursday.
You must realize that up to the time of Jesus and there has always been an intimate tie between the Jewish people and the Law or the 10 Commandments. The commandments, the Law of Moses was essential to Jewish living and based on how you lived those commandments gauged your relationship with God and how good of a person you were. Now Jesus takes the Old and renews it, giving us a new commandment: Love One Another – the call to Christian charity, which can be most easily seen in the washing of the feet tonight.
But what about the priesthood and the Eucharist? Why is it nicknamed Maundy Thursday as opposed to saying priesthood or Eucharist Thursday? Aren’t those the most important things? Let us not forget our Lord’s words: Greater love has no man than this, that to lay down one’s life for his friends. In all His acts that would stretch on to eternity, it is Love that underpins and is the foundation of all things that Christ has done. Christ became man out of love for us. Christ healed us, preached to us, shares Himself with us out of love for us, and finally He died out of love for us.
But there is more… we look at the washing of the feet. The priest follows the new commandment to wash the feet of his disciples, does this humbly and with great care. He recalls how Jesus lovingly washed the feet of those he loved and so the priest will do imitate this act to the members of those he has been called to pastor. The dirtiest and most humbling act of washing somebody’s feet, reserved for slaves and servants is done by the Master Jesus Christ. If Jesus, whose hands were pierced by nails with blood flowing out washed the feet of His followers, surely a priest of Jesus must do the same. The sacred hands of the priest are anointed with Sacred Chrism at his ordination. They are holy hands anointed to hold and consecrate the precious body and blood of Jesus Christ. In the washing of the feet, those same hands will also make holy the act of charity and service. Fr. Ivey, who is in the person of Christ, ordained to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, will through the washing of the feet show the intimate connection of Christ’s sacrificial love in the Eucharist and Charity.
The Eucharist is food, spiritual food and we are spiritually fed. However, it is not just for ourselves but to bring others to Christ and Christ to others, which is physically manifested through our love and charity to one another. What good is it to just receive Christ by our mouths and not carry out the work of charity in our hands? Christ gives us the model and if we do not follow it, we are a bunch of freeloaders – selfishly hoarding all of God’s gifts to ourselves.
The Eucharist is our sacramental connection with Christ and the Commandment to love one another demonstrated in the washing of the feet is our bodily connection with Christ. Tonight we not only see a priest do what Christ commanded his disciples to do at the Last Supper and thereby instituting the Eucharist. We also see how the priest – in the person of Christ – washes the feet of his disciples to show how we are to love one another. Both the Eucharist and the virtue of Charity are intimately connected to why Christ came: because God is love, His love is the gift of Himself completely, totally. He gives Himself physically and spiritually and this is asked of us to do this until the end of time. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Palm Sunday (2012)
Is 50:4-7
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Phil 2:6-11
Mk 14:1-15:47
What an incredible reading that we have today!! Do you get to goto the movies often? I don’t know about you, but when I go to see a movie I want to see the movie trailers. Today’s reading is a movie trailer for what we are about to experience later this week starting this coming Thursday. It’s called the Easter Triduum. Not only that, this whole is called “Holy Week” because well… this week is the holiest week of our Church calendar. We have “Spy” Wednesday… where Judas goes and makes a deal with the Pharisees. We have Maundy Thursday – the Lord’s Last Supper and his commandment for us to Love one another, we have Good Friday – you guys have to know what that day means otherwise we should go home. We have the Easter Vigil on Saturday and then Easter Sunday!! This week is incredibly holy. But today’s Gospel recounts the Passion of our Lord – from His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem to his death on Golgotha. There’s just so much to talk about, but I am going to have a few things I want to bring to your attention and have you think about.
The first thing is that Jesus is riding in on a colt, a small donkey. This is something that most people don’t know. But the fact that Jesus, who is considered to be the Messiah, the new King of Israel, is riding in on a donkey is completely opposite of what a king is supposed to ride. He’s supposed to ride a war horse, because he is the conquering king. The irony is, he is riding on a beast of burden, a lowly donkey, and people are still cheering for him!!! It would be like the president of the United States riding through Brenham on a go-kart. But yet people are cheering. Does anybody have a donkey at home? Is it easy to ride? I had a friend who I was with on a silent retreat for one week. We spent our time in prayer and usually minded our own business. But towards the middle of the retreat, I was laying down in the grass and heard this crazy sound coming from the pasture next door. It was my friend creeping up on him like a tiger in the grass trying to get close to it to pet it. My friend said it was hard to ride a donkey – it was definitely humiliating for him. And so that’s how I remember Jesus coming into Jerusalem: Christ comes into the world conquering it not by a chariot or warhorse or the sword, but through humility – riding humbly into town on a lowly animal – conquering the world in peace.
The second thing I want to talk about is this crowd in Jerusalem. People are people and they are fickle. The Gospel readings today, cover an entire week… from Sunday and then to Thursday and Friday. Not even one week’s time, they went from singing the Lord’s praises to saying, Crucify Him! Crucify Him!! How fast do we pass judgment on the people we know and the strangers we meet? How do we really know if this friend is a good friend or a bad friend? Do we even bother to find out the truth? Every time you condemn your friends, making fun of them, teasing them or talking behind their back – you are doing the same thing the crowd did to Jesus. See how many people betrayed Jesus in this story? Not only the crowd, but even two of His best friends Peter and Judas specifically, but it is said that all of the disciples deserted Jesus save for one. One guy even ran off naked (I always found that part of scripture strange, but it turns out this has theological significance which I won’t get into here…). In the same way, that there is a temptation to be one of the crowd condemning, don’t forget also that because you are a Catholic Christian the world will seek to condemn you too. There will be times in your life, perhaps even now, you will feel the world reject you like Jesus was rejected – today you are popular and loved and the next day you are last week’s leftovers. But Jesus went through it for us and knows that we can handle when we ask Him to help us.
Finally, I want you to notice how our situation has changed in reading the Gospel. Today is special because we’ve broken it up into parts. It makes sense that Father is always Jesus and the narrator and the speaker are usually a single individual. However, who is the crowd? Everyone. What does this mean? It means that the Gospel no longer is read or proclaimed to you, but you become part of the Gospel. No longer are you passive observers to the story, but you are now actually part of the story of welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem and also there to crucify him. I remember when I was younger back at my home parish and we were reading the passion much like we are today. When it came time for us to say, Crucify Him! a little boy jumped the gun and screamed it out at the top of his lungs. It took me by total surprise and total shock. Here was this boy screaming with such passion like he was out for blood! “Crucify Him Crucify Him!” It was like I was there 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. I was blown away. Every time before, I read the account of Jesus’ passion and death as an unemotional observer, it was just a recounting of the facts. But now, I realize that I am also right there condemning Jesus to a horrible and torturous death. I do this because I am a sinner. You are a sinner, we are all sinners and are all responsible for His death – we are just as guilty of condemning an innocent man to death as those people 2,000 years ago.
Fortunately, this incredible passion account is not over…. we have just experienced the trailer, the sneak preview. We still have the rest of the week to see and experience everything to its final and glorious conclusion. I want to invite you all to the Triduum starting this Thursday. It is a roller coaster of emotions for me and has so much deep symbolism and richness. This is so much more than a movie, it’s real life and it is written just for you and me. Jesus did what He did for each one of us as a gift of His love, the least we could do is to open this gift of love and see what he gave us. I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world and the world wouldn’t be the same if it missed it.
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Phil 2:6-11
Mk 14:1-15:47
"Chasing Donkeys, Fickle World, Self-Accusation"
(Youth Mass)
What an incredible reading that we have today!! Do you get to goto the movies often? I don’t know about you, but when I go to see a movie I want to see the movie trailers. Today’s reading is a movie trailer for what we are about to experience later this week starting this coming Thursday. It’s called the Easter Triduum. Not only that, this whole is called “Holy Week” because well… this week is the holiest week of our Church calendar. We have “Spy” Wednesday… where Judas goes and makes a deal with the Pharisees. We have Maundy Thursday – the Lord’s Last Supper and his commandment for us to Love one another, we have Good Friday – you guys have to know what that day means otherwise we should go home. We have the Easter Vigil on Saturday and then Easter Sunday!! This week is incredibly holy. But today’s Gospel recounts the Passion of our Lord – from His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem to his death on Golgotha. There’s just so much to talk about, but I am going to have a few things I want to bring to your attention and have you think about.
The first thing is that Jesus is riding in on a colt, a small donkey. This is something that most people don’t know. But the fact that Jesus, who is considered to be the Messiah, the new King of Israel, is riding in on a donkey is completely opposite of what a king is supposed to ride. He’s supposed to ride a war horse, because he is the conquering king. The irony is, he is riding on a beast of burden, a lowly donkey, and people are still cheering for him!!! It would be like the president of the United States riding through Brenham on a go-kart. But yet people are cheering. Does anybody have a donkey at home? Is it easy to ride? I had a friend who I was with on a silent retreat for one week. We spent our time in prayer and usually minded our own business. But towards the middle of the retreat, I was laying down in the grass and heard this crazy sound coming from the pasture next door. It was my friend creeping up on him like a tiger in the grass trying to get close to it to pet it. My friend said it was hard to ride a donkey – it was definitely humiliating for him. And so that’s how I remember Jesus coming into Jerusalem: Christ comes into the world conquering it not by a chariot or warhorse or the sword, but through humility – riding humbly into town on a lowly animal – conquering the world in peace.
The second thing I want to talk about is this crowd in Jerusalem. People are people and they are fickle. The Gospel readings today, cover an entire week… from Sunday and then to Thursday and Friday. Not even one week’s time, they went from singing the Lord’s praises to saying, Crucify Him! Crucify Him!! How fast do we pass judgment on the people we know and the strangers we meet? How do we really know if this friend is a good friend or a bad friend? Do we even bother to find out the truth? Every time you condemn your friends, making fun of them, teasing them or talking behind their back – you are doing the same thing the crowd did to Jesus. See how many people betrayed Jesus in this story? Not only the crowd, but even two of His best friends Peter and Judas specifically, but it is said that all of the disciples deserted Jesus save for one. One guy even ran off naked (I always found that part of scripture strange, but it turns out this has theological significance which I won’t get into here…). In the same way, that there is a temptation to be one of the crowd condemning, don’t forget also that because you are a Catholic Christian the world will seek to condemn you too. There will be times in your life, perhaps even now, you will feel the world reject you like Jesus was rejected – today you are popular and loved and the next day you are last week’s leftovers. But Jesus went through it for us and knows that we can handle when we ask Him to help us.
Finally, I want you to notice how our situation has changed in reading the Gospel. Today is special because we’ve broken it up into parts. It makes sense that Father is always Jesus and the narrator and the speaker are usually a single individual. However, who is the crowd? Everyone. What does this mean? It means that the Gospel no longer is read or proclaimed to you, but you become part of the Gospel. No longer are you passive observers to the story, but you are now actually part of the story of welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem and also there to crucify him. I remember when I was younger back at my home parish and we were reading the passion much like we are today. When it came time for us to say, Crucify Him! a little boy jumped the gun and screamed it out at the top of his lungs. It took me by total surprise and total shock. Here was this boy screaming with such passion like he was out for blood! “Crucify Him Crucify Him!” It was like I was there 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. I was blown away. Every time before, I read the account of Jesus’ passion and death as an unemotional observer, it was just a recounting of the facts. But now, I realize that I am also right there condemning Jesus to a horrible and torturous death. I do this because I am a sinner. You are a sinner, we are all sinners and are all responsible for His death – we are just as guilty of condemning an innocent man to death as those people 2,000 years ago.
Fortunately, this incredible passion account is not over…. we have just experienced the trailer, the sneak preview. We still have the rest of the week to see and experience everything to its final and glorious conclusion. I want to invite you all to the Triduum starting this Thursday. It is a roller coaster of emotions for me and has so much deep symbolism and richness. This is so much more than a movie, it’s real life and it is written just for you and me. Jesus did what He did for each one of us as a gift of His love, the least we could do is to open this gift of love and see what he gave us. I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world and the world wouldn’t be the same if it missed it.
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