Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 28, 2021: Truly this man was the Son of God!

Truly this man was the Son of God! 

Salvation is happening now – are you ready to participate? 

   On Palm Sunday, the palms we carry mark our participation in salvation, an ongoing event in which we have a role right now. And yet shortly after Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, hailed as King by the crowds proclaiming Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, he will soon stand alone, with sin and brokenness and fear all around him. He even has to stand before the high priest and say I AM, a statement identifying himself with God considered blasphemous in the minds of the religious and political leaders of Jerusalem. They have not seen God in their midst; they have closed themselves off from him. And so they all condemn him as deserving to die. 

   In Mark’s Passion narrative, many abandon Jesus. One young man flees, leaving behind his clothes – a linen cloth; how will he be able to enter anywhere, exposed as he is in his cowardice? Yet he fears being arrested because of his proximity to Jesus. Jesus’ disciples abandon him as well, out of fear, Peter first among them: I do not know this man about whom you are talking. Yet in all this chaos there is a place of calm in the person of Jesus, who does the will of the Father, that his love should be made known, revealed in its entirety, knowing no limits. The Lord God is my help, says the prophet Isaiah, speaking for the Suffering Servant. Jesus stands in the midst of their anger and all their persecutions because he loves them; having emptied himself, as Philippians tells us, he dies for those who crucify him as much as for anyone else. His is an act of mercy that transcends all differences. Mercy is always about the other, about reaching beyond ourselves. This is the model we are to follow. 

   Lent has called us to act out of charity and generosity, our hearts reaching out from ourselves with God’s love; this is how we follow Jesus through death to resurrection. Jesus held his enemies close as they tried to destroy him; our common heart must be Jesus’ heart; our common love must be Jesus’ love. Our common journey is our journey with him to death, every day, that we may rise from all hatred and all insult, and find life, and salvation, in one another, as he did. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s homily for Palm Sunday 2018.
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