PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD
29 MARCH 2015
Saint
Mark begins his Passion with a woman who “wastes” some very expensive perfume pouring
it over the head of Jesus. When others
criticize her action, Jesus defends her.
She is "wasting" the expensive perfume to anoint his body for
burial. Throughout his public ministry,
he has been "wasting" his life in loving service of others. Now, he will bring that "wasting"
to its conclusion by giving himself to the ultimate demon, which is death.
The Passion
invites us to evaluate how we "waste" our lives to imitate his
example. The Passion portrays people who
fail to "waste" themselves, choosing instead to hold on closely to
themselves. The Passion gives us some
choices. We can be like Judas, who sees the handwriting on the wall and holds
on to the thirty pieces of silver to protect himself. We can be like the young man who had
previously left everything to follow Christ.
Now, he leaves everything to run away from him. We can be like Peter, who holds on to his
fear and denies his relationship with Christ.
We can be like Pilate, who holds on to popularity instead of standing up
for the truth. Or we can be like the
religious leaders, who hold tightly to their positions, which are threatened by
the example of love and mercy given by Jesus.
But the
Passion also gives us some positive examples letting go and "wasting"
ourselves out of love. We can be like
the owner who opens his fists to the rope of the colt to allow Jesus to ride
into Jerusalem. We can be like the man who
opens his upper room for the Last Supper.
We can be like Simon of Cyrene, who opens his hands to help Jesus carry
his cross. Or we can be like the
centurion, who opens his eyes to see the truth for which Jesus was condemned to
die: that he is the Son of God who
enters death, so that we can face death ourselves.
Because the
Lord "wasted" his life, he was raised from the dead. We celebrate this central Mystery of our
faith when we enter into the Sacred Paschal Triduum on Thursday evening. Please join us for the major Liturgies. The Mass of the Lord’s Supper begins at 7:30
on Holy Thursday evening. The Celebration
of the Lord's Passion is at 1:00 on Good Friday afternoon. The Easter Vigil begins at 8:45 on Holy
Saturday evening. We celebrate the
Lord's Resurrection at all Masses on Easter Sunday. Times for the other liturgies are in the
bulletin and on our website. The church
will be open throughout the Triduum for watching and praying.
In
participating in the Triduum liturgies, we can recognize the ways in which we
have failed to "waste" ourselves out of love for Christ and others.. But we also gain new strength and hope as we
open our hearts and our fists to the central Mystery of our faith, which
promises that those who waste their lives will be given more than we can ever
imagine.
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