Schooler's Sagacity and Senility: Homilies from Fr. Bill

PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

5 APRIL 2020

          In hearing today’s Gospel accounts from Saint Matthew, we are invited to put ourselves into the drama of the last week in the life of Jesus Christ.  We would like to think that we are among the crowd who hail Jesus riding into Jerusalem as Messiah and welcome him with joy.  At times we are.  But, sometimes we are like the disciples who flee in fear from danger and abandon him.  At other times, we are like Peter and deny that we know Jesus in the way we behave.  Or, like Judas, we can outright betray him to embrace whatever constitutes thirty pieces of silver today.  We can be like Pontius Pilate and make bad decisions, only to wash our hands to claim that we are not responsible.  Or, we can be like the religious leaders and condemn those who do not fit into our understanding of what makes a person holy.

            During this Holy Week, we enter into the Lord’s Passion in ways we could never have imagined.  Just as Christ Jesus emptied himself of the privileges of divinity and became obedient even unto death, we are emptying ourselves to share in his passion.  Doctors, nurses, health care workers, and first responders are emptying themselves of regard to their personal health to attend to the needs of those sickened by this pandemic.  All of us have emptied ourselves of our normal ways of life and are in isolation.  We empty ourselves of coming to Church to celebrate the Triduum, which begins on Thursday evening.  We even empty ourselves of the precious Sacramental life of the Church:  the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist and his mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

Instead of gathering in church, we gather in our homes, our domestic churches.  Even in isolation, we walk together in faith this week.  Please take time to read the Sacred Scriptures and participate in the liturgies of the Sacred Paschal Triduum through whatever devices are at your disposal.  In the Sacred Paschal Triduum, we celebrate the Mystery that is at the heart of everything we believe as Catholics – the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We walk with him, not as observers of a one-time historical event, but as participants of a Sacred Mystery that calls us to conversion and a deeper faith.

            Because Jesus emptied himself, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.  The Lord invites us to trust that in emptying ourselves, we may share in his exaltation.