Happy Palm Sunday, a reflection by Mark Gates.
HAPPY PALM SUNDAY!! Our sharings today encompass the entire week of Holy Week. No matter how you feel when experiencing these readings, we all pretty much know the story. Today represents two totally opposite end of the spectrum, complete and distinct polar opposites.
We will experience excitement and euphoria as Jesus enters Jerusalem, today, Sunday! Then we’ll read about betrayal, a sham trial, and an unjust conviction. **Next will be brutal, inhuman torture, hatred and eventually, crucifixion. **Finally, and most importantly, we will enjoy Jesus Christ’s Resurrection… EASTER. Now, That’s, an emotional roller-coaster, and it’s all crammed into “Seven Days”!
Our very first, most wonderful “Processional Scripture” is Matt 21:1-11. Jesus is re-entering Jerusalem, but this time it’s triumphantly to shouts of “Hosanna” or “Messiah” and waving palm branches and a pathway of ceremoniously placed cloaks. Beginning outside the city gates and continuing into Jerusalem everyone is cheering and wanting to crown Jesus as KING.! 😊
At our celebration of the Word, we hear from Isaiah 50:4-7. As a reader/Lector at Sunday Mass, I especially zero in on the very first sentence, vs.4, “The Lord has given me a well-trained tongue that I may know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them!” **Personally, ever since I was 18 years old, I have believed that my voice was a gift from God. So much so, that I tried exhaustingly to break into the T.V. & radio biz or the voice on television commercials. No Dice! But also believing this as a Lector, I increasingly wanted to ‘LIVE’ this scripture, ‘speak to the weary’.
Then, in a humorous way, God showed me His sense of humor. I grew a beard and, as a butcher, I developed a broad, strong back. (Read this passage in full to see the humor). But, even still, “I have set my face like flint, knowing the Lord, I shall not be put to shame!!”
The ‘New Testament’ notes our beloved Paul instructing the Phillipians 2:6-11, regarding the Life and Purpose of our Lord Jesus the Christ. I don’t know if they’re still popular or not, but in the 1970s we used to use Cliff-Notes, in order to get a condensed version of a book we were supposed to read. Cliff-notes were the literary equivalent to speed walking or trying to put 7 pounds of sand in a 4 pound bag. 😊
Paul’s condensed version features Jesus in His former self, being God, reducing Himself into the smallest, lowest form of humanity, a baby. He also became a Jewish slave baby because Israel was still considered the ‘chosen people’. Obedient to His father, Jesus was born, so that He would Die! He died to wash our personal sins away.
These actions and this story would become so compelling and the fire so all consuming, that “Every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!!(vs11)”. Let us pray, both now and forever!
Our Gospel is taken from Matthew 26:14 – 27:66. Opening with Judas wheeling & dealing with the Pharisees to hand over Jesus (Tues. or Wed.), we peek in on the Last Supper & Jesus proclaiming that there IS a traitor in the house (Thurs.). And so, it begins, The Triduum.
The Last Supper contains: a feet washing, professions of loyalty, a traitor, prophecies of rejection and abandonment. Finally, we end the supper on a pleasant note. The Institution of Eucharist, Christ in our life today.
Arriving at The Garden of Gethsemane is next. Jesus is beginning to humanly feel that time is running out, and He needs to pray. No one knows why He brought Peter, James & John with Him, maybe for brotherly support or strength in numbers. **While Jesus is literally praying His heart out, His ‘dudes’ are snoozing. So much for support.
I believe that the Last Supper was emotionally, if not physically, exhausting for the Apostles. The Apostles are finally, deeply loving Jesus and His ministry… and now they’re going to lose Him. **Taking into account their travel schedule, having only a few days earlier ‘walked’ into Jerusalem from further on down the road. Five days ago, the Israelites wanted to crown Jesus King, now they’ll want Him dead.
Our story, this Passion narrative, goes downhill from here, up to and through the Good Friday crucifixion and placing in the tomb. May God help us all!
What possible joy can be pulled from such a bloody, brutal, senseless and seemingly UN-necessary tragedy of human life? The joy is… YOUR Faith, MY Faith, OUR Beliefs and our believing in an Almighty God, King of the Whole Universe, who finds the time to listen to each of us and to unconditionally love, each of us.! ***Happy Holy Week my brothers and sisters, from Mark “G” & Mrs. “G”.
