Palm Sunday 2022 - The Messianic King who reigns from the Cross

 Many times throughout his ministry, Jesus refused public recognition for his miracles and holy works. For example, after healing the deaf man in Mark chapter 7, the Lord orders the onlookers not to tell anyone about the miracle, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it. Another example, after his first public exorcism in the synagogue of Capernaum, Mark tells us that the Lord “warned them sternly not to make it known.” And another example, in John’s Gospel, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the people wanted to crown him king right then and there, but he withdrew into solitude. 

Why did the Lord so often guard his Messianic identity and refuse public fanfare? Part of it had to do with the expectations of many of his fellow Jews. In those days, when you said the word Messiah, it conjured up the image of a political revolutionary who would overthrow Israel’s enemies through military force. Much of Israel was expecting a Messiah King to liberate the Jews from Roman domination. So the Lord distances himself from this political, earthly understanding of being Israel’s Messiah and refused efforts to make him King of Israel.

So how do we understand what happened on Palm Sunday? As we heard in our gospel at the beginning of mass today, the Lord allowed the people of Jerusalem to give him this kingly reception: waving palms, singing sacred hymns, laying down cloaks. Palms were the symbol of military victory. 

Well, there is certainly some irony to all of this. Most of these people thought that the triumphal entry marked the beginning of the end for Rome. They likely imagined that this Nazorean carpenter would soon be meeting with other revolutionaries, planning the violent overthrow of Israel’s oppressors, beginning perhaps with Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. But, the Lord enters the holy city in triumph, not to begin a military campaign, but to signal that the time had come for his campaign against sin and death

He is a king, but not the king they expected. He is the Messiah—the anointed one of God—but he has not come to carry out the violent overthrow of our political enemies, but to overthrow evil itself, by carrying our sins with him as he carried his cross, and allowing our sins to be crucified with him in his Passion and death.

This is why we proclaim both the gospel of the triumphal entry and the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday. You cannot have one without the other. The waving of palms is a misguided gesture if you believe Christianity is about establishing an earthly kingdom through any means necessary or that Jesus came to usher in some earthly utopia or some supreme form of temporal government. No. He has not come for that. 

The Messiah goes to the cross for you and me and for all people of all places of all times to pay the price for our sins, to redeem our fallenness, without which there is no hope of heaven for anyone ever, no hope of reconciliation with God, no hope of eternal life. 

Again, He is a Messiah and He is a King, but it is not on Palm Sunday that his identity as messiah is most manifest, his identity as king is most glorious. To those with eyes of faith, his procession through the streets of Jerusalem, bloodied and beaten, weak and on the verge of expiring, with the burden of our sins and the sins of the world on his shoulders, is more beautiful, and more glorious, than the palm Sunday entrance five days prior.

We sing Hosanna to Him because what he does on Good Friday. Hosanna, offered to a king, not as an earthly platitude or lip service, but as divine worship, in gratitude for our salvation.

He goes to the cross to make the humble, total immolation of himself for our salvation. And this week, we at least owe it to Him, to keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Him. These are the High Holy Days of our Christian Faith. These are the days where we are to pray with the greatest intensity, fast with the greatest intensity, to show our love, to show our respect, to show our gratitude, to our King reigns not from some earthly throne, but from the cross, to our Messiah who defeats evil not through military means, but through self-emptying humble obedience to God. 

He gave all, he sacrificed all, he gave the best he had, for us.  May we do the same for Him this week, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

4th Week of Lent 2018 - Thursday - It's no secret

In the Gospel of Mark, we often read of Jesus guarding his identity. For example, when he asks the disciples that famous question, “who do you say that I am?” and Peter replies, “You are the Messiah”, Jesus warns the disciples not to tell anyone about him.

Again, after healing the leper, Jesus tells the leper, “tell no one who I am, but go and show yourself to the priest.”

Scholars call Jesus’ elusiveness about his divine identity in Mark’s Gospel, the Messianic Secret. Many, in Jesus’ times, were looking for the Messiah to be a political revolutionary, who would launch a military campaign against the enemies of Israel. So, likely Jesus was mysterious at times about his identity so not to feed into this earthly notion of Messiahship. He had a job to do—the Father’s Will—and these erroneous preconceptions about the Messiah mustn’t get in the way.

And perhaps, the mysteriousness of Jesus’ identity in Mark, could have brought some comfort to the Christians of Rome, for whom the Gospel was originally written. For they had to often be a bit secretive or mysterious about their Christian identity, lest they be arrested and sent to their death. But there is a point, in Mark, where the Messianic Secret is unveiled. During His Passion, Jesus is asked by the high priest, “are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus answers, “I Am.” His identity is further revealed, as the obedient Son of the Father, as he lays down his life on the cross.

Well, in John’s Gospel, the secret is unveiled from the beginning. As we read today, John portrays Jesus standing before large groups of Jews, saying things like, “my works testify to who I Am, why the Father sent me, His Son.” John’s Gospel is unambiguous about the identity of Jesus from the prologue: From the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word was God; Jesus is the Word made flesh, the source of life and truth for mankind; and only those who rightly believe in Him and his Truth and His Works can rightly be called “God’s children”.

And we read from John, especially in the latter part of Lent, because this is the time for unambiguous conviction, that Jesus has the power to cleanse us of our sins and transform our lives. Lent is the time that we are to show that we are God’s true children, by performing good works, fasting and prayer.
Our Lenten tests prepare us for Easter testimony. In a sense, we are to be the works of Jesus, testifying to his divine identity, to his power to transform lives, and his mission to bring forgiveness and eternal life to the repentant, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.