Pastor's Message
The Passion of Jesus and the Reaction of the People
This Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday and hear the Passion of Christ. How our world has changed since we last celebrated Holy Week and Easter Sunday! I would never have imagined that we would be in the midst of a global pandemic and that our Church would be closed. We are experiencing the fear of getting sick, the anxiety of loneliness and the uncertainty of not knowing what lies ahead for us. We are certainly in the midst of a life-changing event.
In a similar way, in the first reading we hear that the followers of Jesus were on the brink of events that would change their lives, and that of the world, forever. As he proceeded into Jerusalem, Jesus was hailed as “the Son of David, who comes in the name of the Lord”. (Matt 21:9) But by the time we arrive at the passion narrative, there is great hostility in it and all of it directed toward Jesus. We read and we come to understand that it wasn’t just one person, one group of people or one nation who caused all this to unfold, even though some would love to lay blame. There were many chances and many opportunities for this all to have turned out differently, but because of the actions of many, it did not. In this set of events, that took place so long ago, there is the hostility of the chief priests, the Roman soldiers, those who passed by and those who jeered as Jesus first carried and then hung on the cross. Alongside the hostility of those who rejected Jesus, there’s the failure of those who had been closest to him. Of his disciples, all but John deserted him and fled. Judas betrayed him and Peter denied him publicly.
Yet, there were a few people who responded to Jesus in that dark hour faithfully and nobly. There was the anonymous woman who in an extravagant gesture of love and respect anointed the head of Jesus. Then there was the Roman centurion, who looked on as Jesus died and exclaimed, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ There was Mother Mary and of course John, present at Jesus’ last dying breath. There was Joseph of Arimathea, who took the bold step of going to see Pilate to ensure Jesus had a dignified burial. Finally, there was the women disciples who looked on from a distance, noted where Jesus was buried and went away to prepare spices to anoint his body at the earliest opportunity. All these people, both men and women saw Jesus with eyes of faith and love.
The passion of Christ invites us to identify with those who saw Jesus with the eyes of faith and love and who recognized the light of God in the darkness of Jesus’ passion and death. When we look upon the passion and death of Jesus with such eyes, we see a divine love that is stronger than sin, a divine light that shines in all our darkness’s, a divine power that brings new life out of all our deaths, a divine poverty that enriches us at the deepest level of our being. We have read the events of Jesus’ last journey told in the space of ten minutes. This Holy Week, the church invites us to travel that journey at a much slower pace, day by day as it were. We are invited to enter into that journey with the eyes of the anointing woman, the centurion, Joseph of Arimathea and the group of faithful women. We look beneath the surface of what is happening, we listen deeply to all that is taking place, so as to recognize the good Shepherd who on him lay the punishment that brings us healing, and through his wounds we are made whole, who laid down his life for us all, so that we might have life and have it to the full.
During this difficult time, I encourage all to read the scriptural passages for every one of the coming days. Read them, ponder them, create an atmosphere at home where you can have a small “Lectio Divina” and through mediation place yourself into the scene trying to identify yourself with one of the persons in it. Or if you are a family of two or more, sit at the table or comfortable on the sofa, read the Gospel of the day together taking turns out loud, two or more times and see what part of the passage strikes you, read it again and see what word strikes you and finally perhaps read it one more time and talk about what part of the passage calls you to conversion. These are little things we can do during this Palm Sunday and the coming Holy Week. Every day can be a special day by reading the scriptures for those days and trying to understand why the Catholic Church uses them and how they connect to you on your journey of faith. Of course, we can continue our Rosary, Station of the Cross, especially this coming Good Friday, and watch the celebration of the mass and praying our Act of Spiritual Communion by St Alphonsus de Liguori. There are so many things we can add to our daily lives as Christians, we just need to summon the strength and courage to do them.
God Bless you all folks, your always in my prayers.
Fr. Gerard Plant
P.S. Any requests for prayers or any other help that myself or the parish can provide can be sent to me at pastorstleonard@gmail.com