From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:45-46
April 17, 2011
Palm Sunday A
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
Piety
Piety is how we welcome Christ into our lives. Pious is a bad work for many because they are thinking of a pious Joe who says one thing and does another. Piety is the richness of one who lives Christ in all that they are. How we welcome Christ into our lives is seen by the actions of our lives. Piety is the lived experience of Christ alive in us in our world today. How much of our demeanor resounds with the joy of the Resurrection. We live a Christ who has risen and made the sufferings of our lives something we can rejoice about even as we reach beyond ourselves to the needs of another. Piety is our willingness to belong fully to Christ in the humanness of our lives. It holds back nothing of self in the willingness to welcome Christ into all that we are doing.
Study
It is easy to imagine the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. The joy of the people welcoming the Messiah into his city is what we look at becoming a part. People our waving their palms with song in their hearts. The joy of the coming of the king is not to be denied. When someone is trying to block the excitement of the people, Christ says if it were not so even the stones would cry out. How do I forget myself to join in with the joy of the people welcoming Christ? All the prayer, fasting and good works of Lent now find expression in the joy of our hearts when we realize Christ is coming for us. No preparation is too much if it allows us to welcome Christ with all our heart.
Action
The joy of our hearts for the coming of Christ finds expression in our plans for celebrating the Holy Week. The Sacred Triduum allows us to enter into the suffering of Christ in the special ways of our identifying ourselves with Christ. Each day of the Triduum has an expression in the liturgy of the Church that demands the expression of our hearts in what we are doing to pray the Holy Week. There is joy built into the realization that Christ would be dying for us even if we were the only sinners in the world. Action speaks louder than words. Going to as many of the events of the Triduum puts us before the Christ who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We capture the reality of his incredible love by being present to each even as witnesses of God’s love being expressed as the greatest act of love the world will ever see. All the ways we make this Triduum into a meaning of our love for God captures our willingness to be the presence of Christ to our world. Palm Sunday gives us the chance to flaunt our love for Christ. The reverence with which we listen to the accounting of the Passion gives us the official beginning of what we hope can be the joy of the rest of our lives as we allow the joy of the resurrection to permeate our lives in our part of the sufferings of Christ.
