April 13, 2014
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
“The crowds preceding him and
those following kept crying out and saying: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed
is the he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.’”
“They all said, ‘Let him be
crucified!’ But he said, ‘Why? What evil has he done?’ They only shouted the
louder, ‘Let him be crucified!’”
Sisters and brothers today we celebrate Palm
Sunday of the Lord’s Passion in which our Lord made His triumphant entrance
into Jerusalem and was eventually led to Golgotha. When Jesus entered Jerusalem
the people shouted “hosanna” which if translated literally is taken from the
psalms and means “save us, we pray”.
However on the occasion of the Messiah’s entrance into the Holy City it
was more of an acclamation of joy rather than the literal meaning. The people rejoiced that Jesus the Christ had
arrived to save His people! But how quickly their hearts changed! For it would be shortly after His entrance
into the Holy City that the people would turn on the Savior; not very long
after His glorious entrance would the people shout “Let him be crucified!” Sisters and brothers do we not do the same
thing? One of the criticisms of
Catholics by others is that we mock the Sacrament of Confession thinking we can
do whatever we want and act however we please as long as we go to Confession on
Saturday. Meaning, the running mockery
of our faith by others is that Catholics go out on Friday night carousing and
fornicating, go to Confession on Saturday, and receive Communion on Sunday and
then repeat the whole process the next weekend.
It is as if we are saying to our Lord; “Yes, I believe in you and trust
in you on Saturday and Sunday but on Friday I am going to turn my back on you
and do my own thing!” Is this not what
the people of Jerusalem did? Sisters and
brothers when we enter into the confessional we are opening our hearts
completely to our Lord’s healing touch.
A divine healing that has the power to transform our lives only if we
let it! We should not think that we can keep committing the same sins over and
over again and just go to confession to “wipe the slate clean” without truly putting
in the effort to change our life. When
we leave the confessional we are tasked with striving to never commit the same sin/error
again. Please do not misunderstand me,
more than likely there are certain temptations that each of us will struggle
with throughout our whole life, but the point is that we must never stop
putting in the effort to turn away from sin.
Beloved, as we enter Holy Week let our hearts, minds, and souls prepare
the way for our Lord, let us truly strive for conversion; and may every knee
bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!
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