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Exploring the word

13 Apr 2014 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycle A

The Passion story is the longest passage of scripture you ever hear in church. It's nearly two chapters long. It includes a cast of characters too numerous to follow without a missalette. It also requires you to pay attention for a long time in a culture not much given to listening. So one way you can use this reading is as an annual examination of conscience, to pinpoint yourself on the road of discipleship. Which character in the story best represents your relationship to Jesus this year? Are you an unapologetic traitor like Judas, glad to take the money and run? Or are you more like Peter, who talks a good game but lies when the truth becomes too expensive to own? Are you a violent character like Barabbas, whose reign of horror is redeemed at the price of innocent suffering? Are you a powerbroker like Pilate, making pragmatic decrees rather than seeking the troublesome truth? Do you sleep through the hour of crisis, when vigilant prayer is called for? Are you a high priest of moral judgment, quick to identify blasphemy when a prophet may be speaking among you? Do you prefer to turn aside as the innocent perish when to represent him or her requires too much of you? Are you presently mourning your denials and betrayals of loved ones, wishing you'd shown more courage? Will you dare to renew your loyalty to Christ and trust his forgiveness—or will you give yourself over to self-recrimination and despair? Do you draw down blood-guilt on generations to come because you are unwilling to act for justice today? Do you feel like a surprised bystander dragged into the realm of suffering like Simon of Cyrene, forced to bear a burden you didn't seek? Are you here again this year to watch Jesus die on the cross, maybe to blame him for being there to begin with? Do you feel like a crucified victim yourself, bleeding and dying from a thousand blows delivered by a cruel and uncaring world? Are you the walking dead this year, amazed to have been called from your tombs and given a second chance by the Lord of life? Are you centurion types, agnostic about the whole Jesus-event until an earthquake in your life shakes you into recognition of its importance? Have you been among the faithful ones all along, watching over their crucified Lord from a distance, waiting for the chance to minister to him in death as in life? Are you like the rich man from Arimathea, who got involved at the end and finally found a risk he was willing to take? Wherever you find yourself, whoever you are this Holy Week, it does not have to be the defining moment of your discipleship. Easter gives you a second chance to become the child of God you long to be. Related scripture links The parables of the “friends”: Matt. 20:13 and 22:12 Cursed be the one who hangs on a tree: Deut. 21:23; see also Gal. 3:13 Matthew’s unique Last Supper formula: Matt. 26:27-28 The dishonored priesthood: Lev. 21:18 Catechism links Matthew’s Passion: CCC 545; 571-573; 586; 591; 595-618; 1339; 1365; 1846-1848; 2732-2733; 2839; 2849

Authors Alice Camille

Holy Week

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Exploring the word

01 Apr 2012 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycle B

THE GOSPELS ARE not biographies of Jesus. That is most clear during Holy Week, when scripture recounts the Passion in all its brutal details. Nearly one-fourth of the synoptic gospels are devoted to the Passion; when it comes to John, make that one-third. Obviously the gospel writers were not as invested in the life of Jesus so much as they were dedicated to portraying and interpreting his death. It is in this final week, we understand, that the identity of Jesus is fully expressed. Miracles from his active ministry are often dismissed in a paragraph or two. In the Gospel of Mark particularly, teachings are brushed past in a sentence: “And Jesus taught them many things.” You’ll look in vain for his Sermon on the Mount. Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus had to say because for Mark, Jesus the Teacher is more important for future disciples to grasp than any one lesson plan. Heaps of miracles and years of instruction had meaning for the individuals involved but not for us. All we need to know is Jesus the Healer, Jesus the Teacher—until we reach his final identity, Jesus the Obedient One. It’s no accident that the Passion narrative sounds almost pre-scripted. Jesus talks his way through it like a man in a dream he’s had before. He describes actions already set in motion: You’ll find a colt tied to a fence; you’ll meet a man carrying water. One of you will betray me. All of you will have your faith shaken. Peter will deny me. See, my betrayer is at hand. Everything that happens fulfills the prophecies of scripture. There’s no point in speaking at his trial, to Caiaphas or Pilate; Jesus already bears the weight of his cross, so words seem wasted. Although the Holy Week narratives sound premeditated, that’s not the same as saying that free will was revoked for one long dark week of history. People still make choices: the woman with the alabaster jar, the sleepy disciples in the garden, the young man who runs off naked—even Judas, who leaves the greatest supper ever served to sell out his host. Could Caiaphas have had a softening of the heart? Might Pilate have thrown out the case? Did the soldiers have a chance to let their prisoner escape? Was the Crucifixion in some cosmic sense inevitable? As we consider each critical character in this Passion play, we mustn’t lose sight of Barabbas. It’s become a Holy Week practice to wonder what each of us might have done differently, given the chance. Am I Peter, am I Judas, am I the anonymous one who runs away? At bottom, though, we’re all really Barabbas: the sinner for whom the Just One’s life was traded away. Related scripture links Destroying the Temple: Mark 13:2; 15:29; Matt. 24:2; 26:61; 27:40; Luke 21:6; John 2:19-21; Acts 6:14 What Christ emptied and regained: Col. 1:15-20 Servant model of surrender: Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12 The story of Incarnation: John 1:14; 2 Cor. 8:9 Catechism links The Passion of Jesus: CCC 571-618

Authors Alice Camille

Passion Palm Sunday gospels synoptic gospels Holy Week

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Homily stories

13 Apr 2014 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycle A

WHAT’S YOUR favorite travel destination? Wherever it may be, sometimes the journey there can become the most memorable part of the trip, no matter how often you’ve gone. When my brother lived in Virginia I enjoyed my visits there. One 4th of July I watched fireworks as I flew over towns and cities below. I once drove 13 hours straight and rang his doorbell at 6 p.m., not a minute past the arrival time I gave him. Often I took side-trips through Pennsylvania or Maryland. I went to celebrate his retirement. I traveled there to help him prepare for surgery he was given only a small chance of surviving. Ten years later I was there for what would be a last visit, only a week later returning to bring his ashes home. I miss him and the trips there. Palm Sunday hosannas begin the journey through Holy Week to Easter. Maybe you’ve traveled it often before, maybe not. This year it could be for you a memorable journey from the mysteries of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday to the alleluias of Easter.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

Holy Week

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Exploring the word

20 Mar 2016 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycle C

"Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace to people of good will." This beautiful chant comes from Luke’s Christmas story, in words placed on the lips of angels. The next time we hear shouts of glory in the highest and tidings of peace is at the start of Luke’s Passion narrative, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem. Here it’s the city’s citizens who chant about glory and peace, as they cast down cloaks and palm branches. But on this occasion, the week’s events won’t seem to lead in the direction of glory or peace at all. Humiliation and violence have their dark hour, all too quickly. If Holy Week had ended on Good Friday, we might call it Unholy Week. It would describe only too closely the path of Isaiah’s faithful servant, who comes to rouse hearts yet endures a brutal reception as his words fall on deaf ears. Passages from prophecy and psalms like bitter number 22 warn us down through the centuries that being just and innocent in no way guarantees success. We like to think of religion as spiritual life insurance. If we walk the moral line, God will protect us from harm, keep our children safe, fend off disease, spare us evil times. But scripture reminds us repeatedly that it doesn’t work that way. The most obedient man who ever lived was arrested, humiliated, tortured, and killed by a means that should make the delicate person look away. If we learn anything from Passion Week, it’s that being good is no inoculation against suffering. But this isn’t the takeaway lesson of Holy Week. Through it all, we catch glimpses of the merciful Father in whom Jesus put the steeliest kind of trust. We see this mercy in the meal Jesus transforms from a simple supper to an everlasting promise of life. We hear the tinkling bell of hope in the assurance Jesus gives Peter that despite an initial failure to respond with courage, he’ll find the grace to be strong in time. Jesus restores the ear of his enemy’s servant damaged during his arrest—as if he didn’t have more pressing concerns to worry about. Though Jesus shows such attention to a servant, he ignores the powerful people who stand before him that day: the governor from Rome and the king of Judea, either of whom could have spared him. Jesus consoles the mourning women, intercedes for the forgiveness of his executioners, and welcomes a repentant criminal into Paradise. The Way of the Cross, we come to recognize, is not primarily an avenue of suffering but the path of God’s mercy. It is the safest journey any of us in history can take. Related scripture links Leading by serving: Matt. 9:35-38; 10:5-10, 24-31; 23:1-12; John 13:1-20 Greatest is the least: Matt. 18:1-5; 20:20-28; Mark 9:33-37; 10:35-45 Peter’s objection: Matt. 16:21-23

Authors Alice Camille

Holy Week Mercy Passion

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Who's listening?

10 Apr 2011 - Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Do you believe this?" Jesus asks Martha. Do you believe that faith in Jesus will give you eternal life? In the midst of Lazarus' death, Jesus speaks this truth to the bereaved sisters Mary and Martha. In the midst of the Lenten season, Christ says these same words to us. Everyone carries with them losses of various kinds. Holy Week and Easter, nearly here, celebrate the passion and resurrection of Jesus made real in the Eucharist. As Paul reminds us over and over, without faith in the resurrection of Christ, faith makes no sense. The Christian writer C. S. Lewis said a similar thing: "The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the resurrection." Every Sunday and every Mass reminds us how the resurrection, and the stories of Jesus' life we see through the lens of his resurrection, is the starting point of Christian faith. Do you believe this?

Eternal life Holy Week c.s. lewis Eucharist

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