What a blessing to be entering my first Holy Week as a priest (and I'm already exhausted)! I'm looking forward to many blessings this week. May God bless you with a very "passionate week" as we focus on Christ's Passion and his Passover from death to life!
-------------------------------------------------
Homily: Palm Sunday – Cycle C
One of the primary things that we learn about Christ from these readings is that he is our self-emptying savior. You know, Christ did not come with a great military force to overthrow all of the powers of the world in order to save us from sin and death. Rather, it was his supreme humility that saved us. Though he was God, he came to be like us: and not just any one of us, but he came to be the one who would be the most despised among us; so much so that he even got to the point of despair that he had been completely abandoned by everyone, including God the Father.
Pope Francis, from what I’ve read about him so far, never let his “exalted” status as the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires keep him from meeting people wherever they were at. He eschewed the espiscopal residence in favor of a simple apartment and walked past the car and driver that awaited him to take public transportation. He remained known as “Fr. Jorge” the whole time, yet he never backed down from speaking frankly to political leaders who proposed laws that were contrary to the teachings of the Church. For this he was persecuted at times in the Argentinean media and was even accused of complicity in human rights violations during a military dictatorship there. In other words, though he was the Cardinal Archbishop, a prince of the Church, he nevertheless always chose to serve among his people, not above his people.
Another thing that we learn about Christ from these readings is that he is also our highly exalted savior. Again, Jesus did not win this great name for himself—the name at which every knee must bend—by putting down all of his enemies (which, by the way, he could have easily done since he was God). Rather, he allowed himself to be put down. In doing so, he showed us how we are to live: standing always for truth, in obedience to the Father who alone has the power to exalt us.
When the conclave started, Cardinal Bergoglio (as he was known at the time) wasn’t on anybody’s radar as being a contender for being elected. Everybody seemed to know that he had garnered the second highest number of votes in the conclave that elected our now retired pope, Benedict XVI, but no one thought that he had much of a chance of getting a large number of votes this time around. Yet, his brother cardinals recognized him in his “lowliness” and decided to “raise him up” to be exalted among them—that is, to give him a name above all of their names: that of “Bishop of Rome”. In other words, our new Holy Father didn’t go out and make a name for himself, rather he received it simply by being obedient to the service he had been given.
The final broad theme that we learn about Christ from today’s readings is that Christ is an example for us. From the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, to the New Testament testimony of Saint Paul, to our recounting of the Passion narrative from the Gospel of Luke, we see how Christ offered himself for us and for our salvation. Yet, it is precisely through these same Scriptures that Christ continues to offer himself to us as an example that we are to follow: calling us to empty ourselves for others just as he emptied himself for us.
From the moment that he first stepped out onto the Loggia, Pope Francis has also been offering himself to us as an example to follow. From eschewing the papal limousine to ride the bus back to the hotel with the other cardinals, to descending from the pope-mobile during the procession after his installation mass to greet (and tenderly kiss) a severely handicapped person, to committing to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass at a juvenal correctional facility, Pope Francis has been showing us that he takes his title as “servant of the servants of God” quite literally. Like Christ, our Holy Father promotes conversion not by demanding change in forceful speech or by coercion, but rather by providing a “lived example” for others to follow. I suspect that this “lived example” is going to challenge each and every of us (if it hasn’t done so already).
My brothers and sisters, we recall Christ’s Passion at the head of this the most holy of weeks of the year in order to remind us of his self-emptying and that his self-emptying calls us to our own self-emptying. Our new Holy Father, following this example, intends to empty himself by spending time with the poor this week so as to enter more intimately into Christ’s Passion. Each of us ought to meditate on Christ’s Passion this week and thus seek our own way to empty ourselves for others. Maybe we could be like the women from Galilee who stood by Christ in his suffering and make a visit to a nursing home or the hospital. Or perhaps we could feel the compunction of the Good Thief and do a little “spring cleaning” in our homes, sharing what we don’t need with those who go without through the Salvation Army, the Saint Vincent de Paul store, or the Emmaus Mission. Maybe we are like Simon of Cyrene and we see a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor who is carrying a heavy cross—perhaps the recent death of a loved one, a broken family, or the loss of a job—and we decide to take it up for them and with them.
Whatever it is, seek to enter into Christ’s Passion this week by opening your heart to be emptied for others, because when we empty ourselves for others like Christ did, we open ourselves to be exalted as he was. More than that, however, when we empty ourselves like Christ did, we also open ourselves to discover him: Jesus Christ who suffers both in the poor and with the poor. Thus emptied of ourselves, we become truly ready to experience the joy of the Resurrection: the joy that awaits us on Easter Sunday.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – March 23rd & 24th, 2013
Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord
No comments:
Post a Comment