Palm Sunday, B March 24, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Why did you crucify Jesus? In a span of 45 minutes, you went from hailing his entrance to shouting, “Crucify him.” What did you do or not do that led you to that point? What motivated you? Money? Pride? Comfort? Power? Popularity? Entertainment?
Are you like Judas who first plots against Jesus in response to his waste of money? It’s right after he complains about the woman “wasting” the super valuable ointment that he plots against Jesus. If we let money and valuable things grab hold of our heart, we will end up crucifying Jesus over it.
Are you like the Apostles who arrogantly thought themselves beyond the possibility of betrayal and failure? Only to crucify Jesus by your cowardice and hypocrisy? Or in how they preferred comfort to prayer, sleeping in the garden when they should have kept watch?
Are you like the crowds under the spell of powerful people promising to share their power? When offered a political solution in the form of releasing Barabbas the revolutionary, their power-hungry hearts allowed them to shout “crucify him” to the one who offered only love.
Are you like Pontius Pilate, reluctant to do evil but too caught up in a need to be liked, to be accepted, to look successful so that you are unable to stand for the innocent if it costs you your popularity?
Are you like the onlookers who may not have called for Jesus’ death, but can’t bring themselves to stop gawking? A morbid fascination, an addiction to the entertainment and spectacle of crucifixion has silenced these crowds and made them complicit in the murder of God.
Beware these temptations! Though most people would not seek outright to kill our Lord, everyone does in fact kill him by allowing these things to fill their hearts instead of God. Holy Week is indeed the holiest week of the year. It is not something to let passively slip by! If we are not consciously engaged in the effort to root out these vices, to be convicted of and converted away from the forces that conspired to kill Christ, then we will simply fall into killing him yet again.
So, this is your task, your responsibility this week. Take the time, make the effort to examine your mind, your heart, and your schedule for the places that are ruled by Money, Pride, Comfort, Power, Popularity, or Entertainment instead of Christ our King. Take time this week to crucify each of these in some way, to intentionally sacrifice them so as to escape the momentum of sin, the slavery of concupiscence.
How will you sacrifice your money this week in a particular way? Can you create an opportunity to undercut your own pride? Will you deliberately choose some discomfort for the sake of Christ, to keep watch in the garden? Are you willing to consciously choose not to exercise some power you have or to reject the empty promises of politics this week? Is there way you can make an unpopular choice for the sake of loving God more? Have you the courage to mortify the insatiable desire for entertainment long enough to share in Christ’s suffering?
Seek these chances this week above all weeks so that, just as you’ve honestly shared in Christ’s passion, you might truly share in his joy when Easter dawns.