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What a difference a year makes! Last year was the most restful Holy Week I’ve ever had and it was miserable. Preaching to a camera in an empty church was not great. So, I already feel blessed to enter these holiest days with you present in this church, seeing the whites of your eyes! Sharing this journey together has brought its own blessings and I hope you feel God’s grace as we commemorate the saving mysteries that freed us from sin and gave us hope in the darkness of the pandemic!
Today we received a palm branch in memory of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We never thought that deeply about the palm as kids, preferring instead to torture each other throughout Mass by sticking them in each other’s ears. However, these palms represent the majesty of Christ the king of heaven and earth. Then, in terrible contrast, we heard about the betrayal of Jesus, his humiliation by scourging and then...the cross.
Those standing near the cross heard those stark words of Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Christians throughout the centuries have been troubled by those words: How could Jesus - who is God - feel abandoned by God? But this is not exactly what is happening. In Jesus’ time, rabbis would begin prayer or worship with a line or two from the psalms. Because most people had many of them memorized, this line would prompt those who heard it to join in and recall the message of that psalm. I know it is a poor comparison, but remember a few years ago when the movie “Frozen” came out. All anyone had to do was sing or say, “Let it Go…” and those who had seen the movie would join in the song and remember the movie and its message. For those who had not seen the film, seeing children and adults erupt in song with only the prompt of a few words seemed very strange. Jesus’ uttering those seemingly strange words,"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" would have caused every faithful Jew to bring the entire psalm to mind which begins with fear and pain but ends in the firm belief that God will deliver the faithful one from evil and suffering.
Jesus endured the entire range of human emotion, starting with the today’s glorious and triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the devastating feeling of abandonment and betrayal of Good Friday. He can sympathize with every feeling we experience, both the high and the low. When we feel desolate, abandoned, defeated, when we wonder where God is; that is the time to come to Jesus, to come to the cross.
When we go to Jesus, feeling abandoned, overwhelmed, or afraid, something unexpected happens. We see it in the Gospel: After expressing abandonment and ultimate trust in his Father, we hear that "Jesus gave a loud cry." Many Scripture scholars see this as a cry of triumph. In St. John's Gospel, always read on Good Friday, Jesus cries out, "It is finished.” In the ancient Greek it is only one word, “Finished!”, like something we would exclaim after completing a most challenging and monumental task. Jesus' loud cry is a shout of victory.
At the beginning of Mass, we received a victory symbol in the form of the palm branch. Please take it home and place it behind a crucifix as a reminder that if we embrace the cross we will triumph, not because of our own strength and cleverness but because of Jesus' Resurrection.
Next weekend we will begin a fifty-day celebration of Jesus' Resurrection. If at all possible, come to the sacred celebrations of the Triduum on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. These are the central mysteries of our faith and defining moments of the world’s salvation. To celebrate them is to remember them and to remember them is to make them present and effective in our lives.
On the cross Jesus took our evil on his shoulders, he bore the full consequences of sin, including the sense of abandonment, betrayal, and fear. But He knew what came next and what always wins! God’s faithfulness and power cannot be defeated, ever. That is the reason why in the end he gave a loud cry - a shout of victory. Amen.
