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Our Sunday Reflection - March 24, 2024
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"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
Psalm 22
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Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day
We begin the celebration of Holy Week by calling down God’s blessing upon the symbol that today’s feast is named for: the palm branches that were used to welcome our Lord to Jerusalem. “Hosanna!” the crowds accompanying him cried out, praising the Son of Man as he rode into the holy city. “Hosanna!” the residents called out, eager to witness firsthand what this miracle worker would do. We sing hosannas today, as we enter the holiest week of the year, the week when we recall Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word
The Palm Sunday liturgy always focuses on the Passion, but we begin with a short reading from Isaiah, who prophesied of a person who suffered terribly for faithfully speaking God’s word. Sound familiar? Indeed, Saint Paul testifies that Jesus “humbled himself . . . to the point of death.” Let today’s scripture passages remind us of the physical and emotional suffering that our Lord endured in order to truly proclaim God’s word.Reflections
- Just a few months ago we celebrated the night that Jesus was born, God’s Son becoming part of humanity. Today we hear a horrible account of the inhumanity of nearly everyone around our Lord. One of his closest friends betrays him, another denies him, the rest abandon him, the crowd turns on him, the soldiers torture him, the authorities condemn him, Pilate sentences him. In Mark’s Gospel, even both of those crucified with him abuse him. Greed, fear, cowardice, hatred, and cruelty win out over all the virtues Jesus embodied. Jesus was not able to rid the earth of inhumanity. But he gave us a model of how to oppose it, endure it, and conquer it. For in remaining faithful and obedient to the will of the Father, the One revealed today to truly be the Son of God showed humanity the way to truly be human.
- When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he replied that it was to love God and to love neighbor as yourself. All of the law and the prophets could be summed up in this command: love. For love of God and love of neighbor, Jesus was born into the world, lived out his mission, and died on the cross. Despite the horror of being nailed to a cross and left to die, Jesus accepted it out of love for the Father and love for those he was sent to save. Through his death, he showed us the depth of his love and the value of that love.
- Jesus makes a bold statement about the woman who anoints him with oil just days before he is killed: “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9). She alone does something loving and merciful for him in the days before his death. Some scoff at her action, regarding it as a waste of precious oil. They say that it was worth nearly a year’s wages, a huge sum that could have been given to the poor. Perhaps they have a point. Perhaps her actions were extravagant. But Jesus teaches us that such extravagance for those you love is not a waste at all. After all, if one were to look at the life of the Messiah, ending his life not as the healer of every ill, the benefactor of every beggar, and the victor over every opponent, but on the cross, condemned as a criminal, one would see his life as a waste. What could God have had in mind to send him into the world only to die a condemned man, with the world objectively not any better than it had been? With eyes of faith, we know that his life was not a waste, for he healed our every spirit, paid for our every sin, and won the victory over death. As this woman who lowered herself to enter a leper’s home and wasted her entire jar of priceless oil, Jesus emptied himself to enter sinful humanity’s home and spent his entire life to give us the priceless gift of eternal life. This is the gospel proclaimed.
Question of the Week
In what ways can I show my love for others in a way that might seem extravagant to observers, but meaningful to them and for me?
-from Pastoral Patterns
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readings of the mass
LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of Sunday, March 24, 2024
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, March 24, 2024
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Offerings
The Sunday offerings are a portion of our blessings that we give to God (Church) in gratitude to what God has done for us...ONLINE GIVING OPTIONS -
Reflections on the readings
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