Palm Sunday
(Text of Fr. Andrew’s Homily for March 24, 2024)
The Lenten Season was meant to purify
our sight to see the mystery, the mysteries of Holy Week. We are there now: Palm
Sunday. Let us pay attention to the Mystery.
The word “mystery” is used in the
Church to refer to the Sacraments, especially to the Eucharist. Mystery, in
this sense, refers to something we can see, but something which—at the same
time—hides a deeper reality, something which cannot be seen. The word “mystery”
refers also to the hidden reality itself, something difficult to see or to
understand.
During Holy Week, we are invited to
see this double aspect of mystery: the aspect by which a mystery is something
deep that cannot be easily understood, something invisible; and the aspect by
which a mystery is a sacrament, something which can actually be seen, but with
a hidden meaning. We are invited to realize that, behind the Eucharist
which we celebrate every Sunday, there is a reality: the passion, death and
resurrection of Jesus, the Christ; and behind that reality there is still
another mystery, the mystery of God reconciling humankind to Himself, the
mystery of the love of God. But who can penetrate or understand the wealth of
these mysteries? And how could we discover them, if we do not stop and reflect?
The sacraments we celebrate every
Sunday are based on a historical event, and this is the focus of Holy Week: to relive
that historical event. But that historical event is not like other events: the One
who was condemned to death was not a criminal, was not a simple man—He was God
Himself made flesh. The sacraments we celebrate every Sunday are full of
divinity because, once upon a time, the Divinity entered our world and dwelt
among us. And bled and died among us.
Holy Week is important, because it
gives meaning to what we do every Sunday. Every Sunday our bodies are tinted
with the blood of Jesus, a God-man who suffered, died and rose again for us. We
celebrate His resurrection, because He
died and rose again from the dead.
His body and His blood are still present among us, and speak to us. But in
order to understand what the Body and Blood say to us, in order to understand
this mystery, we need to meditate on the Body and Blood itself, on the Passion
of Jesus and His Resurrection from the dead two thousand years ago. It is not
the death of a social activist or a simple prophet, it is the death of the Son
of God made flesh. It is not the sacrifice of a man, but the love of God. It is
not bread, it is His flesh, the flesh of the God-man given up to death for my
sins.
Every Sunday we are invited to
enter the mystery of the Eucharist, which is the Passion and Resurrection of
Jesus. But during Holy Week, we are invited to enter the mystery of the Passion
and Resurrection itself, as if it were happening in front of our eyes, as if we
were there, two thousand years ago. What’s going on here? Why do they kill Him?
Why He does not defend himself? Who is this? What is He doing? Why?
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