Palm Sunday of Our Lord’s Passion
Cathedral of the Risen Christ
March 20, 2016
Bishop James Conley
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Each year, it is a very moving experience to recall the last week of the life of Jesus: to accompany him on his ascent into Jerusalem, and to recall his last supper, his passion, and his crucifixion. Palm Sunday begins Holy Week, the holiest time in the Church’s calendar, during which we enter liturgically into the mystery of Christ’s suffering, and his redeeming death. One week from now, we begin the celebration of Easter, rejoicing together because Christ has conquered death.
Pope Benedict XVI suggested that at the beginning of Holy Week, every Catholic should ask himself why we really commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Is this only a family tradition for us? Is this only a kind of pious obligation? Pope Benedict says that we should ask if these rituals “have anything to do with the reality of our life.”
Whether or not we know it, what we celebrate in this Mass has everything to do with the reality of our lives. Why? Because, brothers and sisters, we celebrate the reality that Christ came into this world to lift us up: to raise us from sinfulness, from disputes, from worries, from anxieties, from fears. We all experience these things everyday. We are all seeking peace, we are all seeking freedom, and we are all seeking meaning and purpose. And Christ came to raise us up to unity with God, unity in which our truest struggles are overcome and our deepest desires are fulfilled. Do we really believe this?
Pope Benedict XVI said that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, “the ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights of God himself; to those heights he wanted to lift every human being.”
In the readings today from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is ascending, always. He starts in Jericho, 850 feet below sea level, one of the lowest points on the face of the earth. He travels—walking and riding to Jerusalem, 2500 feet above sea level. And then he is led to Golgotha—the Place of the Skull—on a hilltop even above Jerusalem. Jesus ascends and ascends until he reaches the Cross. The Cross, at the top of Calvary, is the pinnacle of his journey.
Because the Cross, dear brothers and sisters, is the height from which you and I can be unified to God forever. It is only from the Cross that we can truly see the world, that we can see God’s plan for us, that we can see ourselves.
The fathers of the Church taught that we stand at the intersection between two gravitational fields. The force of gravity pulls us downward—down towards sinfulness, selfishness, and evil. At the same time, the force of God’s love pulls us towards God himself: towards peace, towards freedom, towards love itself. They taught that Christ “raises us up.” Christ frees us from the downward pull of evil, frees us to be completely drawn up into the love of God.
When Christ became a man, he descended into our humanity. He did battle with Satan and all the forces pulling towards evil. But on the Cross, Christ overcomes those forces. He conquers death. Christ raises us up on the Cross, so that we can be drawn into the power of God’s love.
On the Cross, Christ’s love makes us more free, and more authentically ourselves, more authentically human and yes, more authentically charged with the divine. Christ does what we cannot do for ourselves: he sets us free for true and authentic lives.
What we celebrate here will have meaning in our lives if we follow Christ to the height of God’s love; if we avail ourselves of his mercy in the sacrament of confession; if we receive his flesh and blood in the Most Holy Eucharist. Christ will raise us up and make us one with him, if we humble ourselves enough to accept what he offers, and to follow him to true freedom.
Saint Augustine said that everyone is seeking freedom, and everyone wants to ascend to the heights of God. But we cannot do it alone. And St. Augustine said that we would despair, our lives would become desperate, were it not for one thing: Christ can raise us up. Pope Benedict says the Christ is “the One who raises us up to the heights of God in spite of our wretchedness: Jesus Christ who from God came down to us and, in his crucified love, takes us by the hand and lifts us on high.”
What we celebrate this week is the reality that through the love and mercy of Jesus Christ—poured out for us on the cross-- we can live in real freedom, and real joy. May we ascend with Jesus Christ to the Cross, this week, and always, so that we can ascend with him to the eternal love of God.
