Palm Sunday (C)
(Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians
2:6-11; Luke 22:14 – 23:56)
Father, into your hands I commend My spirit.
The
Gospel is a light of revelation for us: revealing the beauty and goodness, the
majesty and power, of God in Himself and in His relations with us; and also the
truth about ourselves in our present state with God and our future prospects
before Him. Therefore, having greatly admired Jesus’ revelation of God in His
Passion and death, let us now -- as His aspiring disciples -- search for truth
about ourselves, by confronting our Christian self-awareness and personal
conscience as honestly and dispassionately as we can.
Did we,
perhaps, find that Gospel reading rather long and -- at times -- a little
wearisome? If so, that can only be a
humbling and somewhat depressing acknowledgement, in so far as we tend to think
that if we were proper Catholics, true disciples, we would not just hear of His
holy Passion and Death, but would experience, go through, it with hearts filled
with deep sorrow and ardent longing; and we vaguely suspect and fear that
such lack of emotional involvement might betray some hidden fault or serious
failing in us.
Let us,
therefore, take a closer look at that unwanted weariness which can obtrude
itself upon us at times when we would much prefer to experience fervent
devotion.
First of
all, we should be clear in our minds that we are here at Mass, above all, not
to get emotions for ourselves but to give ourselves, through
devotion, to God. Those words, ‘I don't
seem to be getting anything out of it’ should never be part our thinking. We also need to be clear in our minds about
the difference between emotions and devotion; for they are not the same, nor
are they necessarily found together.
Emotions express and affect our natural feelings, whereas devotion is
the sign and measure of our supernatural commitment; moreover, our emotions are
largely instinctive and self-centred whereas devotion is subject to our will
and centred on God. Devotion does indeed
benefit greatly when it is backed-up by the power of appropriate emotions;
however, devotion is not essentially diminished by the absence of such
emotions, and indeed can be at its greatest when deprived of them. Emotion, alone, is of no worth, its function
is to assist what is more worthy than itself, whereas devotion is, in itself,
always supremely commendable before God.
Dear
People of God, it is essential for us to recognize ever more clearly and
appreciate ever more deeply that we are sinners and God alone is good; and,
because He is so sublimely good to sinners like us we can also call Him
whole-and-humble-heartedly the All-holy
One. All the blessings we have
received in our life, all the ‘goods’ that we have or can have, are His gifts
to us: ‘goods’ created for us, benefitting and adorning us. Likewise, all the Christian holiness we might
admire, to which we might aspire or long for, is again His gift. But far, far more, is it a gift of Himself, a share in His very own,
unique, holiness: it never is, nor ever can be, our own holiness, something we can put on, something owing to us,
or something that we can get for ourselves, achieve by ourselves, design for
ourselves. Therefore, we must never be
surprised at our possible weariness, dryness, or lack of emotional feelings, on
occasions like today; for that is a true, indeed it is the truest picture
of us, for we are -- of ourselves -- naturally barren and fruitless as far as
holiness is concerned.
Nevertheless,
as Christians our attention and expectations are most joyfully centred on God,
for He is so good, so inconceivably good indeed, that He has given His
own Son to save us from our sinfulness, and in return for such a gift we have
to try to do what the Suffering Servant, in the first reading, showed us, for:
Morning
after morning He wakens my ear to hear as disciples do; the Lord God opened my
ear, I did not refuse, did not turn away.
Jesus was
always lovingly in His Father’s presence, attentively watching for, listening
to, and ever ready to do, His will; and we can best imitate that by repeatedly
putting ourselves in the presence of God, putting ourselves in the way -- so to
speak -- of Jesus. And that, indeed, is
what we are doing here, today: we have learned where Jesus is to be found and
have come to put ourselves in His way, waiting and listening in case He should turn
His gaze, see us, and choose to speak to us as He did to blind Bartimaeus. If He does not, we should have no complaint,
it is His will and we have no claims on Him: whatever He does, we know that He
does it for our good and that He is right.
If, on the other hand, He does turn His attention our way, then we
should gratefully accept the ardent emotions His glance stirs within us and use
them as a spur to our devotion, endeavouring thereby to give ourselves back, in
the Spirit, to Jesus and to God our Father more completely and more
wholeheartedly than ever before. In that
way, our emotions can, at times, renew
our spirit and spur us on to greater devotion; for ultimately, it is only the
enduring power and commitment of devotion that faithfully and perseveringly
follows Jesus along His heavenward path.
Our
emotions can also be like flowers along the way that afford our spirit refreshment as we pass, gratefully,
on. At other times, however, and perhaps
more frequently, emotions can disturb and hinder us like stones that clutter
our path; indeed, they can even -- and most deceitfully -- serve as honey-traps
that would attach us to themselves and lead us to forget the way we have
hitherto been pursuing, ignore the promise Jesus has made to us, and no longer
aspire to the place He has been preparing for us in the home to which the
Father calls us.
