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_{Palm Sunday
April 1, 2007}

Today we enter upon a time which is known as Holy Week.  It begins with Palm Sunday and the triumphant procession of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem.  We have just heard the Passion story of Jesus’ crucifixion.  In years past some people have tried to romanticize and sanitize the death of Jesus.  It's easier on our emotions and conscience if we don't have to deal with the reality of it.  A doctor in the New England Journal of Medicine wrote, that in medical reality, it was one of the most brutal deaths anyone could ever imagine. 

If you haven’t seen Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" you have truly visually missed walking the Stations of the Cross with Jesus Christ. If you have seen it, the violence and brutality of Jesus' Passion has certainly been burned into your mind!

We all have to ask ourselves the question, "Why did Jesus allow himself to suffer death by crucifixion?  Why did he submit to such a horrendous ordeal?"  Many answers can be given to that question, but I think it can be boiled down to three main ones.

First, Jesus wanted his death to be a sign.  He wanted it to say, in a most dramatic way, what he told his disciples so often during his life:  "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's own life for one's friends." 

Second, Jesus wanted his death to be an invitation.  He wanted to invite us to do what he told his disciples to do so often during his life:  "Love one another as I love you."

Finally, Jesus wanted his death to be a revelation.  Again, he wanted to tell us what he told his disciples so often during his life, that love entails suffering:  "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

And so the crucifixion of Jesus makes three important statements.  First, it's a sign of Jesus' love for us.  Second, it's an invitation for us to love as Jesus loved.  Third, it's a revelation that love entails suffering.  Of these three statements, the final one is the one we need to hear in our day.  We tend to forget that love entails suffering!

The crucifixion of Jesus is a sign of love, an invitation to love, and a revelation about love!  It tells us that Jesus loves us with the highest love.  It invites us to love others in the same way.  It reminds us that love will always involve suffering.

The Passion and Death of Jesus on the cross can never be separated from his glorious resurrection.  The two go together.  Christ's death and resurrection are somewhat like the two sides of a coin.  Heads and tails are different and yet they form a single coin.  The single reality of Christ’s death and resurrection is known as the Paschal Mystery. 

As we begin Holy Week today, I highly encourage you to take full advantage of all the beautiful liturgical celebrations coming up in the Triduum this week.  Once a year we celebrate the Sacred Triduum of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  It is apex or pinnacle of our Church year!  The celebration begins on Holy Thursday evening because at that time Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, the sacrament which makes his death, burial, and resurrection a reality among us in every Mass.  At this time God offers us the grace to grow in our love, understanding and appreciation of the Paschal Mystery.