PASSION SUNDAY

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 Passion Sunday brings us into Holy Week. We gather together as Christians to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem that was soon to turn into an ultimate act of betrayal, His arrest, trial, humiliation, and death. Passion Sunday serves as a reminder of what is to come and how we should approach this highest week on the Christian Calendar. We know how Jesus experienced it; so how do we experience it so as to bring ourselves closer to Him? Our Lenten journey has brought all of us to this point. Separate in our relationship with Jesus Christ we are united in our focus. All around the world billions of Christians and those of other faiths will be recognizing this special moment; the beginning of a series of events that will eventually lead to our own glorification and salvation. This is truly amazing when we contemplate it: This Holy Week we begin by celebrating Jesus’ Entrance into Jerusalem, His Passion, then focus on The Evening of the Lord’s Supper, His Crucifixion, and His Resurrection, yet the week is more about repairing our relationship with God and with our relationship with Jesus than about Jesus Himself. Through these events we are lifted up and glorified. Jesus invites us into a relationship with the Holy Trinity and invites us to accept our birthright as Children of God. Even though we celebrate Jesus this whole week the can be defined by Jesus celebrating us. He loves us so much that all of this was done and is being done for us both individually and collectively as part of God’s Creation.

Holy Week can be viewed as a repair process or a medical procedure where we obtain goodness of health. In this case it is spiritual health. Jesus goes before us and we are encouraged to follow. Our faith teaches us that when we celebrate mass and participate in rituals which are meant to deepen our faith-experience we are actually living out these events beyond the limits of time and space. These are not done in memoriam but instead are done to enjoin ourselves with our Creator and our Christian Community in a celebratory way. We become unified beyond the limits of time and space. This is known as the Mystical Church. Our spirituality becomes our guide and through these spiritual experiences we become healed physically, mentally, and spirituality. God is beyond and above all things and what He has He wants to share with us completely.

Being limited physically where we can go and how we can celebrate Passion Sunday can become a point of frustration. As Christians we are able to accept these circumstances as part of our Lenten journey and another aspect of the cross that we are carrying. Challenges and obstacles develop us; they never overcome us because God is with us through everything and He is our greatest advocate. What we need to do is listen to the words of Jesus Christ more than ever so that we may achieve a great spiritual experience from Holy Week than we have ever had in the past. When asked by his disciples how to pray Jesus responded by telling them to go into their inner room and shut the door. Because of what we are facing now through the separations in our Christian community and the ceasing of all religious gatherings, we now have the opportunity to worship and pray the way Jesus wanted us to do in the first place! Through circumstances beyond our control we now are challenged to find that personal, one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ that we might have had trouble doing in the past. Even for those who didn’t have a problem with a intimate relationship with Jesus have an opportunity to better themselves in their personal relationship with Jesus. In the end, we all can be spiritually better off because these events. Challenges become opportunities. Crisis becomes a chance for betterment. Everything is made better with God.

Know that we all are in this together. We need to keep all of ourselves in our prayers as we begin the Easter Tide. We all are walking with Jesus and we all are walking together. This time that we will individually spend with Jesus will make us stronger as a community. In reality we all will be there together witnessing His Entrance into Jerusalem and His Crucifixion. Let us focus on the importance of what we will be witnessing and use it to strengthen ourselves daily. There is so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to. Step by step we continue our journey with Jesus as our guide; being open to anything that we might experience and encounter on the way.

Deacon Tom