Author: DVO

When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time in his life, it must have been difficult for him to be hailed as king with hosannas and palm branches when he knew that he was a marked man who would soon face a crowd clamoring for his crucifixion. Yet, as Jennifer Halling writes, he obediently fulfilled the words of the prophet Zechariah, “Say to daughter Zion, ‘Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” In doing so, he both affirmed that he was God’s anointed one and demonstrated that, in God’s kingdom, the Messiah is not a warlike conqueror but a humble servant of the people. He chose to enter Jerusalem in this way to fulfill the Scriptures, thus reinforcing the faith of his disciples after his death and resurrection, and also to teach us something we humans desperately need to learn: that true power lies not in conquering our enemies and gaining status and wealth, but in aligning ourselves with the wisdom of God, which lies in humility, forgiveness, mercy, and self-emptying. As we enter Holy Week, we are all invited to gaze upon Jesus on Palm Sunday as he enters Jerusalem to great acclaim, on Holy Thursday as he washes the feet of his disciples, and on Good Friday as he enters into his passion and death on the cross. In the events of this week, as Maureen Conroy observes, “Jesus’ life and actions reveal the true nature of God’s power: not the love of power but the power to love is what matters. Jesus chooses utter defenselessness because of the outrageous love of God — to help us realize the depth of God’s love, to see, to open the locked doors of our hardened hearts. In Jesus, God’s heart empties completely and becomes powerless, vulnerable, and broken. In turn, our hearts must be hollowed out to receive the fullness of God’s vulnerable love.” What we will not see when we gaze at Jesus in the coming week, as Fr. Ronald Rolheiser notes, is any “bitterness, vengeance, loss of patience, or lack of graciousness. When the veil inside the temple is torn, when the side of Jesus is pierced, what we see, what flows out, is only forgiveness, patience, gentleness, understanding, and warm invitation.” Jesus offers his life, suffering, and resurrection to us in the coming week so that we might know the depth of God’s tremendous love as he knew it. As we gaze upon him, may we find the courage to follow his example by giving away our lives so that our hearts, too, will overflow with the inexpressible delight of God’s love as we live in trust and anticipate our own resurrection.

Since the Passover was the most solemn Jewish feast, the people used to arrive in Jerusalem some days in advance to prepare for it by washings, fasts, and offerings—practices established not by the Mosaic law but by popular piety; the rites of the Passover itself, with the sacrificing of the lamb, were a rite of purification and expiation for sins. The Passover of the Jews was a figure of the Christian Pasch or Easter, and as Saint Paul the Apostle teaches us, our paschal lamb is Christ who offered himself once and for all to the eternal Father to reconcile the world with the Father. As we approach Palm Sunday, Saint Peter Damian has a beautiful prayer that foreshadows the hope for a nation of believers in what our savior will endure for us. “When your soul goes forth from your body, may the radiant company of angles come to meet you, and may your judge, the senate of the apostles, release you; may Christ, who suffered for you, rescue you from punishment; may Christ who was crucified for your sake, free you from excruciating pain; may Christ, who humbled himself to die for you, free you from death; may Christ, the Son of the living God, set you in the evergreen loveliness of his paradise, and may he, the true Shepherd, recognize you as one of his own flock. may he free you from all your sins and assign you a place at his right hand in the company of his elect. May you see your Redeemer face to face, and standing in his presence forever, may you behold with blessed eyes Truth revealed in all its fullness. And so, having taken your place in the ranks of the saints, may you enjoy the sweetness of divine contemplation forever and ever. Amen.”

We often struggle with the immediacy of life. We are not trained to wait, to be patient. In fact, in this 24×7 world, we are often warned that by not being on top of everything and taking action quickly, we risk losing out on what life has to offer us. But what exactly is life offering you? How does whatever you feel life is handing out meet with what God has promised? Fr. Rolheiser writes that all of this rushing around in life impacts our ability to listen quietly for that “still small voice” of God. Inside each of us, there is a deep, congenital restlessness. We are not restful beings who sometimes get restless but restless beings who occasionally experience rest. We can distract ourselves for a while, be titillated by flashy toys, be soothed and lulled by sympathetic voices, and momentarily even be content in the absence of our real mother. But we begin to miss, in the very depths of our souls, the one voice and one presence that can ultimately bring us rest. We reach a point in life when there is an ache and a sadness inside us that no one can still and comfort other than the one who ultimately brought us to birth. Like the baby frustrated with its babysitter, we, too, need to hear our mother lovingly pronounce our names. What are we ultimately searching for? We will soon be reading about Mary Magdala and her meeting with the risen Lord. He approaches her and asks: “What are you searching for?” She explains that she is searching for the body of Jesus. He says just one word to her in response: “Mary.” He calls her by name, and she not only recognizes him but also hears precisely what a disconsolate baby cannot hear in the voice of her babysitter, the voice of the mother, lovingly pronouncing her name. What do we ache for? Ultimately, all our aching is for one thing: to hear God, lovingly and individually, call us by name. There comes a moment in the night for each of us when nothing will console us other than this: hearing our names pronounced by the mouth of God.

Throughout the Bible, God’s patience with His people is evident. Despite repeated disobedience, rebellion, and faithlessness, God continues to extend His grace and mercy. His patience is portrayed as a testament to His love for humanity and His desire for reconciliation rather than judgment. However, God’s patience should not be misunderstood as indifference towards sin. There are consequences for disobedience, as seen in various narratives throughout the Bible. Yet, even in moments of judgment, there is often a pathway for repentance and restoration, highlighting God’s enduring patience and desire for a relationship with His people. Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes about the Italian spiritual writer Carlo Carretto, who, after spending more than 20 years in solitude as a monk in the Sahara desert, was asked what single thing he felt that he heard God most say to him inside of the long, deep silence. What, he was asked, do you hear God saying to the world? His answer: God is asking us to wait, to be patient! Why the need for such great patience?  Does God want to test us? Does God want to see if we indeed have a faith that is worthy of a great reward? No. God has no need to play such a game, and neither do we. It’s not that God wants to test our patience. The need for patience arises out of the rhythms innate within life itself and within love itself. They need to unfold, as do flowers and pregnancies, according to their own innate rhythms and within their own good time. They cannot be rushed, no matter how great our impatience or how great our discomfort. And neither can God be rushed because it is God’s timetable that protects us from perpetually stunting life and love by drawing them through the birth canal prematurely. Ultimately, the story of God’s covenants and His patience with His people is one of redemption and hope. It underscores the belief that God is faithful to His promises and steadfast in His love, inviting humanity into a deeper relationship with Him through faith and obedience.

In conversations with Jews who believed in him, they struggled to connect with Jesus’ divinity. In all that was occurring, all that the Jewish authorities were trying to do to discredit and kill the messenger from God, they, like many today, are unable to see God. Karl Rahner once said that one of the secrets to faith is to always see your life against an infinite horizon. Seeing your life against an infinite horizon meant having a sense of divine providence within every dimension and event of ordinary life. Fr. Rolheiser writes that this meant that you always searched for the finger of God, some faith meaning, in every incident within your life. Thus, for example, if something tragic happened to you (sickness, the death of a loved one, an accident, the loss of your job, or an economic disaster), you would always ask yourself: “What is God saying to me in this?” Conversely, if something good happened to you (you met a marvelous person, you fell in love, you had a huge success, or you made a lot of money), you would ask yourself the same question: “What is God saying to me in this?” The idea was that, in every event of life, God spoke, said something to you, and meant this event to have spiritual significance for your life. Divine providence might be defined as a conspiracy of ordinary accidents within which God’s voice can be heard. John of the Cross said as much when he wrote: The language of God is the experience that God writes into our lives. Karl Rahner, as we saw, suggests that it is a question of seeing against an infinite horizon. When Scripture tells us to “pray always,” it doesn’t mean that we should always be saying prayers. Among other things, though, it does mean that we, like generations of old, should be looking at every event in our lives and asking ourselves: “What is God saying to me in all of this? What is providential for me in this event?”

Brother Michael Moore of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate writes that today, in union with the whole Church, we celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph. While we know that Joseph was Mary’s husband and the earthly father of Jesus, we have very little historical information about him. We know more about Joseph from what he did rather than what he said. In the gospels he is a man of few, if any, words. Clearly his actions speak louder than his words. Sadly, we tend to gloss over him and even forget about him until we see him on traditional Christmas cards. Joseph is a man of courage, conviction, and commitment. He is a man of hope and faith who trusted in God who called him personally by his name. He didn’t simply react; he responded faithfully to situations as they arose and faced them courageously out of concern for Mary and Jesus. While the call of Mary in Luke’s gospel is known as The Annunciation, Joseph too had own personal call and annunciation. In Matthew’s gospel Joseph is depicted as a good and decent man who always did the right thing. He is a righteous man. He is concerned about Mary according to the Jewish Law. On discovering that Mary was pregnant before they were publicly married, Joseph decides to divorce her privately to save her embarrassment and shame. Faced with what seemed like the impossible, Joseph didn’t walkway or give in. He trusted God and said yes. Given what we are all still living with, can we in any way look to Joseph and follow his example of trusting that God is truly with us today and every day?

Our Gospel today tells about the woman that scribes and Pharisees caught in adultery. Imagine where they were standing when they caught her in the very act. The voyeurism and perversion of these men! Then they come en masse, in the terrible enthusiasm of a mob, and they present the case to Jesus. Now, what does Jesus do in the face of this violent mob? First, he writes on the ground. The mysterious writing might indicate the listing of the sins of each person in the group. As he said in another Gospel, “Remove the plank in your own eye, and then you can see more clearly the speck in your brother’s eye.” And then he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.” He forces them to turn their accusing glance inward, where it belongs. Instead of projecting their violence outward on a scapegoat, they should honestly name and confront the dysfunction within themselves. Like all the stories in the Gospels, this story foreshadows the great story toward which we are tending. Jesus will be put to death by a mob bent on scapegoating violence.

We are called as Christians to have a servant’s heart. St. Josemaría Escrivá, in his book “Friends of God,” writes that it is a mystery of God’s plans that he, who is all, who has all, and who needs nothing and nobody, should choose to need our help to ensure that his teaching and the salvation wrought by him reaches all men. To follow Christ is the secret. We must accompany him so closely that we come to live with him as the first Twelve did. So closely that we became identified with him. Soon, we will be able to say, provided we have not put obstacles in the way of grace that we have put on and have clothed ourselves with our Lord Jesus Christ. I have distinguished it as four stages in our effort to identify ourselves with Christ: seeking him, finding him, getting to know him, and loving him. It may seem clear to you that you are only at the first stage. Seek him then, hungrily seek him within yourselves with all your strength. If you act with determination, I am ready to guarantee that you have already found him and have begun to get to know him and to love him and to hold your conversation in heaven. Fr. Anthony Oelrich asks, “What does it look like outwardly when the law of the Lord is written upon one’s heart?” Not surprisingly, Jesus provides us a picture of such a heart in today’s Gospel. He shows himself to be acutely aware of what is being asked of him by the God he has called Father. He knows that the time will come when he will be asked to offer, not simply words of instruction, but words of flesh and blood. Though Jesus is certainly troubled, the law written on his heart overcomes the anxiety of his emotions, allowing him to say, “Father, glorify your name.” The heart-written law is the interior movement to offer one’s whole self in loving adoration and service to the God of heaven and earth. Despite natural aversions and very real fears, the heart-written law pushes outward and upward always to give all things to God. The heart-written law is the Law of the Gift. What makes this law so natural, not simply written on stone tablets but in our very fleshy hearts, is that it is just what we were made for. The reason we are all drawn to Jesus lifted up on the cross is that to give ourselves in love as gift for others is what our hearts long for. You see, there it is, written right in there, in the heart.

We all have goals in life, and we are blessed to reach many of them on our own, but some of them require a little more help. There are things that we desire that only God can give us. When things are not going our way, and we turn to God for help, but He does not seem to hear us, we start to get discouraged. We feel He is not there for us or does not care to help us, but that is not true. God hears you, and he knows your heart’s desires. He will give you everything you desire when the time is right. When there are things that we want in life, they tend to consume our thoughts. We start to obsessively think about what we want most, which takes up much of our time, energy, and thought. We need to turn that obsessive thought into prayer. Give it to God and let Him take care of it. Stop worrying and trying to achieve everything on your own, and ask God for help. When we are faced with difficult situations and things that give us stress and anxiety, we start to panic. The first step is to take that fear and turn it into faith. Give God your problems and have faith in Him. He will help turn things around because He is the God capable of moving mountains and can help you get through anything. It is in our human nature to stress over the little things. Even the smallest of situations give us anxiety, and it may seem stupid to give those small things to God. He wants to know what gives us anxiety, no matter how big or how small; he is always there to help you and get you through anything and everything that is bothering you. Whatever you want, whatever you ask Him for, He hears you. If He does not seem to be answering, do not give up. Everything will happen in His timing. God knows what is best for you and hears your heart’s desires. Seek to do God’s will and not your own, and knowing your heart’s desires, God will answer you when the time is right. Have patience and trust in the Lord.

Sr. Ephrem Hollermann asks, “What is really going on with Jesus in today’s Gospel?” She goes on to write that the Jews become angry with this teaching, for they thought he was no more than a young man from Nazareth, a place too ordinary to produce a messiah. Sensing the growing hostility, Jesus reacted like a hunted man. Jesus did not accompany his family to Jerusalem; instead, he followed them alone in secret. So what’s up with that? He traveled secretly, then spoke openly without fear in the Temple: “Because I am from him, he sent me.” So, what is going on with Jesus here? Quite simply, it was a struggle between fear for his life and a passionate sense of mission. Jesus could not be who God sent him to be by giving in to fear. He simply could not remain silent. Not without a certain irony, Jesus refers to the superficial knowledge these Jews had of him: however, he asserts that he comes from the Father who has sent him, whom only he knows, precisely because he is the Son of God. Fr. Paul Philibert writes that today’s Scriptures prepare us for the coming drama of Jesus’ hour. When that hour comes, heaven will embrace the earth, and the Son of God will pour his redeeming blood over humanity. We have had six weeks—indeed, our entire lives—to prepare ourselves for that hour, to understand it, to ponder it, and to be transformed by it. His “hour” will also be our “hour,” since he has invited us to follow him and to share in the sacrifice he offers for our salvation.