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In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Today Christ enters the path not only of His sufferings but of that
dreadful loneliness which enshrouds Him during all the days of Passion
week. The loneliness begins with a misunderstanding; the people expect
that the Lord's entry into Jerusalem will be the triumphant procession
of a political leader, of a leader who will free his people from
oppression, from slavery, from what they consider godlessness - because
all paganism or idol-worship is a denial of the living God. The
loneliness will develop further into the dreadful loneliness of not
being understood even by His disciples. At the Last Supper when the
Saviour talks to them for the last time, they will be in constant doubt
as to the meaning of His words. And later when He goes into the Garden
of Gethsemane before the fearful death that is facing Him, His closest
disciples, Peter, John and James - whom He chose to go with Him, fall
asleep, depressed, tired, hopeless. The culmination of this loneliness
will be Christ's cry on the cross, "My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken me?" Abandoned by men, rejected by the people of Israel, He
encounters the extreme of forsakenness and dies without God, without
men, alone, with only His love for God and His love for mankind, dying
for its sake and for God's glory.
The beginning of Christ's Passion is today's triumphal procession. The
people expected a king, a leader - and they found the Saviour of their
souls. Nothing embitters a person so much as a lost, a disappointed
hope; and that explains why people who could receive Him like that, who
witnessed the raising of Lazarus, who saw Christ's miracles and heard
His teaching, admired every word, who were ready to become His disciples
as long as He brought victory, broke away from Him, turned their backs
on Him and a few days later shouted, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” And
Christ spent all those days in loneliness, knowing what was in store for
Him, abandoned by every one except the Mother of God, who stood silently
by, as She had done throughout Her life, participating in His tragic
ascent to the Cross; She who had accepted the Annunciation, the Good
Tidings, but who also accepted in silence Simeon's prophecy that a sword
would pierce her heart.
During the coming days we shall be not just remembering, but be present
at Christ's Passion. We shall be part of the crowd surrounding Christ
and the disciples and the Mother of God. As we hear the Gospel readings,
as we listen to the prayers of the Church, as one image after another of
these days of the Passion passes before our eyes, let each one of us ask
himself the question, "Where do I stand, who am I in this crowd? A
Pharisee? A Scribe? A traitor, a coward? Who? Or do I stand among the
Apostles?" But they too were overcome by fear. Peter denied Him thrice,
Judas betrayed Him, John, James and Peter went to sleep just when Christ
most needed human love and support; the other disciples fled; no one
remained except John and the Mother of God, those who were bound to Him
by the kind of love which fears nothing and is ready to share in
everything.
Once more let us ask ourselves who we are and where we stand, what our
position in this crowd is. Do we stand with hope, or despair, or what?
And if we stand with indifference, we too are part of that terrifying
crowd that surrounded Christ, shuffling, listening, and then going away;
as we shall go away from church. The Crucifix will be standing here on
Thursday and we shall be reading the Gospel about the Cross, the
Crucifixion and death - and then what will happen? The Cross will remain
standing, but we shall go away for a rest, go home to have supper, to
sleep, to prepare for the fatigues of the next day. And during this time
Christ is on the Cross, Christ is in the tomb. How awful it is that,
like the disciples in their day, we are not able to spend one night, one
hour with Him. Let us think about this, and if we are incapable of doing
anything, let us at least realise who we are and where we stand, and at
the final hour turn to Christ with the cry, the appeal of the thief,
Remember me, Lord, in Thy Kingdom! Amen. |
