PALM SUNDAY/ PASSION SUNDAY, YEAR B

Procession: Mark 11:1-10
Mass: Isaiah 50:4-7
           Philippians 2:6-11
           Mark 14:1—15:47

THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS ON EARTH

Today marks the beginning of the Holy Week. Thus, we are called upon to follow Jesus and live with him the last events of his earthly life.

In today’s liturgy, we celebrate first the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem amid the jubilation and chants of Hosanna of the crowd. Jesus enters the holy city to accomplish his mission, the mission of our redemption.

Then, the readings for the Mass narrate the Passion of Jesus: his sufferings, crucifixion and death as the humble Servant of God.  From the hosanna chants of the triumphant entry, we pass to the “crucify him” of the Passion. But the attitude of Jesus remains the same: humility and silence. He bears the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, the abandonment of his close friends, the hatred of the Pharisees, chief priests and scribes, the unjust condemnation of Pilate, the scourging and beatings of the soldiers, the curses and insults of the crowd, and the shameful death of the cross in obedience to the Father for our sake.

After listening to these readings, we cannot but ask ourselves some questions. How many times have we not betrayed those who trusted us? How often have we not turned back to humiliate the same people we had appreciated? How many times have we not been accomplices to the atrocities against some people and to the condemnation of the innocents? How many times have we not exchanged justice and our integrity with the fear of losing our friends or our position? How often do we not sacrifice others on the altars of our pride and selfish desires?

In any case, whether we are agents or victims of such acts, we must always remember that God will surely save the just and the innocent. He will not put them to shame.

Amen

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR B

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:3-4.12-15
Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33

THE CHRISTIAN PARADOX

This is the Sunday that precedes Palm Sunday that ushers us into the Holy Week. We are told in the gospel that some Greeks wanted to see Jesus. But nothing is explicitly said if their request was granted. Nevertheless, Jesus indicates the way any person wanting to see him can do so: raising one’s eyes towards the cross. It is on the cross that we can recognize the Son of God. The hour of his crucifixion becomes the hour of his revelation, glorification and exaltation.

He therefore compares his death with a grain of wheat that falls into the ground. There is no harvest that is not preceded by the sowing of a seed. The seed that is buried in the ground goes through degradation before germination. If we wish to ne great and spiritually fruitful, we must be humble and accept humiliation.

It was by accepting the humiliating death on the cross with all its associated pains and torture that Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for us. He himself learnt to obey through suffering, tears and earnest prayer. We too can only bear fruits if we accept to suffer little.
It was by dying on the cross that Jesus fulfilled the promise of God as presented to us in the first reading. The blood he shed on Calvary became the blood of the new and eternal covenant.

If we wish to meet Jesus, we must go to Calvary. If we wish to have life, we must let our ego and old ways of life die in us. If we wish to be great, we must become little. If we wish to be transformed, we must first allow ourselves to be deformed.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR B

2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Psalm  136:1-6
Ephesians 2: 4-10
John 3:14-21

LAETARE SUNDAY

The fourth Sunday of Lent is usually called "Laetare Sunday" or Sunday of rejoicing. Why rejoicing in this time of penance and regret of our sins? Because we serve a God who is patient and loving. He never gets tired of loving us despite our sinfulness and weaknesses; for He does not take pleasure in the death of the sinner.

Hence, the first reading tells us that the Lord, the God of Israel tirelessly sent his prophets to the Israelites. But the people did not listen to them. Thus, God delivered them in the hands of the Babylonians. They went to exile, a bitter experience in the history of the Israelites. Even then, God delivered them by raising king Cyrus of Persia to liberate them from exile. This is how loving, how forgiving our God is!

In the second reading, St Paul says that “God so loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy, when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ.” This is how immensely rich God’s saving grace is!

The gospel proclaims that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to us so that anyone who believes in him may be saved. He came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. To hepl us better appreciate the amazing grace and the love of God for us, Jesus makes a reference to the lifting up of the golden serpent by Moses in the desert (Num 21:6-9).

The serpent was a symbol of consolation and healing to the Israelites in thé desert. Jesus on the cross is the sign of our salvation, sign of God’s love for you and me. Yes, on that cross which is the emblem of humiliation and torture, death and condemnation, is found the emblem of love, forgiveness and liberation. By looking on the cross, we come to appreciate how our sins, transgressions and disobedience have nailed Jesus. We must believe in this love of Jesus and be obedient to his Word.
Amen.

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR B

Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 18:8-18
1Corinthians 1:22-25
John 2:13-25

THE PASSION IN PERSPECTIVE

Today is the third Sunday of Lent, a time for conversion and coming back to God. But for some of us, Sunday has become like any other day for business, a day for morning jogging, recreation, shopping or enjoyment. And Christianity is becoming more of an entertainment industry, a means of making money. But Sunday must be for us a day holy to the Lord, a day of worship. This is what the third of the Ten Commandments asks of us as presented in the first reading (Ex. 20:1-17).

Today’s gospel speaks of the cleansing of the Temple. Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive away those selling and buying in the Temple. Why did Jesus do that? Because the people had turned the House of God into a market, the Temple into a supermarket, the house of prayer into a business center. Religion had become an enterprise.

Moreover, it was hard for the Jews to understand what Jesus meant when he said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But the text explains that he was speaking of the temple of his body. This event therefore invites us to have in mind what lies before us in this Lenten season: the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 2:13-25).

This is the centre of Christianity: the cross and the empty tomb. We preach a crucified Christ, says Paul in the second reading. The drama of the cross, however, was nonsense for the pagans and a stumbling block to the Jews. But for us, it was and is still the power and wisdom of God. For on the cross hang the one who has saved us (1Cor. 1:22-25).

May the Lord help us to accept the reality of the cross and follow Christ carrying our own crosses.
Amen.