Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for April 9, 2006
Liturgical Year B-Cycle II
Palm Sunday
by Fr. John Carney
Topic: Making Holy Week a Priority
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Gospel 
Mk 1:1-10
When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,  he sent two of his disciples and said to them,  "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it,  you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.  Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone should say to you, "Why are you doing this?” reply, “The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.”  So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it.  Some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”  They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it.  So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it.  And he sat on it.  Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.  Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!  Hosanna in the highest!”
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I think of all the duties a priest has throughout the year, perhaps the most humbling of all, is to play the part of The Christ during the Passion.  Of course, the priest plays the part of the Christ at every mass, and acts in the person of Christ; however, it is deeply humbling.  I am always reminded of my personal unworthiness, and I suspect that’s why there are so few of us, perhaps. 
 
Everyone understood that Gospel.  It was very clear.  As we listen to the account of Gods love for us, in giving us his only begotten son as a sacrifice of the new covenant.  It needs no explanation.  If everyone understands the Gospel of Passion Sunday, very few really begin to understand the reality of Holy Week, which we have started today, especially that period of Holy Week, that sacred three days, the Triduum.  The Latin for tri duum, three days, begins at sundown on Holy Thursday with the last supper and adoration.  It also includes the event of Good Friday, Easter Saturday silence, the Vigil during the evening, and the events of Easter morning.  That period of 72 hours from Sundown on Holy Thursday, to Sundown on Easter Sunday, is the most sacred time of the year. 

I said I do not think that we begin to understand it, or well never fully understand it, this side of heaven, because if you were to ask most people, including most Christians, what is the great feast of the year, they would probably say, Christmas.  Of course, in our country, we determine the truth of everything by taking a poll, so it must be Christmas.  Certainly if you were a visitor from outer space and you watched human beings in the West, and you asked what their big holiday is, they would say, "Oh, Christmas."

Christmas, frankly, as important as it is, the Incarnation is essential.  As important as it is, it pales in comparison with Easter and with the events of Holy Week.  Indeed, Christmas was not even celebrated in the beginning of the church.  No one has any idea of Christ’s birthday.  We finally picked December 25th, because it coincided nicely with a Roman-Pagan feast that we baptized and named Christmas.  Christmas.  I love Christmas.  You know that.  Nevertheless, Christmas pales in comparison with Easter. 
 
This week that has begun is what we are all about as Christ’s followers.  I think that we do not understand it because we do not react to it very well.  Most Christians do not participate at all in the events of Holy Week, or they do so in a very minimalist way.  I think to understand it; I’m going to try my best to explain what we are doing this week.  Indeed, actually what we do at every mass.  It is a problem here to explain that, because I am talking about mystery, and mystery defies explanation.  If it could be easily explained, it wouldn’t be mystery.  In fact, mystery is better explained and understood through art and poetry and through music than it is through discursive language.  But that’s all this poor Irishman has.  So, it’s all I can use. 
 
The events of Holy Week, especially the Sacred Triduum, are one continuous unfolding story and act of Gods love for us.  Each part, from Holy Thursday to sunset on Easter Sunday, each part is intimately connected with the others.  We do not gather to remember the historical events that occurred some 2,000 years ago.  We are not reenacting the passion, we are living it.  That’s where the mystery comes in.  When Jesus said, "Do this in memory of me," He didn’t mean when you do this remember me, or recall what I did and reenact this Eucharist.  Sometimes, Catholics and other Christians are criticized for having Eucharist.  You’ve heard the complaint; He did that once and for all.  There is no need for you to come together every Sunday and reenact it.  We are not coming together every Sunday to reenact it; we are coming together to live it.  We are participating in the very Eucharist that Jesus did 2,000 years ago in a timeless way. 
 
To understand that there is a philosophical term called anamnesis.  It was a term that began with Greek philosophy.  It developed over the years until Christians picked it up.  Plato started it actually.  The idea of anamnesis means that you can actually enter into another time, another moment.  Kind of like a real deja vu.  We’ve all experienced feelings of deja vu, that "Man, I’ve been here before" feeling.  It’s spooky, isn’t it?  Have you ever experienced it?  It is mysterious, and I think there is something to it, but I’m not sure.  That’s for another discussion and maybe not a religious one.  This is more deja vu; this is more that the feeling that we’ve been here before.  It’s an actual entrance into the event of the Passover of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Religious Jews understand this better than Christians do.  When they celebrate the Passover, which they will this week, the youngest boy asks the oldest man at the Passover supper, Grandfather, what night is this?"  The Grandfather says, "This is the night, when our people, the Hebrew people, passed from death to life, from slavery to freedom, from bondage to freedom.  This is the night.”  He doesn’t says, "Well, Grandson, were remembering the events of 3400 years ago."  He says, “This is the night.”  Therefore, Jews believe that when they celebrate Passover, they are in it with Moses, with the people, in Egypt, in a real way, not a historical way, obviously, because it is out of time and its mystery, but it’s easy for God to do that. 
 
Let me read to you a quote from a website called Catholic Leaguette website.  It’s a Canadian-American lay apostolate website.  Listen to this.  It says it better than I did. 

The rabbis taught that no one could be considered a true Jew unless he underwent the Passover with Moses and the children of Israel and Egypt.  This was accomplished in the generations after Moses by the Passover ritual.  The Passover meal was not seen as a mere memorial or even as a reenactment.  It was an actual participation in the Exodus.  If a person went through the Passover ritual, he was considered to have actually participated in the events of the Exodus.  As such, the Passover meal was seen as a sacrament of initiation for the Jews in which the real presence of the Exodus was made accessible to the Jewish people as a perpetual reminder, as an anamnesis of what was accomplished in Egypt.  The parallel of the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist is obvious.

Does that make some sense?  We are not reenacting anything.  We are not coming together to remember anything in a historical way, because it makes us feel good or reminds us or makes us feel holy.  It does those things I hope, but we are coming together this week to actually participate in the saving act of Jesus Christ and his Passion.  We celebrate the new covenant this week. 
 
You know there are many covenants.  You know the story of salvation, when God created man in His own image.  He loves us, and he wanted to share everything with us, but we kept messing up.  This all started with Adam and Eve and the snake and the apple, and then it went on to Noah’s time, and time and time and time again.  God would say, "Look, I’m going to make a deal with you humans," and there would be a covenant.  Jews and Hebrews before them would celebrate a covenant, they would take a sacrificial animal, most perfectly, a one-year-old unblemished lamb and they would slaughter it on the altar and they would take the blood of the lamb and sprinkle it on the altar, which symbolizes God.  That is why we reverence the altar.  They would sprinkle it on the altar and on the people, the blood, and that meant the deal was struck.  Sealed in the blood of the sacrificial lamb.  Wow.  This is what we do here, isn’t it.  However, time and time again, we humans messed up the covenant and finally in the fullness of time, God said, "Enough.  I'll make a deal with a human who won’t break it, my son."  Christ became human and God made the deal with Him.  He is incapable of breaking the deal.  Jesus is the great High priest who offers the sacrifice.  He’s the victim of the sacrifice.  By the way, after the Jews had a covenant, there was no sense in wasting a perfectly good lamb, they ate it.  What do we do here?  See that?  It’s more than a parallel.  This is the new covenant and that’s what we celebrate this week in Holy Week.  That’s something.  That’s what he meant when he said, "Do this in memory of me." 
 
Now, were all busy people.  I just read this morning that we are the richest people in America.  Did you read that?  They didn’t count my household, Ill tell you that.  Were busy.  We read a lot.  We have a lot of things to do.  There are a lot of sports.  We are busy.  We need to establish priorities.  You know that.  If you don’t make it a priority, it won’t happen.  I encourage you, I beg you, to make Holy Week your priority this week.  A lot of us were celebrating spring break last week.  I know I did.  I was playing golf.  I planned that very carefully.  I had to sneak away from you people to Arizona to play golf at my priests meeting.  We need to plan this week even more.  This is much more important, even more important than golf.  This week is of eternal significance.  All that gives us pleasure is passing.  All that gives us pain is passing.  That which is important is that which is eternal.  This week is of eternal importance. 
 
Enter into it fully, as fully as you are capable.  Celebrate with us the mysteries of Christ’s love for us.  I'll leave you with his question, "Can you not spend one hour with me?"