Palm Sunday Of The Lord’s Passion, Year B

Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

He said to him in reply, “You say so.”

Meaning, “is this a personal discovery? Or are you just repeating what others have told you?”

In a famous sentence Plato said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We may also say the unexamined faith is not worth preaching. We have to think through the words of Jesus that we hear at Mass, so they become a personal discovery.

By answering back to Pilate in that way, in front of the Jewish elite, Jesus displays “the very royal consciousness that he is being interrogated about since no one would dare to answer a ruler in this way unless he felt himself to be somehow his superior. [source: James C. Scott, Domination, 202-7].

The trial reveals a political theology where resistance and resilience are faithful Christian practices within today’s political climate. The crowd or majority is fickle, malleable, and readily manipulated. As Samuel Crossman’s Good Friday hymn says, “A murderer they save; the Prince of Life they slay.”

When we live our uncrucified self we risk pandering to other’s whims and emotions as part of man’s approval instead of looking in the first place in my own heart where God dwells. Indeed, only if we are able to let go of man’s approval, will our heart be gripped by Christ who has become our first and only love. [source unknown]

Yet, he dies too for those who arrange for his death: the Sanhedrin, Romans, Pharisees, Sadducees, and his own disciples, and Peter who run from him.

I will close with a true story spoken from Mark Wingfield on July 23, 2020:

Our pastor told the story of Father Michael Renninger, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia. While a college student on his way home one weekend, Renninger stopped to visit his grandparents. They lived in the same row house in Philadelphia he had known growing up. His grandfather had a series of strokes that left him paralyzed on one side and unable to talk or swallow. His grandmother determined to take care of him at home, even though he required a feeding tube.

On that day, Renninger recalled, he opened the squeaky front door and immediately knew things were not right. The goopy liquid food was splattered all over his grandfather, whose face was red. His grandmother was struggling to care for him when she realized their grandson had entered the house. The college student started to leave, assuming he didn’t need to walk into this embarrassing situation.

Then he heard his grandmother’s stern voice: “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare leave. Sometimes this is what love looks like.”

Jesus permits a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

We have a fellowship in His work. His merit is infinite, yet he allows us to share in infinite rewards by our labors in Him.

Amen.