Hosanna Blessed is He who comes

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes!”
Jn 12:13

A Strange New God Who Weeps

Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010
The gospel reading for the blessing of palms.
Luke 19:28-40

The Lord be with you
And also with you.

Jesus proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem. As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples ahead with instructions to go to the next village, and as they entered they were to look for a donkey tied beside the road. It would be a colt, not yet broken for riding. “Untie it,” Jesus said, “and bring it here. And if anyone should ask you why are you untying it, tell them that your master needs it.” So they went off and found everything just as Jesus had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying this colt?” They answered, “Our master needs it.” So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Him to mount.

As He rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road before Him. When they approached the place where the road went down the Mount of Olives, the whole procession began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles Jesus had done. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Master, tell your followers to be silent.” He said in reply, “If I tell them to be silent, the very stones will shout out!”

The gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
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The second reading from Palm Sunday Mass
Philippians 2:6-11

Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus: though He was very God, He did not cling to His equality with God but emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. He became a human being like the rest of us, and He became obedient to death, yes, even to death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
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Introduction
Palm Sunday & Passover 2010

Today, March 28th 2010 is the Feast of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week for the Christian community. For the Jewish community this Tuesday, March 30th 2010 is the Feast of Passover (or the Feast of Unleavened Bread). For Jews, it is the beginning of a seven- day celebration lasting till Monday April 5. Passover commemorates the deliverance ( circa 1450 BC) of the children of Israel from slavery to the Pharaoh of Egypt. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb. Upon the unmarked homes of the Egyptians the avenging Lord God rained death. But He passed over the homes of the Israelite marked with the blood of the lamb. Hence `The Feast of Passover.’ That changed the Pharaoh’s mind, who let the Israelites go free. They left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. Hence `The Feast of the Unleavened Bread.’

Especially at this sacred time of the year Catholics remind themselves of the context of the Last Supper and of the very Mass itself. And they feel united to the Jewish community, as it celebrates Passover 2010.

An old god who makes people suffer

On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists brought down two signature towers and three thousand innocent human beings in the World Trade Center in New York City. Christian preacher Jerry Falwell pointed his finger at “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, and ACLU people” and declared, “You helped this happen!” For Falwell the horrific event of 9/11 was God making people suffer for their immorality.

On December 26, 2004, the worst tsunami in recent memory inundated southeastern Asia, ruthlessly sweeping away 140,000 people. Fast upon that calamity, clerics in synagogues, churches and mosques declared the tsunami was God venting His anger at sinful human beings, or God simply letting people know who’s boss! Like Falwell’s God, the God of those clerics was making people suffer for their immorality.

On January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m., a 7.0 catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti. 245,000 structures were ruined, 400,000 people were left homeless, and 230,000 people were killed. On that occasion, another Christian preacher, Pat Robinson, declared, ”The earthquake was God making Haitians suffer because of their voodoo1 pact with the Devil.”

A strange new God who feels the suffering of His children.

Into such a god-awful theological world (where God makes people suffer) comes a strange new God. The old gods of ancient Greece and Rome made people suffer, but they themselves never suffered. The Christians’ God is a strange new God: He not only does not make His children suffer, He, in fact, actually weeps when they suffer! Mystic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, writes, “It is fully in accord with the Gospel to regard God as a Father weeping across the ages over the sufferings of his children, constantly trying to heal their wounds.” (Divine Milieu)

God wept when 3,000 innocent people were pulverized in the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/ 2001. God wept when 140,000 innocent people were swept away by the tsunami of December 26, 2005. In recent days, God wept again when 230,000 innocent people were entombed in the rubble of the Haiti earthquake of January 12, 2010.

A strange new God who feels His very own suffering!

Into a god-awful theological world comes a strange new God who not only weeps when His children suffer, but who also wept when He Himself suffered, especially in His crucifixion. In the second reading from the Palm Sunday Mass St. Paul writes eloquently about nothing less than a strange new God who suffered:

Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus: Though He was very God, He did not cling to his equality with God but emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. He became a human being like the rest of us, and He became obedient to death, yes, even to death on a cross. (Phil 2: 5-8)

A very unique God

Yahweh, the God of Jews, does not suffer. Allah, the God of Muslims, does not. The God of Christians, however, is a very unique God: He suffers! The crucifix which hangs from the neck of Christians proclaims nothing less than that: the Christians’ God suffers! That’s such strange news that St. Paul declares it to be “offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles.” (I Cor. 1: 23) Herein lies the very singular uniqueness of the Christians’ God: He weeps when His children suffer, and He wept when He Himself suffered on the cross.

Conclusion
I, too, was weeping

Some time ago two spokespersons from the War Department drove to a home, knocked at the door and announced to a father that his marine son (a very beloved man in whom the father was well-pleased) had been killed in Iraq. Overwhelmed with rage and grief, the father tore out of the house and torched their car! Then he turned to the utterly surprised spokespersons and fired angry words at them. “Where was God,” he asked, “and what was He doing when my son died in Iraq?”

After the Incarnation in which God the Father begot an earthly and mortal Son, God can now fire back at the grieving father: “Dear man,” God can say, “I, too, am a Father, and I was doing just what you are doing now: I, too, was weeping over a beloved Son in whom I was well-pleased, but whom men nailed to a cross.” (Mt 17: 5)