We waiver, we waiver, we waiver. In the Passion reading we hear of at least two instances where Jesus’ greatest followers, biggest fans, closest fans, they wavered. When asked to remain in prayer to keep him company, what do they do? They fall asleep. They waver. And then Jesus’ biggest fan of all, Peter, the one who would declare himself the biggest follower of his, when asked “do you know this man?!” Denies him, not just once, twice, and many other times, he wavers.
These people in the Gospel, they are us, we waver in the same way the disciples wavered. When push comes to shove, we don’t have the strength, we get tired, we think of ourselves more, we think of how other people might see us, we think of appearances, we waver, we blow with the wind. It’s like those leaves in the back of the parking lot in a day like today, where they are waving back and forth, we go with the wind, we don’t push back, we are weak, we are weak individuals, we are weak in our prayer, we fall asleep in our prayer, we should to do more fun things than to be followers of Jesus, we waver, even this very day, this very day of Palm Sunday, we are celebrating in some ways just how weak we all are. We celebrate that moment when Jesus arrives at the gates of Jerusalem and everybody is cheering, everybody is cheering and then quickly those cheers turn into jeers. From great support, big devotees, to the people who would happily throw a stone, who spit on him, who cursed him, who turned their back on him, we waver, we waver, but, Jesus doesn’t and that’s the important thing here, and that’s why He is our God, He is clear, He is firm, He is poised, and He’s not distracted or even distressed by how His friends let him down, in fact, in some ways is for that very reason, for that very weakness of his friends and disciples that he pushes forward with calm intent, because he know what he has to do, that my friends is our God. We waver, he doesn’t. We give up, he moves to the Cross where His love is proofed and shown and spilt for everyone of us, even to this very day, we waver but he doesn’t, and that’s what we celebrate. In fact, He dies on the cross not in spite of our weakness, but for the very fact that we are wavering individuals who find it very hard to hold it together, when push comes to shove we’ll go our own way and He does it especially for that, so each one of us, with our deepest insecurity, and our deepest defect and wound, Jesus places Himself on the Cross for us and He does it willingly, not grudgingly, He does it abundantly, and completely and fully and He did it once, and He only needed to do it once, but if He had to, I’m sure He would do it over and over again and that’s how the grace of His love continues to flow through the church as we gather on these special days, that we continue to realize just how important and how merciful and how powerful His love is in each one of us. And we gather on this, and we will gather on the days to come of Holy Week to meditate and to journey with Him, through His Passion, through His death, though His Resurrection. Why? Is it just because this is what Catholics do? No! We do it, so that just maybe some of His greatness, some of His mercy and some of His love might just rub off a little bit more on each one of us, that our weakness in some ways, may be just somewhat less, less overwhelming and less embarrassing, Jesus invites us to journey with Him, to be close to Him, so that we might become more like Him, therefore it’s a privilege to gather on this day, as we will gather in the days to come. Mysteriously, God worked through the church as we gather in this ritual fashion, huge blessing, to celebrate that moment when Jesus put Himself on the Cross, and let us never forget that He did all of this, and continues to do all of this, for the love of you, for the love of me, and our only adequate response, if there is a way of being adequate, is to journey with Him, to do it entirely for love of Him.
I invite you in the days ahead to ponder these things and to recognize just how wonderful, how beautiful our faith is, in Jesus who hands Himself over, so that we in some ways might feel the touch of His hand in our very weak and needy lives, and He does it for the love of the love of us, so we today gather for the love of Him. ~Father Jeremy Thomas, Pastor
These people in the Gospel, they are us, we waver in the same way the disciples wavered. When push comes to shove, we don’t have the strength, we get tired, we think of ourselves more, we think of how other people might see us, we think of appearances, we waver, we blow with the wind. It’s like those leaves in the back of the parking lot in a day like today, where they are waving back and forth, we go with the wind, we don’t push back, we are weak, we are weak individuals, we are weak in our prayer, we fall asleep in our prayer, we should to do more fun things than to be followers of Jesus, we waver, even this very day, this very day of Palm Sunday, we are celebrating in some ways just how weak we all are. We celebrate that moment when Jesus arrives at the gates of Jerusalem and everybody is cheering, everybody is cheering and then quickly those cheers turn into jeers. From great support, big devotees, to the people who would happily throw a stone, who spit on him, who cursed him, who turned their back on him, we waver, we waver, but, Jesus doesn’t and that’s the important thing here, and that’s why He is our God, He is clear, He is firm, He is poised, and He’s not distracted or even distressed by how His friends let him down, in fact, in some ways is for that very reason, for that very weakness of his friends and disciples that he pushes forward with calm intent, because he know what he has to do, that my friends is our God. We waver, he doesn’t. We give up, he moves to the Cross where His love is proofed and shown and spilt for everyone of us, even to this very day, we waver but he doesn’t, and that’s what we celebrate. In fact, He dies on the cross not in spite of our weakness, but for the very fact that we are wavering individuals who find it very hard to hold it together, when push comes to shove we’ll go our own way and He does it especially for that, so each one of us, with our deepest insecurity, and our deepest defect and wound, Jesus places Himself on the Cross for us and He does it willingly, not grudgingly, He does it abundantly, and completely and fully and He did it once, and He only needed to do it once, but if He had to, I’m sure He would do it over and over again and that’s how the grace of His love continues to flow through the church as we gather on these special days, that we continue to realize just how important and how merciful and how powerful His love is in each one of us. And we gather on this, and we will gather on the days to come of Holy Week to meditate and to journey with Him, through His Passion, through His death, though His Resurrection. Why? Is it just because this is what Catholics do? No! We do it, so that just maybe some of His greatness, some of His mercy and some of His love might just rub off a little bit more on each one of us, that our weakness in some ways, may be just somewhat less, less overwhelming and less embarrassing, Jesus invites us to journey with Him, to be close to Him, so that we might become more like Him, therefore it’s a privilege to gather on this day, as we will gather in the days to come. Mysteriously, God worked through the church as we gather in this ritual fashion, huge blessing, to celebrate that moment when Jesus put Himself on the Cross, and let us never forget that He did all of this, and continues to do all of this, for the love of you, for the love of me, and our only adequate response, if there is a way of being adequate, is to journey with Him, to do it entirely for love of Him.
I invite you in the days ahead to ponder these things and to recognize just how wonderful, how beautiful our faith is, in Jesus who hands Himself over, so that we in some ways might feel the touch of His hand in our very weak and needy lives, and He does it for the love of the love of us, so we today gather for the love of Him. ~Father Jeremy Thomas, Pastor
