A day to connect ourselves to God in love
Today the whole Christina world celebrates Palm Sunday that commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem with a tinge of sorrow and sadness. It may be the first time that a priest celebrates Palm Sunday without a community and community celebrates the same from home. The whole world is reeling under the heavy yoke of Corona Virus that is taking the lives of hundreds of people day by day all over the world. All of us ask the questions why??
Yes, dear friends, we ask the questions why?? The disciples too asked the same question why, when Jesus told the Apostles that he is going to Jerusalem to be handed over to be crucified. They would have been happy to stay with the triumphant Christ, each at his left and right. In fact with the celebration of the Psalm Sunday we enter into the Holy Week, during which we celebrate the great events of our faith, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The apostles, however, were afraid and found it difficult to understand that the world was to be delivered or salvation is be obtained through the Passion and cross of Christ. In fact the life of Jesus was a pilgrimage that ended in Jerusalem. It started in Bethlehem, moved day by day to its destiny, Jerusalem. In his pilgrim journey he accomplished what he was sent for or for what he came into the world – to proclaim the kingdom of God, which ultimately was accomplished on the cross. Jesus’ passion and death was not an ordinary death. It was an accomplishment of His Father’s plan for the redemption of human kind. To prove his identity and plan, he healed the sick, raised the dead, forgave sins, multiplied bread, calmed the sea, comforted the sorrowful and preached about the kingdom and its values. Finally he ended up giving his life on the cross after prolonged suffering and pain.
This year, in the weeks leading up to Easter, we have come face-to-face with suffering in a very tangible and quite extraordinary way. The daily updates on the spread of the virus and ever-changing protective measures have made us all, very personally and tangibly, a part of the overwhelming Mystery of the Cross, of suffering. Today our thoughts and feelings are steered by uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and worries for the future. Jesus was also afraid of suffering and was in mortal danger. He pleaded with the Father to remove the cup, if it was possible and his will. He submitted himself totally to his Father’s will. His love for His Father, whom He called Abba, or Papa, in prayer, and the love for humanity was stronger than the fear of suffering and death. With his love, He gave us access to the divine “wellspring” from which we can draw insight and confidence. God is our refuge in all situations, from Him comes the power of love, which endures everything and casts out all fears and anxieties.
In order to be able to draw from this spring, we, like the apostles, need prayer. Jesus admonishes as he did with the Apostles to remain awake and to pray so that we may pass the test. Help and salvation come to us through prayer. The salvation that we hope to obtain and will receive, as paradoxical as it may seem, requires the cross. The cross is the greatest symbol of what Jesus achieved; it is the central symbol of our faith too. Christ was victorious over evil through His death on the cross. He transformed death into resurrection with the power of divine love. That is the Good News from the cross. Since the Resurrection of Jesus, a divine, transformative power is inherent in our suffering as long as its connection to the cross of Christ remains intact. For Jesus, the cross was “His moment”, the moment He had been born into this world to experience. We, too, need to see this moment, today, as our “moment” to show our love for God, whose love for us is boundless.
This year as we ourselves feel the cross so acutely, we should direct our attention even more towards the cross of Christ and grasp and accept our cross more firmly in our hands. The more difficult the cross is to bear, the more love we need to feel. And so, even if the current crisis requires many small sacrifices from us and also brings with it great suffering for some, we should not just get lost in our own wounds, but share our cross with the millions of other people who have always lived and continue to live in emergency and crisis situations. Today we are called to pray for the salvation of the world with renewed fervour and pure hearts, practice charity and bear our cross in faith. This is the only way evil can be annihilated and the “ruler of this world” be ousted. We shall be victorious in the sign of the cross.
Let us also take refuge in Our Lady, the Mother who was given to us by Jesus from the cross, by faithfully praying her “corona”, the rosary, every day. She spoke these uniquely tender and comforting words to St. Juan Diego in Guadalupe five hundred years ago, in 1531: “Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dearest, smallest son: Nothing should frighten you, nothing aggrieve you. Your heart should not be troubled. Do not fear this illness or any other illness or sorrow. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow, under my protection? Am I not your fountain of joy? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crook of my arms? Are you not on my lap? Do you require more than this?” Yes, her immaculate mother’s heart, which suffered at the foot of the cross together with Our Lord, shall in the end triumph over evil.
On this Palm Sunday when we celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, let us resolve to bear the cross of Christ with joy in our hearts. In the passion, suffering and death of Christ, there is the hidden power of God, and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24) which we can appropriates for ourselves through love. Per crucem ad lucem – through the cross to the light. I wish you all a sacred and blessed Holy Week and Easter.
Most Rev. Dr. James Thoppil
Bishop of Kohima, Nagaland