palm sunday

I am required to do two homilies today, at least two short ones.  This is the first and this is done outside the church to remember the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem. This is done just before we re-enact this triumphant entry with palm branches and hymns of Hosanna.  The other homily will be done inside the church to remember the passion of the Lord, that is, his suffering and death on the cross.  So we have two shouts today.  A crowd will shout to the top of their voice, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Then not so long later another shout will ensue, “crucify him, crucify him.”  SO which is which - is it a hosanna or is it a crucify him?  If it is confusing to our hearing today, it must have been even more confusing to the crowd in Jesus’ time who shouted and demanded two extremely opposite and contrary things.

 When I was a seminarian somebody in the community proposed to name our seminary dog “sile.”  So imagine the confusion we would have created to the dog and also to us if we called out to him “totoy sile, totoy sile.” 

If you find this quite silly and absurd, you are right - “totoy sile”, and also hosanna, crucify him.  O by the way, hosanna means “welcome, welcome;” crucify him means “let’s get rid of him.”

So which is which?

This absurdity is characteristic of our world today.  We are in a world where morality depends on whether you are conservative or progressive.  We are in a world of ever changing loyalties we invented the word balimbing to describe it.  We are in a world where nothing is final, nothing is sure, nothing is lasting, decisions are referred to as flip-flopping and people are referred to as non-committal.  No wonder Pilate washed his hands and left.

In the midst of all these one person stands out apparently with no regard as to what the crowd shouts and where the crowd sways.  He is a person of commitment; he is faithful and loyal; he is steadfast in his resolve and unflinching in his purpose.

This Holy Week our focus is Jesus.  We look up to him who bore his sufferings silently but bravely.  We adore him who spoke and lived the truth regardless of their consequences.  We speak highly of him who did what was right and good, no matter what, and no matter where it led him.  We bow to him who was faithful till the end.

As we commemorate this triumphal entry in Jerusalem, let us be mindful as to where Jesus stood and where we stand today.

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Our ears are trained to hear upward movements - from down up, down up.  For one we are moved by rags to riches stories, or even failure to success stories.  We are amazed when we discover that the founder of Shoemart started out poor only to end up as one of the riches in Asia.  Or we wonder at Steve Jobs who started out barely having anything decent to eat he had go on weekends to an ashram so that he can eat something decent once a week.  Eventually he ended up co-founding Apple, maker of the Mac, Ipod, Ipad and iphone.  Down up, down up. Even our telenovelas are all upward movements. 

Today however we hear something different.  It can be found in our second reading today, from the letter of Paul to the Philippians.  It is not your usual up down story, not your rags to riches stories, but the opposite - from riches to rags.  Not from failure to success stories but from success to what should I say, fiasco, a catastrophe in human standards.  Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God; rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross. 

Jesus was God and yet he emptied himself of all claims to divine glory.  This is not some force of circumstance that he came down tumbling from his lofty throne - No!  Rather it was self-emptying, willingly giving up the glory that was rightly his so as to pour himself out in love for us. He died as a slave does - on a cross.

What Jesus did was absolutely counter cultural.  It is against our way of doing things.  It is a far cry from our expected behavior.  It was not our usual down up movement, but a downward movement - God to slave, divine to human, lofty throne to being lowly, majesty to humility, up down.

Have you experienced the same movement in your life?  It may not always be having everything, then one day deciding to be happy with nothing, then one day deciding to be happy with less.  It may not always be like that although the sisters of Carmel, past and present, and even seminarians and priests, have stories similar to that.   But I am also referring to experiences of self-giving that rips out something from you, you end up in the losing end.  Pierdi.  When you forgive you lose.  When you welcome back an erring brother you lose.  When you prefer motherhood over career you will surely lose and you will surely miss a lot.  How many among us forwent what they wanted to do with their lives so that they can support their brothers and sisters in school or an ailing father?  How many among us have to give way so that others can become better?  Commitment and faithfulness have a price and sometimes they can be steep, and they can be painful.

Today and this week I invite you to look at the passion of Jesus in this light, permitting it to remind you and encourage you even in your own passion and self-emptying for the sake of the other.