Gospel Meditation

March 28, 2021
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Many struggle with Jesus. Some who consider themselves faithful hail him in their churches but still struggle to figure out what to do with him on our streets. The message is somehow more palatable when it echoes pious renderings and sentiments and involves singing hosannas during worship. It becomes a bit trickier when it gets to the part about changing the way we conduct the business of our lives, becoming more sensitive to the disadvantaged, poor, and marginalized, and living as servants of our Loving Creator. Ultimately, it is a struggle between wanting to be God ourselves and letting God be God as God is. That’s why it’s so easy to become hypocritical. We, like those who hailed Christ as he arrived in Jerusalem and sent Christ to the cross to die, also talk out of both sides of our mouths. We entertain what suits us at the time and walk away from the rest.

Many neglect God’s beautiful creation because they prefer what humans have made instead. Progress isn’t seen in preserving and enhancing what God has made but replacing it with something we believe is better and more useful.  The earth, flowers, and animals are all expendable if they stand in the way of the “more” we want to achieve. We seek to remove as many obstacles and hurdles as possible in search of the easiest, quickest, and most efficient path we can find. We have created drugs and laws that preserve our free choice, even though it may mean setting aside God’s vision and example. Why suffer when we can easily be put to rest? Why endure insult or injury when we can retaliate, eliminate or subdue? Why accept life when it is acceptable to choose otherwise? We want to be God and resist accepting the fact that our real Creator has already given us the blueprints for the life we need to live in the Beatitudes and in the example of his Passion. We don’t like being stewards and managers and really want the power to do as we wish and desire.  We want to create our own way.

Where has the true, effective Christian voice been through all of the wars and violence, prejudice and unjust conquests, abuse of human beings and attempted extinctions of nationalities, the establishments of procedures and protocols that serve only a few and not the many and all of the injustices and exploitations that are a part of our human history? A few courageous prophets have stood up and out throughout all of the comings and goings of our human journey with many receiving the same fate as the Crucified One we hail this week. Some still walk among us as shining stars showing us how it really can be. How would Jesus’ journey have ended if he lived life as we do? Unless we encounter the good with the bad, the just with the unjust, the grace with the sin, the glory with the cross, the death with the life we most certainly risk rendering God obsolete. After all, haven’t we already convinced ourselves that we can do better?

©LPi

MEDITACIÓN EVANGÉLICO (Gospel Meditation)

28 de marzo de 2021
Domingo de Ramos de la Pasión de Cristo

En este Domingo de Ramos, mientras se bendicen las palmas cantamos con gusto: “¡Hosanna al Hijo de David! ¡Bendito sea el que viene en nombre del Señor! ¡Hosanna en lo más alto de los cielos! (Mateo 21:9). Toda la ciudad estaba de fiesta, estaba alborotada por Jesús. La alegría de esta celebración queda también plasmada en la liturgia de hoy. La oración de la bendición de las palmas ayuda y aumenta el gozo en nuestros corazones: “Aumenta, Señor Dios, la fe de los que esperan en ti, escucha con bondad las suplicas de quienes te invocan, para que, al presentar hoy nuestros ramos a Cristo victorioso, demos para ti en él frutos de buenas obras. Él, que vive y reina por los siglos de los siglos. Amén.  

También, escuchamos la Pasión del Señor de acuerdo a San Marcos. Así, da comienzo la Semana Santa o Semana Mayor. Toda la celebración nos prepara para el Triduo Pascual. Nuestros catecúmenos serán bautizados y daremos comienzo a la cincuentena Pascual. Tomemos conciencia de los dos triunfos de Jesús — La entrada triunfal a la Ciudad de Jerusalén y su triunfo de la resurrección — En esta semana vamos a conocer la gran capacidad del amor de Dios, al ver de lo que es capaz Jesús por todos nosotros. El reto, es de qué somos capaces nosotros por demostrar el amor a los demás, especialmente en este tiempo tan incierto que vivimos. Reflexionemos, en la palabra “triunfar”, analicemos lo que significa el triunfo de Jesús en la cruz. Pidámosle al Señor fortaleza para ser fuertes en los momentos de prueba.

©LPi