Beware of the crowd with palms

 A soccer fanatic was once watching a match on the Television in his living room with his only child, a boy of four years. When his team scored the winning goal, he went wild with excitement. He forgot that his ceiling fan was on and on high speed; he lifted his boy up as a way of expressing his overwhelming joy with him, and the ceiling fan slit the throat of the little boy. The passion that sparked off overwhelming joy ended in tragic death. This is what passion is all about. Our passion is the thing in our lives that we are madly in love with. For some people it is one sport or another; and there are others who are crazy about cars, clothes, movies, dancing and singing, politics, plants, flower, animals, etc. What is your passion?

We call today The Passion Sunday because Jesus Christ shows us what his passion is; it is to complete the Will of God by offering his life for the salvation of all; he is madly in love with us otherwise he will not take this route.

Like the soccer fanatic, we begin today’s liturgy singing “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who come in the name of the Lord…” and celebrating the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, which means triumphant entrance of the Prince of Peace, God who is love, The Way, The Truth and The Life into our lives. Maybe our initial response is joy and peace; we hope that these will not soon meet their tragic death as the joy sparked by the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem will soon meet tragic death of an innocent man. It will be violence done against truth, life and way of peace. It becomes more ridiculous because this violence happens in a place whose name means “City, Foundation, Possession or Rain of Peace.”

Jesus knows what he is up against, and that there is no way out of it, and his thoughts and sentiments are summarized in the prophecy of Isaiah, “I did not cover my face against insult…, I gave my back to those who beat me…The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” At the Gethsemane, he prayed that the suffering be removed from his mission but this did not happen. We too have our share of heavy sacrifices and suffering to make in other to demonstrate the depth of our passion or love for someone or something. Some of us may become sick, collapse and die or faint because our sports team lost important gain; people cry because their pet animals die or are seriously injured; we can also kill because of our dream car; and may be prepared to die for someone we truly love. We endure a lot of sufferings and difficulties because of our children, and people offer their lives to protect their country and families. Some times we may feel as if God has abandoned us and we make such prayers like “My God, My God why have you abandoned me!” But at this point, we should remember what Paul writes in the second reading “…Because of this, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every other name…” The sufferings of the just people shall never be in vain. Hence Jesus teaches us that the glory that lasts takes a lot of sacrifices to achieve.

So today is the day to link the passions of our lives with the reason for the suffering of Jesus, the Christ. It is not the day to mourn in agony because of our difficulties and sufferings in life but a day to ask ourselves this question, ‘Why am I suffering like this?’ So it is not how much we suffer but the reason for the suffering that matters more. We should beware of the crowd with palms, which are people who may offer us cheap praises or benefits that may distract us for our main target in life. There are passions that may offer us momentary joy but only for us to see sorrow build high afterward. Meanwhile, suffering to make our children have better life is a good passion. When we deny ourselves some comforts in order to help people is dire needs, we have the spirit of Jesus. If we have to accept insults, calumnies and persecutions because we identify with the less privileged, the social outcasts, the homeless, the sick, the orphans and suffering widows; and when we welcome and associate with those considered morally dirty, we become other Christs. Whatever we can offer to make the entrance of Jesus Christ into other people’s lives smooth and dignifying; and to make people feel the love and mercy of God, is our own little donkey; and Jesus needs it.