put your hours within his hour

Homily

Palm Sunday

17 April 2011

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

Daily Readings

It would be better for that man if he had never been born.

Judas was not the only one who betrayed Jesus. All the disciples betrayed him. He taught them to pray, and when he needed them to pray the most, they fell asleep. They all promised to die with him, yet cowardice ruled the hour. None mounted a cross next to Jesus, and only John made it to Calvary. He taught them to build a kingdom without force, and his disciples drew a sword. He taught them to stand in the truth, and they all denied him.

All of Jesus disciples betrayed him. His blood was on them and their children. As we have gone through the season of Lent, our sloth, our indifference, our cowardice, our lying, and our greed have become known to us. His blood is upon us and our children. We crucified him. We are sinners, just like the first disciples. Yet this is not the end of the story. We have repented of these sins, so that something worse may not happen to us. It would be better for that man if he had never been born. Jesus points out the real possibility of our story ending in despair. May this never be said of us. The shedding of Jesus' blood unleashes God's mercy upon humanity. It is shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus' blood is shed for me and for the forgiveness of my sins.

This is what Judas forgot. This is what he did not hear at the last supper. That is why his life ended in despair, whereas the other disciples found a way to move forward. This is what we must not forget, that Jesus' hour of agony is for the forgiveness of sins. The other disciples eventually began again to pray. They began to tell the truth. They woke from their sleep, and found the courage to die with Jesus. They found the meaning of their lives, the opportunity to witness to a love beyond all telling, a love powerful enough to forgive sins, within the hour of Jesus suffering, death and resurrection. They found new life measured by the depth of God's love, and a new mission to build a kingdom not with money and swords, but a kingdom whose power is in its ability to hand itself over to its enemies.

Jesus' kingdom is beyond the understanding of the world, no more powerful than a pitiable man riding a donkey into the wrath of those who want to kill him. Yet this is the kingdom to which we are invited to return if we dare to go to Jerusalem with him. As an eternal kingdom, which the world is powerless to destroy, this kingdom has the power to come forward in history into our present hour. Jesus' hour has the power to help us reorganize our own story, and the haphazard circumstances of our lives, so that we can see through once again to the end. This is the time, Holy Week, where we learn with special attention how we are invited to live, to suffer, to die and to rise with Jesus Christ our Lord. May we see in our ending not the despair of Judas, but the new life won for the apostles by the paschal mystery of Jesus, and with our sins forgiven by the shedding of his blood, let us go with Jesus to Jerusalem.