does the natty matter?

Homily

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

10 April 2022

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

Does the natty matter?

It's madness at KU!  What a week, baby!  Rock stinking Chalk!  Everybody is exhausted.  Nobody knows how to get back to normal, or put the natty into the context of our real lives.  What just happened was awesome, and incredible, and so unbelievable!

So what does it mean, really?  Does the natty matter?

This basketball team inspired so many.  It was next to impossible not to get swept up in the story and adventure of it all.  The party is still going on!  No, the whole world wasn't watching.  No, the whole world is not saying Rock Chalk.  But I don't care.  We won the natty!  Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

But still, how do I put this gift into the context of my normal life?  I'll tell you how.  Let Jesus remember me.  Yes, Jesus saw and cares about what happened.  His Holy Week comes at the perfect time.  If I want the natty to be something I'll never forget, I'll let Jesus remember me.

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.  Jesus remember me when you win the ultimate victory!

That's what Holy Week is.  It's our remember what Jesus did, how He conquered the fiercest of enemies, sin and death themselves, by his passion.

Yet much more than my remembering is Jesus' remembering me.  This week is about Him.  It's about His revealing His passion for my story.  It's His remembering me that opens up a sacred space for my story to participate in His.

That's why the natty matters.  Jesus comes to invite what just happened, what is happening, and what will happen, inside of his passion, to win more victories in us, with us and through us.

The natty was a small part of this theodrama, this story of how sacrificial love wins, conquering all things even death itself.

The natty was indeed more than a game.  If Jesus remember it, the natty participates in this colossal struggle between life adn death.  It's always about more than winning and losing.  It's about laying hold of eternal life by trusting there is a love stronger than death.

That's the real story of the natty.  It's the story I'm wrapped up in.  Most of all, it's the story that Jesus remembers to invite me into this week.

+mj