Mt. 21:1-11; Is. 50:4-7; Ps. 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Phil. 2:6-11; Mt.26:14-27:66

“From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.”  To the high priest who tore his robes this was “blasphemy” for which Jesus is crucified.  To the believer this is the highest truth that Jesus Christ is Lord!  The hour has come to enter into the passion, death and resurrection with the Lord not simply “of” the Lord but with the Lord.  Our Lenten journey is to taste and see the goodness of the Lord in his suffering for us that we may live. 

This week is our time to “keep watch and pray that you may not undergo the test”.  What is this test?  It is the test of faith.  Peter’s faith was tested and he denied the Lord three times.  “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Holy week is Jesus invite to us to keep watch with him in this Easter Triduum.  Will we join him for the last supper and washing of our feet on Holy Thursday, for the passion of his death on Good Friday, for the vigil as he lays in the tomb on Holy Saturday and for the resurrection on Easter Sunday? 

The salvation of the world centers on two hinge moments in history.  One is the incarnation of Jesus as he enters this world as one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature.  The other is Holy Week as he does the will of the Father and gives his life up for our salvation.  The rest of history either looks forward to the Incarnation or back to the resurrection to understand our own identity as a child of God, our purpose for living as a divine call and the way to heaven as Christ laid it out for us to follow. 

The rest of history is our struggle to reintegrate ourselves into God’s divine will by separating ourselves from sin.  This we cannot do by our own will but by our call up to a God of love and mercy who forgives all our transgressions.  In salvation history everything matters and nothing is without consequence in God’s plan.  What have we learned this Lenten season helping us to see rightly God’s truth and our purpose in his plan of salvation?  If we have truly entered into God’s plan then our eyes are opened to do his will with right action.  Since God is outside of time then not only does everything matter to God but every moment matters as if it was the first time, the last time and the only time we have to respond and say “Yes, Lord”. 

In the Lord’s Passion comes the climax of good and evil.  Jesus manifests the incredible love of God in his sacrifice of self for the other, the other being our humanity, each and every one of us.  Through Jesus we recognize God’s creation is good to give himself up for us.  How does the power of evil even exist to have crucified the Lord?  According to Augustine “evil is a rejection of self that leads self to evil”. It brings death to self and others having failed to realize by choice what God had intended for humanity, humanity brings death upon itself taking with it whoever it can capture.  The rejection of God is the rejection of goodness with a shear persistence to be bad. 

This day the Lord gives us an important lesson.  If we are going to die and we will all see this mortal life end then make it count for something greater than ourselves.  This is what Jesus does for us not only captured in time and history as we remember that fateful event but, he does it every moment of our life in the perpetual sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus is crucified for our sins. When we sin, our sins cry out “crucify him”.  When we come to seek forgiveness in confession our souls cry out “heal me” and our disordered relations between our soul and our flesh is reconciled.  When we receive him in the Eucharist our body and soul taste and see the goodness of the Lord as he is in us and we are in him.  Praise be to God.