Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I always like to point out the contrast between the Gospel passages that we have read today from Matthew’s Gospel. In the first Gospel account, we heard the crowd rejoicing and saying:  "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest."

Then, just a few chapter later, we hear the people shouting: “Let him be Crucified!” It demonstrates to us how fickle we human beings can be, and how easily we can be ruled by fear.

Perhaps this is a good reminder for those in ministry to remember that we are called to challenge people to walk the narrow way. Fr. Bryce has a nice phrase; it is something like, “We are called to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”

(Joke) So I suppose the question is: If by the end of the homily you all aren’t shouting for me to be crucified, am I really doing my job? But seriously, we see how our Lord’s mission, above all, is the salvation of mankind.

We see how Jesus enters into the very heart of sin. He goes to the heart of it to destroy it from within. We see all the forms of human dysfunction displayed for us. He is surrounded by all that is wrong with us. So that he may swallow it up.

It starts with Judas’ betrayal, betrayed by a kiss. One who lived with Him … on who ate with him. He sells his friendship for a bag of silver coins. I think that we are meant to reflect on how we have been Judas to those that we love, and to the Lord by our unfaithfulness. 

Jesus is in the garden, he prays, he sweats blood in his deep anguish.

At this moment of truth, his disciples are asleep. If there was a time that Jesus needed the support of his friends it is now, and they are asleep. We see the sin of Sloth. We perhaps reflect on how we have fallen asleep, been slothful. Our own spiritual sloth is reflected here.

Violence: They come to get Jesus the prince of peace with swords and clubs. “Put away your sword!” the Lord says, “all who take the sword will perish by the sword” Life becomes about me, others become threats to me. Cutting of the ear, it is breakdown of communication. No one hears. We see our own violence. Usually for us expressed through the tongue.

The disciples left him and fled. Spiritual cowardice. They were called to resist evil and stand with Jesus but they fled. We see our own spiritual cowardice reflected.

We see hypocrisy on display as well. We know that Judas returns the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, the very ones who gave him the money in the first place, and they say: “It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury, for it is the price of blood.” Recognizing that this is blood money, that what they are doing is wrong, they still condemn Jesus.

We could also reflect on how our Lord is left in isolation. He enters into our own experience of feeling isolated and alone. And isn’t that what sin does to us? It isolates us from each other and from God.

Next we see Lying, and bearing false witness, portrayed. The Sanhedrin are gathered. And there are all kinds of false witnesses. Liars. We see our own tendency to lie to get ahead.

We see on display in the members of the Sanhedrin: pride, envy, and Jealousy and Anger. Out of those sins they decide to kill Jesus. We are meant to recognize these things in ourselves as we all cry out: “Crucify him!” 

We see scapegoating – blaming another for one’s own faults. We are meant to see in this our own tendency to scapegoat, Justifying one’s self to the condemnation of another. We see Pilate trying to absolve himself of responsibility.

We can reflect on Judas’ despair . . . a refusal to accept forgiveness. Self destruction.

All of the forms of sin and dysfunction are on display here. And Jesus enters right into the heart of it; he is unflinching, fearless. And in his passion, he passes judgment on all of it, showing that it all leads to the destruction of the innocent. 

But the good news is that Jesus inters into it, to its very heart, to destroy it, to swallow it up into victory. He shows that death and sin do not have the last word. He demonstrates the ever greater power of God’s divine love, which conquers all. 

I encourage you to make an effort to make this Holy Week very special. I encourage you to come the Holy Thursday Mass, and the Good Friday Service with the veneration of the Cross, and to come to the Easter Vigil. We call it the Triduum, the three days, because these liturgies are intimately connected, culminating on the Easter vigil.

I have a couple of announcements. Please remember that this coming Friday is Good Friday and it is a day of fasting and abstinence from meat. Recall that fasting means that you can have one full meal and two smaller meals that are less than the one full meal, and no snacks in between meal times.