HOMILY PALM SUNDAY YEAR B
Making Sense of our Suffering
(Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 14:1-15:47)
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“We transmit the pain we don’t transform,” and, “Hurt people, hurt people.” These succinct quotes from Richard Rohr, noted spiritual writer and speaker, touch on the meaning of the Paschal Mystery for our lives.
Faith in Jesus allows us to make sense of our loneliness and suffering through forgiveness and selfless love. It allows us to transform our pain into redemptive suffering that reveals the love of God, rather than transmit that pain.
Today we commemorate the fact that the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus with open arms. He was, it seems, a great public success. His Word was heard. His ministry was achieved. One week later, however, those same people turned him over to be crucified, or watched silently while others did it. This being let-down happens to many of us. What is important is that we go through our Passion the way Jesus did, that we transform it rather than transmit it, that we let it become for us Redemptive Suffering, suffering that has meaning.
Palm Sunday turns to Passion Sunday for all of us. We all have had good times in life. We all have had those good times go sour. People let us down and hurt us in all kinds of ways; our plans don’t work; loved ones die too early, or sickness comes to us. For some, life becomes so painful that they contemplate ending their lives prematurely. Tragically, all too many people do just that. When Palm Sunday turns to Passion Sunday for us, we have a choice. We can turn bitter, like Judas, or we can become better, like Jesus.
Jesus has experienced the depths of human suffering and loneliness; he can make sense of ours. He was betrayed by Judas, abandoned by his disciples, denied by Peter, tortured and abused, perhaps even sexually abused, by his enemies. On top of all that, he experienced the apparent absence of God, of being abandoned by God on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” he cried.
This is the great test of faith – to be given the experience of the apparent absence of God in our lives. This test comes only to a few strong persons, saints who come close to being like Jesus. This is the test into which we pray God will not lead us when we pray the Our Father, which should more accurately read, “Lead us not into the test.”
But look how Jesus handled his suffering. He forgave his abusers from the cross: “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” He poured out his life and his love for us to the end, without faltering or complaining. His cry on the cross, “It is finished” is a cry of victory. Even Psalm 22 that he quoted when he felt forsaken, ends with an act of total trust in God’s love and praise for that love.
Although the passion reading today ends with a body wrapped in linen cloth and placed in a tomb with a stone over the entrance, we know that it is not the end. Even in Jesus’ death, there are the seeds of resurrection. New life is already beginning, for the heavy temple curtain that kept people from entering the Holy of Holies is now ripped open from top to bottom. Now there is no separation between humanity and God. With the death of Jesus on the cross, we can see right into the heart of God, and what we see is humility, mercy, compassion, unconditional love, forgiveness and total non-violence. Now, finally, we know who God is. From the death of Jesus on the cross will come new life for all who believe in him. From the way he went through his passion, deep profound meaning can be given to our struggles, our passion if we allow it to become redemptive suffering, as did Jesus.
St. Mother Teresa is an example. She whom everyone thought was a saint living in close intimate union with God while she was alive, actually suffered the experience of the “apparent absence” of God all through her years of ministry. The book about her after she died reveals she felt that God was not there, completely absent, all during her ministry. She felt the absence of God. Some judged perhaps she wasn’t that holy after all. The truth is she was so holy, her faith so strong, that she was given the same test Jesus endured on the cross. What an example she is for us as one who trusted and kept on pouring out God’s love to the poor even though she herself was not experiencing any consolation from God.
Another example is the book The Shack. In that story, Mack has a good life with his wife Nan and their children. Then one day his little daughter Missy is abducted, abused and murdered by a serial killer. Though they find out where she was murdered, they are unable to find the body. Mack’s life falls apart and he is filled with “The Great Sadness” as the book puts it. He struggles to find meaning and any joy in life. Then a mysterious note takes him back to the shack where the murder happened. There he encounters the Trinity in a surprising way and learns some deep profound lessons into the mystery of suffering and pain. In the end, he learns to accept Missy’s death, he is reconciled with his abusive father, and above all he learns to forgive the man who abused and murdered his daughter. He is set free to return to his family, a changed man, able to live and love in peace and joy. He too, is a powerful Passion Sunday lesson for us.
The Eucharist that we celebrate on this Palm and Passion Sunday is itself an act of faith based on the suffering and sacrifice of Christ; his love made present for us to help us transform our loneliness and suffering into new life.
So, today, let us pray that our faith in Jesus will allows us to transform our pain into redemptive suffering that reveals the Father’s love and speaks to all about the new life of Easter.
