You may wish to watch and follow Palm Sunday with the Holy Father Pope Francis in the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome (translated immediately to English) here. For his quite magnificent homily based on the solemnity readings, the text can be read here
Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). Let us allow these words of the Apostle Paul to lead us into these holy days, when the word of God, like a refrain, presents Jesus as servant: on Holy Thursday, he is portrayed as the servant who washes the feet of his disciples; on Good Friday, he is presented as the suffering and victorious servant (cf. Is 52:13); and tomorrow we will hear the prophecy of Isaiah about him: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold” (Is 42:1).
God saved us by serving us. We often think we are the ones who serve God. No, he is the one who freely chose to serve us, for he loved us first. It is difficult to love and not be loved in return. And it is even more difficult to serve if we do not let ourselves be served by God.
But how did the Lord serve us? By giving his life for us. We are dear to him; we cost him dearly. Saint Angela of Foligno said she once heard Jesus say: “My love for you is no joke.” His love for us led him to sacrifice himself and to take upon himself our sins.
This astonishes us: God saved us by taking upon himself all the punishment of our sins. Without complaining, but with the humility, patience, and obedience of a servant, and purely out of love. And the Father upheld Jesus in his service. He did not take away the evil that crushed him, but rather strengthened him in his suffering so that our evil could be overcome by good, by a love that loves to the very end.
The Lord served us to the point of experiencing the most painful situations of those who love: betrayal and abandonment.
Betrayal. Jesus suffered betrayal by the disciple who sold him and by the disciple who denied him. He was betrayed by the people who sang hosanna to him and then shouted: “Crucify him!” (Mt 27:22). He was betrayed by the religious institution that unjustly condemned him and by the political institution that washed its hands of him. We can think of all the small or great betrayals that we have suffered in life. It is terrible to discover that a firmly placed trust has been betrayed. From deep within our heart a disappointment surges up that can even make life seem meaningless. This happens because we were born to be loved and to love, and the most painful thing is to be betrayed by someone who promised to be loyal and close to us. We cannot even imagine how painful it was for God who is love.
Let us look within. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see our infidelities. How many falsehoods, hypocrisies and duplicities! How many good intentions betrayed! How many broken promises! How many resolutions left unfulfilled! The Lord knows our hearts better than we do. He knows how weak and irresolute we are, how many times we fall, how hard it is for us to get up and how difficult it is to heal certain wounds. And what did he do in order to come to our aid and serve us? He told us through the Prophet: “I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them deeply” (Hos 14:5).
He healed us by taking upon himself our infidelity and by taking from us our betrayals. Instead of being discouraged by the fear of failing, we can now look upon the crucifix, feel his embrace, and say: “Behold, there is my infidelity, you took it, Jesus, upon yourself. You open your arms to me, you serve me with your love, you continue to support me… And so I will keep pressing on.”
Bishop Robert Barron commented on the Gospel reading (JN 11:45-56):
Friends, in today’s Gospel the chief priests and Pharisees unite in a plot to kill Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead. The Crucifixion of Jesus is a classic instance of René Girard’s scapegoating theory. He held that a society, large or small, that finds itself in conflict comes together through a common act of blaming an individual or group purportedly responsible for the conflict. It is utterly consistent with the Girardian theory that Caiaphas, the leading religious figure of the time, said to his colleagues, "It is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish." In any other religious context, this sort of rationalization would be validated. But in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, this stunning truth is revealed: God is not on the side of the scapegoaters, but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim. The true God does not sanction a community created through violence; rather, he sanctions what Jesus called the kingdom of God, a society grounded in forgiveness, love, and identification with the victim. Reflect: How did the Resurrection turn the scapegoating that Caiaphas supported into the key to our salvation?
Watch Bishop Robert Barron on mimetic desire here.
Here is another beautiful comment by Bishop Robert Barron:
Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus declares, "The Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Charles Williams stated that the master idea of Christianity is "coinherence," mutual indwelling. If you want to see this idea concretely displayed, look to the pages of the Book of Kells, that masterpiece of early Christian illumination. Lines interwoven, designs turning in and around on each other, plays of plants, animals, planets, human beings, angels, and saints. The Germans call it Ineinander (one in the other).
How do we identify ourselves? Almost exclusively through the naming of relationships: we are sons, brothers, daughters, mothers, fathers, members of organizations, members of the Church, etc. We might want to be alone, but no one and nothing is finally an island. Coinherence is indeed the name of the game, at all levels of reality.
And God—the ultimate reality—is a family of coinherent relations, each marked by the capacity for self-emptying. Though Father and Son are really distinct, they are utterly implicated in each other by a mutual act of love.
The impossibly good news is that Jesus and the Father have invited us to enter fully into their divine coinherence. The love between the Father and the Son—which is called "the Holy Spirit"—can be participated in.
Reflect: What is the difference between following God and participating in his divine life?
Fr. Georges Farah too spoke about the cross - He questioned Christ at length, prompted by his wife’s request to release him. But Christ remained silent! He then asked him “So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, sarcastically, "What is truth?" as if saying to him: You have nothing. You are going to be killed for saying things. Be wise. Forget about truth-Just worry about your life and survival here. I can release you and you can go to Rome. Live your life there as a free man…
Pilate could have said that to any other person but the answer of Christ is the same. The Truth is a big thing in Christ’s way of thought and life. He must defend the Truth to the end. He is not politically correct. And he cares for everyone even when everyone is against him. See the post here.
See too Passion Sunday at Holy Rosary parish in Toronto with Msgr. Robert Nusca here...In his homily, Msgr. Nusca indicated that in Christ, God showed his love for us, and his forgiveness of sin with the incarnation of the Word of God "Emmanuel" i.e. God is with us (Cf. Matthew 1:23) as Christ sought the destitute, the marginalized, the abandoned, and sinners. In spite of his love, the authorities conspired to put him to death on the cross. His acceptance of the Father's will is his love for the One who sent him to save the world. He rose from the dead and by his death he conquered sin and death and reconciled us with heavens.
See also Palm Sunday celebration (with Msgr. Makarios Wehbi in English and Arabic) - See it here...In his homily, Msgr. Wehbi spoke about Jesus' preaching and healing of people with physical diseases and those with spiritual weakness in sin - Jesus entered Jerusalem full of humility after he did the above going around from Galilee and Samaria to Judea... After he rose from the dead, he taught his disciples to go preach him everywhere starting with Jerusalem and so they set up the Church with the sacraments that constitute the presence of Christ the King among us with the promise of eternal life in his new kingdom in heaven...
In his homily on Sunday April 5, 2020, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad commented on the Gospel reading (John 11:1-45) which recounts the raising of Lazarus from the dead - The words of Jesus to Martha "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live" (here in French titled "Construis ton être d’éternité ..."). He said that in spite of advances made by science to prolong human life, science cannot really fulfill human longing for eternity. Fr. Boulad quoted Charles Péguy who had said "We can make an expedition around earth, but it is only around the terrestrial earth." and said that our longing is for the other life; a life not subject to disease and decay...Magnificent homily for faith and hope in the Lord the giver of life.
Now let us turn our attention to advanced technologies: In the latest development in artificial intelligence, see these documentaries about China's training and use of advanced artificial intelligence published some 4 months ago in the Wall Street Journal here and other ones "This documentary journeys to the hot spots of AI research in Europe, the USA and China, and looks at the revolutionary developments which are currently taking place. The rapid growth of AI offers many opportunities, but also many dangers. AI can be used to create sound and video recordings which will make it more and more difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction. It will make the world of work more efficient and many professions superfluous. Algorithms can decide whether to grant loans, who is an insurance risk, and how good employees are. But there is a huge problem: humans can no longer comprehend how algorithms arrive at their decisions. And another big problem is AI’s capacity for widespread surveillance. The Chinese city of Rongcheng is already using an AI-supported 'social credit system' to monitor and assess its citizens. Does AI pose a danger to our personal freedoms or democracy? Which decisions can we leave to the algorithms - and which do we want to? And what are AI’s social implications?" here and "What If A New Intelligence Was Born#AI #Transhumanism" here. Based on the above documentaries, it is possible that a young Chinese person developed an algorithm that uses genetic engineering in artificial intelligent machines but made an error that produced the coronavirus. The whole process was probably covered by the Chinese authorities until some Chinese people visited their friends in the West. Another report from Egypt was discussed yesterday with an FRCP in ENT working in Egypt. He wrote this:[ BCG ( Bacillus Calmette Guerin ) vaccine is still controversial in its presumed function as a strong “ immunostimulant “agent for immunity against Corona virus infection ! I personally tend to believe that it may have a positive “mild”role in that respect ! Although denied by WHO , many respectable world-wide studies are currently underway .. It may partly explain the relatively lower numbers of infection in Japan , India and Egypt ..However , nothing is sure !]. The report can be found on Facebook here. It could explain why in Egypt and India, as well as other places in Africa, not many people turned sick with the coronavirus.
In April, Maggie Ciskanik, senior consultant associated with Jesuit Fr. Robert Spitzer President of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009, and quite active on EWTN, wrote a great article on coping and thriving in the COVID-19 crisis here.
And when you wake up or before you go to sleep watch some online morally acceptable comedy. You may be interested in watching the funny movie "Father of the Bride" here.
If we do our best and help others with what we can, there is no fear...This is possibly what eventually returns humanity or helps her become participant in the salvation of our Lord and God Jesus Christ...
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