Saint Philip Neri - Blessed Sacrament

Our humanity bleeds through today's Gospel passages in more ways than one.  We see both elation and fall, hope in the midst of the darker sides of our natures.  If we allow it, these Gospels hold a mirror to our own fickle hearts.  

The crowds cry "Hosanna" and the Apostles profess allegianceunto death. In a manner of days -- even hours -- Jesus is betrayed, abandoned, denied, condemned, tortured, and executed.  As God, he could have stopped this horrific narrative from unfolding, but he doesn't.  He allows free will to play itself out.  

There are nearly two millennia between this spectacle and us.  We can stand safely removed, if we choose.  But Lent invites us to return to this story.  Lent invites us to find ourselves in the people we encounter there.  

Are we the repentant woman at Bethany?  Are we naysayers of such lavish piety?  Have we acted in a way that betrays those we love or denies what we know to be good and true?  Have we fallen asleep in our faith?  Have we unfairly accused others of a crime or immorality we imagine, though perhaps they didn't commit?  Do we help others carry their burdens?  Do we stand in solidarity with those who suffer?  Do we care for the dying?  This week, take up today's Gospel again.  

Look carefully at the Passion narrative and sit with it in silence.  Find yourself in the story and ponder its meaning for your own life.  Journey with Jesus to the foot of the Cross so that you too may say, along with the faithful centurion, “truly this man was the Son of God!" 

God Bless,
Fr. Mario