Transcript of Abbot Clement
=s Palm Sunday Homily, March 20, 2005Today we begin Holy Week. Specifically today we commemorate Jesus
= entrance into Jerusalem and celebrate it and also his Passion and death. This mystery is at the very center of our Christian life. We have been living it, whether you realize it or not, and we place all our hopes in it. We can summarize it as saying Jesus gave himself up for us and Jesus now reigns in heaven as king.Palm Sunday is not just focused on the Passion and death of Jesus it also celebrates that Christ is King. The palms are a sign of proclaiming Christ as King but also proclaiming that Jesus won the victory over death. This victory over death is quite unique. It is certainly unambiguous, it is certainly unequivocal, and it is certainly never going to be defeated. All other victories in our life come to an end but this victory has no end. It will never be defeated.
Right now Jesus lives! He lives forever and he invites us to participate and share in his undying life right now. That
=s precisely why we come to celebrate, not just to commemorate. When we commemorate we remember something and its impact can remain with us. But when we celebrate we mean there is something here that=s impacting in our life that gives us reason to praise, adore and thank the Lord. So here we are celebrating this undying life is now available to you and me if we believe, if we open our hearts to his presence, if we come with faith given to Jesus and his full truth.Now when it comes to the Passion, reading it every year, everyone has a different impact I
=m sure some years this and some years that and maybe as we get older we also have something else touches us. So I=m just going to pick out two points and hope that they enable you to enter into the Passion this year.The first is the look at Peter. Peter is a rather generous person, a bit compulsive, but nevertheless, very lovable because he really loves Jesus and he is willing to do anything for him, willing to die for Jesus. He
=s the first one to take out the sword in the agony in the garden to attack the brigands that came to arrest Jesus. He=s the first one at the Last Supper to say that even if the others abandon him, he=s not going to do it. Jesus has to remind him, APeter, before the cock crows you will deny me three times.@ And he does it, of course. Then there=s the other passage in Luke that says Jesus told Peter AI prayed for you so that when Satan sifts you like wheat your faith will not fail.@ We see the prayer of Jesus really worked. Peter repented. But this proclamation of the gospel with Peter is true of each one of us. Jesus prays for us in our trails, in our testing and his prayer arises out of his priesthood from the right hand of the Father and in his application. If we open ourselves up to it. Jesus prays for us. That=s one reason why we gather around this altar every Sunday.Secondly, we see a strange thing that the two thieves crucified with Jesus in Matthew
=s version, shows both of them cursing and basically reviling Jesus. But again we are told by Luke that Jesus told one of them, A today you will be with me in paradise.@ I don=t know about you but I met a number of people dying and most people that I=ve met when they=re dying they=re kind of very lucid about life. All of a sudden they see things clearly, no more illusion and they really want the truth. This word of encouragement and hope was addressed to the other thief, the good thief, and he heard it and he received Jesus= promise that he would find Jesus with him in paradise that very day.So this is really what we have to keep in mind if we want to enter this week, this year and the rest of our life. First the promise of Jesus to be always with us. Secondly, the assurance that Jesus prays for us, especially in our trails and difficulties. Thirdly he remains King who conquered death.
If we really keep these in mind than I think suffering, struggles and difficulties are seen totally different. They are not the same. If we embrace these words it means that we realize that today Jesus indeed is with us. He
=s with us in our needs. He with us in our sorrows. He with us in our pain. He with us in our death. And being with us he prays for us. And not only that the victory of his becomes ours and he continues to do what he=s always been doing giving himself to us. And he gives himself to us here at this altar and in the very Eucharist we are about to celebrate and receive.