Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Palm Sunday Homily, April 1, 2007

First of all on behalf of myself and the community, I welcome you to have you join us to enter the Holy Week which is such a powerful witness to our faith and source of so many graces.

In the life of St. Pachomius who was an outstanding leader in the monastic tradition, who had four houses under him as his responsibility each of which had about a thousand monks. In those communities, especially one of them, was a young monk who was about 20 years old or less, and one day he said to him: A When are you going to wake up?@ And it hit him so hard that he began to really take the monastic life seriously and became a very holy man.

In a certain sense Luke= s gospel is asking us to wake up. If you have listened to the first gospel that Gary proclaimed to us in the Narthex, and you read the next section Jesus is going to Jerusalem and as he= s going he= s weeping. And he’s saying because Jerusalem has not become aware of its time of visitation. It misses the chance of this tremendous visit of the Lord into the community. Then if you look at Luke= s perspective you see that to Luke Jesus is a prophet, he= s a just man, a righteous man and he fulfills the role of the prophet. Living in justice before his people and fulfilling God= s will. He= s a unique Savior. The only one that we can turn to for salvation. The universal Savior. Everyone is welcomed to be healed by him. Yet he shows again and again how Jesus was not understood or accepted. So you have to take the gospel and kind of chew on it.

We can take the passage that we heard proclaimed. One of the criminals who tradition says was named Dismas. He was a robber, murderer. We don= t know about his background how he was raised, or whether he had uncles, and nephews and nieces. But his life must have been very restless, and also always under threat because he was in conflict with society and one day he got caught. Now on this Friday morning the guard comes in and says: A O.K. this is it. You are going to be crucified.@ So they strap a beam on him and he walks out. And as he= s walking out he sees there= s another criminal also there and having a beam strapped on him and then he sees Jesus. I don= t know whether he knows who Jesus is, but he sees him. And what does he see? He sees a man who= s bleeding. He sees a man that is exhausted. And he notices that as they march toward Calvary, Jesus is always stumbling and falling and how the guards commandeer someone in the crowd, he probably doesn= t know his name, this Simon of Cyrene, but he watches him and then he overhears women speaking to Jesus and he hears Jesus= answer: A Don= t weep over me. Weep over yourself and your children.@ A For if this is what= s happening to a just person what= s going to happen to a wicked person?@ Then when crucified he sees all this and he sees how patient Jesus is. How Jesus doesn’t cry out or avoid anything, or curse, which many people did, of course. Then when Jesus is hanging on the cross he sees the leaders in the Jewish community coming up and saying: A He saved others let him save himself!@ Mockery, scorn. Then even the soldiers saying: A If you= re the Messiah, if you= re the King of the Jews, save yourself,@ So he observes these things. Then the other criminal says: @ If you= re the Christ save yourself and us too!@ At that point Dismus says: A Don= t you realize that what= s happening to you is what you deserve? Don= t you realize that you will soon be facing God?@ A Why are you blaspheming?@ And all of a sudden we get a different view of Dismas. We realize that he is aware and he had absorbed some things about Jesus. Then he begins to realize and blurts out A We are being punished for what we have done and we deserve it.@ Pretty honest confession. I did these things and I am guilty. A But this man has never done anything wrong.A So he has been observing and sees that Jesus is a political pawn of power. But he must see more because not only does he defend him but he turns to him and says: A Jesus, remember me when you go into your kingdom.@ He doesn’t say save me. He doesn’t say save us. He doesn’t say get me out of this situation. He makes an act of complete trust and asks Jesus to remember him. Don’t forget me when you enter your kingdom. And Jesus answers: A Today you will be with me in paradise.@ You will be with me. And all of a sudden a confused, dark, dead life, comes to life. All of a sudden a person who has been lost for 30 maybe 40 years we don= t know is now found. Because when we find Jesus we find ourselves. When we find Jesus we find life. So now this man is already on the threshold of heaven which he will receive this day.

So Luke is proclaiming to us the power of the redemptive work of Jesus. And giving us right on the cross the first fruits of Jesus= efforts to redeem us. So what Pachomius said to St Sylvester, he said: A Wake up!@ Don= t go through Passiontide, don= t go through Holy Week without becoming aware of what God is offering you. He= s offering you the gift of eternal life.