Palm Sunday: April 5, 2009

This Sunday is a meditation in how to stand to our own truth. As Christ did not back down, neither do we. In the second reading we sense what it is we are, in the end, standing for: we are living the only path that leads to fulfillment in this life and the next. And that path is one of sacrifice—Christ “empties Himself,” and so must we. It is in emptying ourselves that we find fulfillment. And we can help each other stand to this truth by “speaking to the weary a word that will encourage them,” as the first reading puts it. Lots of ink has been spilt over why Christ died—but in the end, whatever the technical reason behind the death sentence, He died because he reached out, and crossed boundaries that were uncomfortable. He filled others, moreover he nourished people it wasn’t safe to nourish! In this he taught the universality of God’s love and our brotherhood and sisterhood. Let us all live to that Truth.