The Fullness of Reality: A Reflection on Palm Sunday (Year B)
The people who got Jesus killed on Good Friday wanted God to be different. They likely didn’t know that at the time, and in many ways were trying to defend God as they saw Him. But they weren’t seeing things clearly due to hardness of heart, or fear of Jesus’ message being true, or insistence that He was corrupting God’s message. Jesus was God, though, so those who rejected Him rejected God Himself and wanted Him to be different than He really is. This is perhaps not surprising. God demands a lot. He preaches love for your enemies and selling what you have to give to the poor. He prioritizes meekness and humility. He asks for repentance, conversion, and following a new path. These teachings were unpopular. It is not surprising that they resulted in Jesus being hated. It is not surprising that the people of Jesus’ day wanted to kill Him. What is more surprising is that God let them.
This, however, is the reality of our God. He teaches us how to live and even goes before us on the way, and then allows us to choose whether we will follow. And just like the people in Jesus’ day, we too struggle to embrace the reality of who He is. We too often wish God were different, because our God has no interest in making all things easy. Even now, He asks of us all of the difficult things He asked of them then, like loving enemies, being humble, and repenting. Chances are we are fine with, or at least accept, all of these ideas on principle, but they get more pesky when they show up in our daily lives. For, concretely, following God looks like waking up in time to get to Mass on the weekend, fasting during Lent, keeping your mouth shut and walking away during your coworkers’ gossip session, and changing the station when that song with great music but terrible lyrics comes on. Every time we grumble about what we ought to do, we wish God and the reality He created were different. (Which, on its own, isn’t a fixable problem. This is simply a result of the fallen nature of humanity.) Every time we know what we should do, though, and don’t do it, we reject Him. We see Jesus standing before us and we turn the other way. We rid Him from our sight. We do what the people who killed Him did. And God lets us push Him out. If we choose, we can live in a Godless state.
The alternative, of course, is to accept God as He really is. The real God “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,” (Philippians 2:8) and He asks us to take up our own crosses and follow Him. Yes, He also said things like “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). So, we know that life isn’t all about the cross. We know that Easter happened too, and that the Lord is preparing a place for us in Heaven. But we must embrace God as He really is and not look for one half without the other. God did not come to take all pain away. He did not suffer so that we don’t have to. Rather, He showed us the path of life and promised that He would be with us to help us walk it. This path of carrying your cross to life can take the form of accepting the suffering that comes your way with hope and reliance on Him. There is a good chance there is a cross in your life that you are already bearing. Unite it with Christ’s and let Him carry it with you.
This taking up of our cross, though, can also be realized through facing whatever is asked of us on a daily basis with fortitude and conviction. When it is time to go to Mass, go, even when it’s hard. When you need to walk away from a conversation, walk away, even when it’s hard. When you need to change the station, change it, even when it’s hard. Take up your cross daily, and follow Him.
We are now at the beginning of Holy Week. There is one incredible week left of this year’s Lenten journey, packed with opportunities to commemorate Jesus’ Passion and embrace our own crosses. Let us do this last week well. Take up with renewed vigor any fasting that has grown slack. Lean into prayer, especially by meditating on how Christ spent His last days before death. Attend the full Triduum liturgy and look into other suggestions the Church makes for living this week fully. And, most importantly, do it even when it’s hard. Even when you’re exhausted from work, weary from the rest of Lent, or just don’t want to. The celebration will come, but don’t start Easter early. This week, let us embrace the fullness of reality. Let us do what God has asked us to do. Let us take up our cross and follow Him.
