GOSPEL COMMENTARY MK 14:1-15:47
Eight major gates give entry into the holy and ancient city of Jerusalem. The largest is the Eastern Gate, sometimes called the "Beautiful Gate" or the "Golden Gate." It is unique among the historic gates because it is the only one that is completely sealed up, preventing entry.
Jewish tradition had said that the Messiah would come to Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate to take possession of the sacred city and bring victory and judgment. To prevent this, Suleiman the Magnificent sealed the gate in the 16th century and it has remained sealed ever since for half a millennium.
Actually, the gate through which Jesus passed on Palm Sunday was the predecessor of the present gate. But, on that first Palm Sunday, the Messiah did come to His city to bring judgment and victory. The Eastern Gate looms large in Jewish prophecy and tradition. What about our Eastern Gate, what Anglican priest-poet Malcolm Guite calls "the holy city of my heart?" Is the gate of our heart open to the Savior? Is our life allowing entry to Christ or is our soul barricaded against the serious demands of the Lord? Ours are not the two ton stones of Suleiman the Magnificent. Our stones that prevent the entry of Jesus into our life are wrong relationships, anger, greed, the excesses of ambition or the silent cancer of cynicism. We all know how easy it is to get captured by spiritual enthusiasm on Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday or Easter Sunday. That spiritual veneer quickly fades and we experience what the poet Malcolm Guite calls the "dreadful emptiness of a perverted temple" that is, a temple from which God is gone. The temple of our soul needs repeated spiritual cleansing to reopen the way for the Lord.
The Savior comes to us not astride a donkey, amid waving palms and sonorous cries of "Hosanna." The Lord comes to us in the dark corners of our life, in the disappointments of our friendships, in the regular reminders of our mortality, in the yearnings we have for order, peace and a spiritually coherent life.
Each Lent and each Easter season, the Lord invites us not to experience surface emotions but to join Him on a journey. It is a journey that takes courage and patience. It requires courage because a change in the pattern and priorities of our life is never easy. The siren call of the old ways is always there pulling us back to old ways and familiar vices. It takes patience because spiritual transformation doesn't happen overnight. But it can begin if we start to remove those gigantic stones that block the gateway to our heart, our mind and our soul. These stones are not easily removed, but when they are, new light will enter our life.
Today's Passion account shows us lives where the stones are not removed in Judas, the chief priests and scribes, the false witnesses. We also see lives where the stones have been or will be removed in Peter, Simon of Cyrene and the woman with the alabaster jar. This Sunday, as we recall Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, let us look at whether we are ready to allow the Lord to enter our life through our "Eastern Gate." Will we make our life His home? Are we ready to remove some of the stones of our own making that block His way?
Fr. Krempa is pastor of St. Bridget of Ireland Church in Berryville.
https://www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/Euchrist/HolyMass/gospels.asp?key=170
Year B - Passion (Palm)Sunday
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord
Mark 11:1-10
1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.
3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ “
4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it,
5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.
7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.
8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.
9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus
If you were to see what I saw, the enthusiasm of all the people welcoming me to Jerusalem, you would think that I was a very powerful leader with nothing to fear for his life. But this was the opposite, I was receiving a show of hypocrisy, a reception to my death.
Except for a handful of those people, everybody turned their backs to me when I was being judged and condemned for doing the work of God.
I am sure you would be very disappointed of those people, wouldn’t you? What I am about to tell you is the truth, something to make you think.
All my followers, yes, including you, will have those moments of acclamation and praise, of joy and celebration because I am coming into their lives, but when temptation comes, they forget about me and condemn me to death. Yes. It is sin that put me on the cross, your sins and the sins of the whole world.
It is a terrifying thought but at the same time it must be your meditation so that you strengthen yourself against temptations and remember how much you cost me, that I paid for your soul with my own suffering and death.
And yet I want to remind you that praising is a very powerful kind of prayer, it is the prayer of the angels who constantly praise God for his glory, holiness, majesty, honor, omnipotence, power, wisdom and love.
My child, praise the Lord, bless the Lord and thank the Lord constantly for the gift of your life and for His divine attributes. Start your day praising, blessing and thanking God, live your day praising, blessing and thanking God, go to bed praising, blessing and thanking God; so that your soul will even praise, bless and thank God during your sleep.
Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary