Palm Sunday Homily: Life or Death?

I think that all of the human condition is on display in the Passion reading.

In all of its bravado and in all of its destruction.

There is the greed, false bravery, egotism, the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts;

There are people controlled by their fear, by their anger, by their desire for power.

People controlled by their ignorance, lack of vision, ideology and politics.

There are people more interested in destruction.

The results:  death.

And sadly, the human condition still exists as this to this very day, to the very moment.

It in the racism that persists in our communities:  how we are scared to share resources or what we call power, so we demean others.

We see it in the poverty in how the poor are abused by a system; arrested and fined for jaywalking in our cities, further burdening them, all trying to force the people away from sight.

Or in how their homes are taken away from them; forced to move for “Development”

It is present in our many conflicts over politics; in desires to exterminate those who are inconvenient to our individual lives.

We see it in our egos, which demand attention, demand power, demand all the world work in the way that we want it.

Death.

Yet, this is not to shame us.

God still finds us worthy.  

Do we notice that Jesus still shares the meal with Judas and all the disciples?

Do we notice that Jesus does not condemn the people?

Do we notice that the Son of God accepting this?

This is about our redemption.  This is about our salvation!

We know that this story does not end in death.

All of this is to inspire us to examine our lives, to examine our attitude, to allow ourselves to be changed, to change the direction of our lives.

This is about repentance!

So that we will find Life, and have that life in the full.

We have before us, in every moment, life and death, light and darkness…

How are we living?