Palm Sunday
Friends in Christ, this is Palm Sunday. We remember today, Our Lord Jesus, riding up to Jerusalem on the donkey, and this was a kingly symbol which had been foretold by Zechariah. (9:9)
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It says in the Holy Gospel of St. Mark, that this donkey had never been ridden before. So this should give us pause. If you take a donkey, or a horse, that has never been ridden on, and you get on it, what happens? It bucks you off!!
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A little 5th grade girl who is a horse rider – I asked her about this – She said, ‘Father, donkeys are worse than horses, if they aren’t trained, they buck like mad.
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So what’s with this? Jesus gets on, and rides nice and smoothly into Jerusalem.
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Also, if you take a donkey or a horse into a crowd that is cheering and yelling and waving branches hysterically, what happens? That animal is spooked, and goes wild! Even well-trained police-horses, in crowds, wear blinders to keep them from getting nervous. So what gives? Jesus rides this donkey that no one has ever ridden, into a wild crowd, and it is calm as anything.
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It’s because that donkey’s creator is riding him. Jesus is Lord of all creatures, of all the earth, of all creation – and he comes as king. This is the same Lord who told Peter to cast his net and he would catch fish. And all those fish obey the command of Jesus and go right into his net. This is the Lord of all creation, riding into Jerusalem.
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People think that he is the Messiah, the King, who will crush the Romans and make their nation great, in a worldly way. But this Savior will do something different. He has come to die, to save us.
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The true King. What does he want? He wants to take back the earth. The world has been under the power of Satan since the fall of Adam and Eve. Jesus wants it back. He wants us back, who have been under the dominion of this cruel tyrant.
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We will see this drama played out this week. We will see how, with great sacrifice, Jesus Christ defeats the devil. Let’s walk with him in the Sacred Triduum this week. It is by the Passion that we get to Easter, it is through the cross that we find the resurrection.
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St. Alphonsus, pray for us.
