OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

09/04/2017 - Palm Sunday - A

09/04/2017 -  Palm Sunday - A

procession: Mt 21,1-11

1st reading Is 50,4-7 from Psalm 21 2^nd Fil 2,6-11 Gospel Mt 26,14 - 27,66

Why – we ask – Jesus sends somebody to fetch a donkey with her colt? We know that He does not do anything meaninglessly, instead we know that everything He does, He does it out of love for us. The disciples have never forgotten this moment, so odd in their eyes: in fact, they were not used to hear Jesus our Lord asking for something for himself. They must have been quite surprised. They were also amazed by the joyful welcoming of the large crowds that were shouting and spreading their cloaks to make a carpet for their Master.

Jesus meant to fulfil a prophecy. He was aware that He Himself was the one of whom the prophets have been talking about throughout the ages. And He was also aware that in those days all the prophecies would have been fulfilled. Even on the cross He is mindful of all those words, He does not forget them. We have proof of this, when we hear Him crying out: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”. These words, that the Roman soldiers did not understand and took for a cry addressing Elijah, are the beginning of a Psalm. Jesus started to pray, praying that very Psalm that contains the prophecy of that very moment. In the people’s eyes, it seems like God has abandoned Jesus among criminals, so much so that he is suffering their same punishment. He knows that that particular Psalm, coming from the heart of a person enduring great sufferings, is a prophecy for Himself, quietly expressing an endless trust in God, to whom He hands over His spirit. Thanks to those prophecies, He knew that the cross from which He was hanging was part of God’s plans, and this is the reason why He did not try to avoid it, but He welcomed it instead, even with a tearful heart. His tears were shed above all for people’s sins, rather than because of the pain in His body.

His death fulfils the prophecies, that is to say the plan that God the Father had to carry out in order to save us men from sin. We are not ashamed of His death, then, not even of Him being taken for a criminal or of all the humiliations He was the object of. We know that in this details is hidden God’s Love. Together with Jesus dead, we are now waiting for the moment in which God’s love will be complete, the moment in which He will exalt His Son through His Resurrection.

We will spend this week waiting for the luminous day of Easter Sunday. We will think over all Our Lord and Master’s sufferings, we will try to find out how He lived through them, and we will try to imitate His patience, mercy, and His attitude of utter trusting abandonment to His Father’s will, as well. We will try not to be mean with our time: we will dedicate more time than usual to listening to His Word and to meditating on it, and also to taking part to moments of public prayer in the church of our Parish and to devoting ourselves to the sick. We will help them to carry the cross together with Jesus, like Simon from Cyrene. And we will thank Our Father if He will give us the possibility to do so as well, in order to fulfil all over again the prophecies of His love.