Palm Sunday (Fr. Vinner)

by | Mar 27, 2018

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Fill in the blanks:  __________ is greater than God.__________ is more evil than the devil. If you eat __________, you will die.

Answer? Nothing.

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week. Let this week remind us of our nothingness, and make us realize that without God, we are nothing. All our virtues and so-called achievements, in which we take so much pride, mean nothing at all if we forget that all these are made possible by the grace of our loving, compassionate and merciful God. In today’s Gospel, we hear how the Son of God experienced nothingness, even helplessness, in the hands of human beings who thought they were greater and holier than God Himself. Are we guilty of playing God, or thinking of ourselves greater “gods” than the other people around us? This Holy Week let us all take the road of humility: “Have mercy on me, O God, I am a sinner…”Nothing and no one is greater than God. When we take ourselves and our “achievements” too seriously, we are playing God. When we take our problems too seriously, and worry about so many things and about other people in our life, we are also playing God. Please remember that God is greater than all our achievements, problems, sins and failures.

The Holy week is the great time for remembering. Yes, we remember how much He loved us. We remember especially on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday, and Easter Sunday that we were saved with much pain, and at a great price. Yes, more than anything else, we remember we are loved so much.

We remember what He did on the night before He died. He started washing the feet of His disciples, setting an example for us to do the same. And we remember His last request: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

We remember His words: “Be not afraid. I am with you always.” We take courage in this world so full of trials and persecutions. We are confident that we will be victorious with Him in the end. There is hope for those who believe. Injustice and evil are not forever.

We remember our mortality. We all will die. We are all pilgrims. We are just passing by. We’ll carry nothing with us when we leave this world, except the love we have shared, and the goodness we have shown.

We remember our sinfulness. It was sin that made Him suffer. It is sin that makes us suffer still. It is greed that destroys and divides us. We remember our faults and weaknesses, and in humility, we turn to Him to forgive and heal us. We plead for His mercy, for we all have so often turned our deaf ears to His call to love and to serve.

We remember that He left us a mission to accomplish. We are supposed to spread the Good News far and wide, that there is a God, a God who loves us, and that there is hope. In remembering, let us take time to ask ourselves: What have I done for God in my life? And what am I doing the rest of my life? Am I living a life pleasing to God? Am I making a difference?

We remember in shame that we have focused more on ourselves, and have forgotten the suffering and deprivations around us. We have maximized our greed, and have minimized our help for those in need. We have become masters of rationalization, compromise and procrastination. So snug in our comfort zones, we have snubbed involvement, and have comforted ourselves with the thought that there isn’t much we can do about our present situation, and just let things be, and shun any form of persecution.

We remember that there is an eternity that awaits us. So engrossed in making a living, we have forgotten that we have a life meant for loving. And so we have prepared our life plan, pension plan, retirement plan, and even a memorial life plan, but have not made provisions for our eternal life plan.

Finally, we remember that it is not enough to remember. Our remembering should lead to re-membering, i.e., to become members again, members of the body of Christ. In other words, we remember and renew our love for God and for His people. Remembering is going back in order that we can go forward once more, with zeal, and with feeling!

May God Bless Us.

FR. S.Vinner HGN