Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion (C)

-

No matter on which side of the political aisle we may fall, even a cursory study of world history and a quick glance at the events of recent years and months is enough to make us skeptical of kings and those who seek to become them. “Power tends to corrupt,” Lord Acton famously said, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

Yet from beginning to end the portrait of Jesus that Saint Luke paints in his Passion Narrative is nothing other than the royal portrait of a King. Christ tells his disciples to find a colt “on which no one has ever sat”, and he is later laid to rest in a tomb “in which no one had yet been buried”. Both evoke a King’s privilege. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the crowds cry out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord,” while the Cross on which he hangs declares him the “King of the Jews”. 

Jesus Christ is most certainly a King, and his power is absolute, for even at his Name “every knee should bend, of those in heaven on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Should every voice on earth be silenced, the absolute power of his kingship would demand even stones to cry out in testimony. 

In Christ the King resides the fullness of absolute power. Yet what power he possesses does not corrupt him; rather it is Christ who corrupts the deceit of worldly power by revealing that in which true power ultimately consists: sacrificial love. Christ, to whom all power belongs, says to his disciples “This is my body, which will be given for you” and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.”

Power in any degree can only legitimately be wielded within the confines of love. Only the one who is willing to lay down their life for others can be said to possess any power at all, lest their power would come to possess and corrupt them. It is the one who considers themselves first and foremost a servant who truly reigns. 

Now and in the coming days, let us go with Christ to the Cross, that we may there witness the power of absolute love – that true power, shrouded in sacrifice, that alone corrupts power, and sin, and death absolutely. Amen. 









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ascension of the Lord (C)

-
Image
In 1908, The Times of London asked notable authors to respond to the following question: “What is wrong with the world?” In these heavy and somber days following the school massacre in Uvalde, yet still on the heels of the racially motivated shooting in Buffalo not two weeks ago, our entire country is asking the very same question: “What is wrong with the world?” Of those attempted answers put forward by the secular news media, I have admittedly read only a few, in part, because I suspect that I already know what they are going to say––or rather, what they are not going to say. And what I expect is that they will not answer the question in the way that G.K. Chesterton did over a century ago, which––to me, at least––seems to be the only answer to the question worth listening to.  To the editor of The Times , Chesterton wrote this: “Dear Sir, Regarding your question ‘What is wrong with the world?,’ I am. Yours truly, G.K. Chesterton.” While in the wake of great tragedy people today (in
Read more

15th Sunday of the Year (C)

-
Image
The title of the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy, is the combination of two Greek words meaning “another” or “second” law. Today’s First Reading is taken from the conclusion of this “second law”, and, there, Moses’ speech suggests that the People of God have accepted the law he has spoken to them and must now put into practice what they have been given: the law “is something very near to you,” Moses assures them, it is “already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”  Every Sunday, the Church, the new People of God, gathers to listen to God’s law proclaimed to them with the expectation and command that they will “go forth” from the Mass to put what they have received into action. Yet practicing God’s law presumes the People have accepted it; and as even the smallest degree of awareness indicates, like Israel of old, some Catholics today struggle to accept what the Church teaches, particularly on issues of morality. Rather than being “near” to them and “a
Read more

7th Sunday of the Year (C)

-
Image
In the wake of the Super Bowl, I’d like to begin this morning’s homily by making reference to one of the greatest press conferences ever given by a sports personality. In 2002, Herm Edwards, then the coach of the New York Jets, famously told the camera: “You play to win the game. You don’t play it just to play it… You play to win the game!”  What Coach Edwards said about football is also true of the Christian life. The reason we play the game––that is, why we live the Christian life, with all of its demands––is to win the game, to be saved. As with any game, in order to win, you have to follow certain rules, and Christianity is no different. In the twelve verses of today’s Gospel, Jesus lays down, on my count, seventeen such rules: love your enemies, do to others as you would have them do to you, be merciful, et cetera. Elsewhere, Jesus instructs us that we need to keep his commandments to remain in his love (cf. Jn. 15:10) and that, if we remain in his love, he will come again and tak
Read more