Crucify Him!

Gospel Reflection for Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024 - Mark 14:1-15:47

(for readings see usccb.org - Mark 14:1-15:47)

"Why are Catholics so morbid?" This is a common question one is likely to hear as a Catholic, something for which those who are preparing to enter the Church this Easter should be prepared. Other statements you might hear are "This makes me uncomfortable!" "This is so depressing!" "Ugh, more Catholic guilt!" To no other liturgy in the Church's calendar, arguably, are these words more applicable than the great feast of Palm Sunday which today marks the beginning of Holy Week. In a profoundly theatrical manner, the faithful participate in a reenactment, or more accurately in the events themselves of Christ's entry into Jerusalem and His subsequent trial and Passion. The words of mockery and condemnation which issued from the crowds two thousand years ago become our own as we demand the death of our Savior. 

This shows precisely why, for many people (including Catholics), the Faith can be disturbing. Through the brutal and even macabre imagery of crucifixes, saints' relics, sacred art depicting souls being cast into Hell or saints being martyred, Catholics are forced to confront their own sin, to acknowledge their personal complicity in the betrayal and rejection of God's love which humans have repeated since Adam and Eve. Nowhere is this more explicit than in the liturgy for Palm Sunday. Contrary to its abuse by some, we realize that it was not only the Jews who were responsible for Christ's murder, nor even only the Romans who carried out His execution - rather, it was all of sinful humanity, both those present at the time and ourselves today. Naturally, because of our pride, we prefer to avoid facing this truth; we try to excuse our sins, or make them socially acceptable, instead of knowing that each time we sin, we lash Our Lord with the hooked thongs of His tormentors, ripping His sacred and innocent flesh with our hatred, our lust, our greed, just as the lambs of sacrifice were crucified and bled dry in the Temple with the sins o the people affixed to them. Of course it is easier to shield our eyes from all of this - perhaps this is why much of sacred art today is banal and bland, abstracting away Christ's afflictions or the punishments that await those who reject His love. But this is childish, a sign of spiritual immaturity that accomplishes nothing and leaves us in the chains of sin.  

Copyright 2004 Twentieth Century Fox

The events related in this long Gospel reading are a showcase for the different kinds of sin all of us commit. Judas betrays Christ for his thirty pieces of silver, as many today prefer wealth over charity. The crowd chose Barabbas over Christ because they longed for an earthly kingdom and Messiah; like the passers-by who tell Christ to save Himself from the Cross, who echo the temptations of Satan in the desert, this shows the perennial nature of the Prosperity Gospel, the belief that God's favor should guarantee earthly prosperity and that otherwise God is useless. Similarly, despite his earlier promises, St. Peter abandoned his Teacher once the going got tough, just as many popes and bishops throughout history have violated the Deposit of Faith for the sake of popularity, ease or influence. Likewise, Pilate was the model politician, washing his hands of responsibility for what he knew to be an unjust decision simply to please the crowds and remain in power, as leaders continue to do today. And like persecutors of the Faith across the ages and even like many so-called Christians in the media today, the chief priests and crowds committed the grave sin of mockery against Our Lord, ridiculing Him even as He carried their salvation upon His shoulders. 

As we gaze upon the Crucifix, we see each of our sins nailed into His divine flesh, in the consummation of the greatest love story ever told, the act of total self-giving by which Christ unites Himself to the very people who adulterate against Him but whom He never ceases to love. This is the true meaning of Palm Sunday and Holy Week, and of the whole Christian life: Creation is a love story, the espousement of God to man through Christ's love for the Church, consummated on the Cross and fulfilled in the Second Coming. Christ the Bridegroom waits for us on the Cross, loving us no matter what, and we are only separated from Him when we deny His love and fail to share His divine gift with others. Christianity is not meant to be an easy, nice, cheap religion - no, it is real, with the hardship, tragedy, brutality, beauty and hope that fills every life. May this Palm Sunday and Holy Week help us to remember this fact and never hide ourselves from Him, as did our first parents.

(Cover image source: Copyright 2004 Twentieth Century Fox)