Palm Sunday/ Feast
Day of Oscar Romero
Luke 19:29-44
So what does an assassinated
Roman Catholic Archbishop have to do with Palm Sunday? It’s a good question. At
the start of Holy Week, we are in a position for deep and serious reflection.
On the one hand, we can enter this week with a misplaced sense of re-enactment-
the idea that we are re-living the events of a certain week almost two thousand
years ago.
Sometimes
the re-enactment is what we need. To re-imagine the sights, sounds, and smells.
To place ourselves in Jerusalem and feel the strain of oppressed people.
Sometimes that memory is what we need.
However,
there is another way to consider this week. It functions like a compass for our
faith. The events of this week are our true North- they give us a sense of
direction, a re-orientation to the landmarks of our faith. They put us on the
right path.
That
is where our focus should be, even in the midst of re-imagining and re-enacting.
Palms in our hands, we are poised to be re-acquainted with the direction of our
faith and its purpose. The events that are coming are not meant to overwhelm us
with sadness or even a sense of unworthiness. The events of this week are meant
to overwhelm us with the way that light overcomes darkness, that life overcomes
death, that the forces that oppose God do not win the battle or the war.
When
Oscar Romero became archbishop, he was appointed to that position, in part,
because it was believed that his conservatism would keep him from siding with
the poor who were rising up against the government. Both sides of this fight
believed that he would not be involved. However, he watched a close friend get
killed (shot) for trying to help the poor farmers and laborers, to end their
oppression. Romero then realized that he could not remain silent. His
understanding of Jesus meant that he had to speak out. He even worked to get
his sermons on the radio for all to hear, sermons which frequently sided with
the oppressed and called for the soldiers to end the killing of their brothers
and sisters.
Archbishop
Romero spoke frequently that he knew he would eventually be killed, but he
could not abandon the work to which God had called him, work of siding with the
poor of El Salvador, work of giving voice to the voiceless. This is the work
for which he was killed.
That
may not be the call for all of us, but each of do have a call- a call to carry
the message of Jesus into the world And it is likely not something that makes
us comfortable. It may not be as easy as we would hope. Nevertheless, our call
into gospel living is clear… loving our neighbor, forgiving seventy times and
then some, showing mercy to our enemies, working to end injustice against the
poor and the disadvantaged, championing the cause of peace, and sharing what we
have with all those around us.
It’s
tough work and it can be awkward, but that is why we are here- in Holy Week-
pointed toward the events of feasting, betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection..
We do not journey through this week to come out on the other side, relieved. We
are on this trek of re-orientation so that we can be re-energized, knowing that
we have been made right with God… and daring to go into the world proclaiming
that death does not win.
The
call of today is not only the cry of “Hosanna”. It is also, “Blessed is the one
who comes in the name of the Lord.” That one is the one who carries the God’s
light into the world. On that first journey, it was a colt carried Jesus, the
light of the world. The disciples were told to find the colt and to say, “The
Lord has need of it.” As we look now for a way to carry light into the world, I
say, “The Lord has need of you.”
The
Lord has need of you… to proclaim the significance of this week… to get ready
for Easter joy… to live into a faith in resurrection… to trust in God’s
presence as you live courageously into your calling. In our Wednesday night
soup suppers, we have been talking about what it means to be church and what
the future of this church is.
The
church is a place where we learn, together, how to live and how to die in Christ.
That is the reason we exist. We learn and we live out what it means to be alive
in Christ… now and forever. And this week, starting today… this week is our
study week, our brush-up week, our re-focusing… because the other 51 weeks of
the year are our exam.
We
are poised now, palms in hand, to revisit the journey to the cross and then to
the empty tomb. We are resetting our faith compass and we are preparing for the
work to which we are called. In the words of Oscar Romero, ““If we are worth
anything, it is not because we have more money or more talent, or more
human qualities. Insofar as we are worth anything, it is because we are grafted
on to Christ's life, his cross and resurrection. That is a person's measure.”
This
is the grace we have received. And it’s not for nothing. It is so that we can
carry Christ into the world. The Lord has need of you.
Blessed
is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna.
Amen.
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