From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts–
When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out:
“Hosanna!
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
the king of Israel.”
Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written:
Fear no more, O daughter Zion;
see, your king comes, seated upon an ass’s colt.
His disciples did not understand this at first,
but when Jesus had been glorified
they remembered that these things were written about him
and that they had done this for him.
John 12:12-16, Gospel read as part of the entrance procession for this Sunday, when the Gospel for the Mass includes Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, death, and burial. It tends to get overlooked.
The feast everyone is going to Jerusalem to celebrate is Passover, commemorating God’s mighty act of freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God freed them in order to form them into a people who loved one another and worshipped Him and no other so-called gods. They liked being “chosen;” they were energized by the idea of a becoming a people with a land of their own. But loving the Lord as the only God and loving their neighbor as themselves—they fought him tooth-and-nail on those for the next thousand years.
Like most “average human beings” they were politically minded—how am I, status-wise, compared to my neighbors in the next family, town, tribe, or kingdom? Who is calling the daily political shots? Who gets to run things and enjoy the privileges thereof? Not an original list—but one that goes back to the very original sin in the Garden of Eden. More than a thousand years of such thinking and living brought Israel a glimmer of greatness once in worldly terms (under David and Solomon) but century upon century of disaster, defeat, destruction, exile and servitude under empire after empire.
For 2+ years Jesus has deftly avoided identifying his Kingdom with this worldly idea of success. He has worked diligently to give his disciples a concept of a greater Kingdom that includes but looks beyond this world. The Gospels are replete with examples of how his own disciples “don’t get it.” Now comes the time when he must inaugurate the new Kingdom, and it must come about by turning the notions of “Victory!” and “Triumph!” completely on their heads. It is a very fine line Jesus must walk. His goal is to leave a way open for human beings to relate to God properly, as Creator and loving Father, by faith in His Son. But it must be “faith”—personal trust and hope—built on the witness of a few disciples who would meet him alive and glorified throughout the month after his gruesome death at the hands of the Romans.
As his disciples struggled to come to terms with what he taught and lived, so succeeding generations would have a similar struggle to accept what those witnesses taught and struggled to live themselves. He provided an open way to Life forever, but one that will often enough look like defeat in the eyes of the world. Certainly it is not an escape from suffering.
He rides into Jerusalem, an as-yet uncrowned king, “seated upon an ass’s colt” as the prophet Zechariah foresaw, not on a magnificent charger, not on a snorting and proud warhorse. Jesus had secretly prepared for the availability of just this humble animal ahead of time. He had involved his disciples in quietly receiving and bringing the animal to him so that the truth he was living out would have its impact on those disciples later. As John writes: His disciples did not understand this at first, but when Jesus had been glorified, they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done this for him.
This is but one example of something Jesus would tell them during the upcoming Last Supper: that the Holy Spirit would remind them of all the instruction he had given them and make clear so many things they had not properly grasped as he went about his public ministry. (See John 14:26).
For us, too, understanding of Christ’s way is often slow to come. Attempting to live it out is a messy struggle against much of our training, worldly examples around us, and our own weaknesses. The same struggles, as Scripture shows us, began with the original little group hand-picked by our Lord. They ended well. There is hope yet for you and for me!
For further reflection:
The Apostles and “others who followed Jesus” (the women, the 72, various individuals mentioned in the Gospels and Acts) had personal memories of Jesus teachings and actions. The Holy Spirit, so active in them after Pentecost, would jog their memories and give them insights as they “re-viewed” what they had heard and seen before. Scripture takes the place of those memories in us, and the Holy Spirit is poured into us at our Baptism and our Confirmation. The Spirit makes Christ present and active in us (particularly as we receive Jesus in Communion) to help us recognize how these verses or those verses apply in our many, varied situations. My point here is that we need daily contact with Scripture to give us similar “memories” to be jogged. How do you do this? How might you do it more consistently? More deeply?
Your thoughts, comments, questions welcomed. Leave a reply or email me direct (see “ABOUT” above if you need my email address).
Doing it through this Blog, and various seminars through the Augustine institute, and Bible in a year, at ascension press with Fr. Mike and Jeff Cavins. Being homebound, really helps !! Still really hard to keep track of occurrences in the Old Testament. Too many difficult names to keep track of !!
It is a joy that we have so many wonderful resources today to help us make good spiritual use of the Scriptures! Cavins, Fr. Mike, and the Augustine Institute are very good ones. Let me recommend the Augustine Institute’s new Bible-in-a-Year publication of the ESV-CE (English Standard Version-Catholic Edition). More word-for-word than even the Revised Edition of the NAB and carefully updated from its basis, the RSV-CE, too.
Thank you ,Jim.