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Fr. Dale’s Homily

Passion Sunday

March 23-24, 2024

Gospel:  Mark 14: 1 – 15:47

The formal cause for the canonization of Pope John Paul I is still in process. Declared by another smiling pope, Francis in 2022; Blessed John Paul I was pope only 33 days. Albino Luciani captured the heart of the world with this warmth and humble smile.  But this gentle pope knew pain.  He was very familiar with the cross as any Christian.  How, then, could he keep smiling?

The smiling pope wrote of the cross: “The cross is a beam fastened to a crossbeam.  It is, therefore, the road block in front of me.  Just when I thought that I would be able to go on, someone stops me, unjustly blocking all of my hopes.  I wanted to keep my feet on the ground and I find myself separated from the earth, lifted up, nailed where I didn’t want to be.”  Despite his share in the cross, Pope John Paul I inspired with his kind smile.  Millions found comfort in this humble man who knew the cross so well.

If we think that the cross of Jesus is a past event, then we have not even walked the confines of our own parish.  Everyone knows the cross and everyone needs words of comfort so they can transform their own cross.  But everyone needs to be heard on how they take up his or her cross and walk.

An anonymous poet wrote this:

I asked for strength that I might achieve, I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things, I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of all, I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for- but everything that I had hoped for.

Our hurting brings into clearer focus our dependence on God.  Sometimes our pain causes us to cry out, “Where are you God?”  Jesus himself knew this cry.  God does not always come when we want, but when God arrives, God is right on time.  We say that we believe that “bearing our cross” with courage leads us to Easter glory. We need not bear our crosses alone.  We have each other.  Is this not how it is that “God arrives right on time”?

If we do not know the cross, then we cannot know Easter.  Martin Luther King liked to say, “You can’t have Easter without Good Friday.”  Never one to avoid redemptive suffering, Dr. King liked to remind people that “the only way out, … is through.” 

The empty tomb requires Calvary.

John Paul I and Martin Luther King were not Polyannas.  They were realists.  They knew that life hurts and sometimes hurts a lot.  Children die before their parents, middle-aged people lose their jobs and cannot find work, families are gripped by alcoholism.  Innocent people die in wars.  But the cross did not have the last word.  And the original Pope John Paul said, “Every cross is a passing thing.  It is the road, not the goal.”  

Holy Week comes somewhat early this year.  It is barely spring. Many have suffered a long winter.  There is a lesson to be found in all this.  Easter comes in God’s time, not ours.  The cross helps us notice the important things and details.  As we pass through our cross, so our cross will pass. 

In the meantime, Jesus calls us to His table to give us the courage we need.  [Anyone for seconds?]