Did We Miss Something? – Palm Sunday – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; March 24, 2024

My God, my God why have you abandoned me?

Why have you abandoned me? Why? Why? Why? Many people ask this question every day. Why do you permit this world to be so racked by wars and violence? Why do you let brutal men perpetrate atrocities that mark our daily news? Why do you allow lies and deceit on such a grand scale? Why do you remain far off and keep silence in the face of crushing poverty and human trafficking? Why do you create millions of tiny human beings whose lives are quickly snuffed out by abortion, sanctioned by the laws of the land?

Why have you abandoned me? Many people ask this question about events in their own life. Why did you let my father die such a painful death of cancer? Why did you let my teenage daughter die in a car crash? Why did you let my infant son come into this world with a debilitating disease? Why have you let me lose my job? My wife? My family?

Why do you have us listen to the story of this innocent man who sums up all our despair Are you mocking us? Is this the hope of innocence in this world?

Look at him: betrayed by his own follower, denied by his friend, condemned by your representatives, your priests, given over to a cruel scourging after his innocence was declared, sentenced to a cruel and humiliating death by a cowardly and unjust judge, mocked by criminals and passersby; powerless and passive – he does nothing. And do you expect us to follow him? He can’t even save himself, how can he save others?

Isn’t that what it looks like? Isn’t that how we feel when our own pious lies are stripped away by the setbacks and adversities of life?

Or did we miss something? Why did the Roman centurion, the hardened soldier, who had seen many men die, many men crucified, declare in amazement, Truly, this man was the Son of God! Indeed, how did a crucified man, his strength gone, crushed by the downward pull of his body, suffocating, give forth a loud cry before breathing his last?

Or did we miss something when this man Jesus stood silent before his judge, indifferent to the accusations made against him, unperturbed by his condemnation, at peace and master of himself?

Or did we miss something when this man Jesus affirmed before the High Priest that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, and promised that he would be seen seated at the right hand of the power on High and coming with the clouds of heaven, knowing full well that his words would lead to his condemnation and death?

Or did we miss something when Jesus went out to meet his betrayer, declaring that all this must take place that the scriptures may be fulfilled?

Or did we miss something when we heard him praying, Abba, Father … not what I will but what you will?

Have we failed to see that this man Jesus is not, in fact, passive and powerless, but has freely handed himself over in obedience to the will of his Father, revealed in the words of Scripture? Truly he was not humiliated by the power of his enemies, but he humbled himself becoming obedient unto death even death on a Cross.

Why would he do such a thing?

Because he has come to offer a sacrifice for us sinners. If we do not think that we have sinned, or if we make light of sin, then what Jesus has done makes no sense. We can ask ourselves, then, where we are be found among the faces seen and voices heard in the Passion narrative.

Unfortunately, we might not understand the word ‘sacrifice’. We think it means ‘renunciation’, ‘pain’, ‘loss’ and it has come to mean that in our current debased language. Originally, though, and in the Scripture, ‘sacrifice’ first and foremost means a gift offered to God in honor of his supreme majesty; it is the supreme act of worship. Naturally, what is given to God must be precious and valuable so as to be worthy and acceptable to him. Second, sacrifice also involves atonement, expiation of sin, and that is where the element of difficulty, pain, and suffering come in. Sacrifice is not simply offered to God who is pleased with us as his creation, but is offered to the God whom we have offended, grievously offended by our sins.

The sinner, instead of giving thanks to God, the almighty, the creator, the giver of life, says to him, “Not thy will, but mine be done; that will be easier and more pleasing to me.” Atonement must then say to God, even in the face of great difficulty and suffering, “Not my will, but thine be done, because that is pleasing to you.”

And what is the greatest thing we have to give? The blood of bulls and goats as was offered in the Old Testament? No, but our very life; our body and our blood. But what is the body and blood of a sinner worth in the eyes of God? Well, the body and blood of a sinner is one thing, but the Body and the Blood of the Son of God is another thing altogether; that indeed is a precious gift, a pleasing offering in the eyes of God.

In the Letter to the Hebrews we read:

When he came into the world, [Jesus] said [taking on his lips the words of the Psalmist, some of the words of the Scriptures he came to fulfill]: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, ‘As is written in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’” …  He says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” … By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb 10:5-10)

Yes, by the offering of the Body of Christ we have been consecrated once for all. That is why the Son of God emptied himself and became man; that is why the Son of God made man freely humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, death on a Cross. Jesus came and humbled himself in obedience to the Father, to offer his Body as a sacrifice, to pour out his Blood as a sacrifice, a precious offering in the sight of his Father. The Father, for his part, shows his acceptance of that sacrifice by raising Jesus from the dead and exalting him at his right hand.

Jesus himself made all of this known to us when at the Last Supper, the night before he offered himself on the Cross, he took bread in his hands, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take it, this is my body. And a chalice of wine, saying, This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. He offers his Body and Blood in forms of bread and wine, anticipating what he will offer on the Cross and leaving us with a perpetual memorial of his sacrifice, to be offered ever anew, the sacrifice of the new and eternal covenant, the sacrifice of our salvation. The Last Supper teaches us the meaning of the Cross.

My God, my God why have you abandoned me?  Yes, when we hear these words we usually miss something, we miss the fact that Jesus, knowing full well what he is doing, is quoting the first lines of Psalm 22 – the Scripture that he has come to fulfill in obedience to his Father; when we read on in the Psalm we also discover that the same speaker declares, I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you … For he has not spurned nor disdained the wretched man in his misery, nor did he turn his face away from him, but when he cried out, he heard him … all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; all the families of the nations shall bow down before him. (Ps 22[21]:23,25,28)

When he offers his own Body and Blood in a sacrifice of expiation for our sins, Jesus takes upon himself all of our agony, all of our anguish, all of our suffering, all of our feeling of abandonment by God, all of our questions, all of our ‘whys’, and offers them together with himself. He does so that even in the midst of our anguish, suffering, and questioning, we might remember and turn to the Lord.

Indeed, we come to the Mass to take part in the sacrifice that he himself offered and gave to us to be offered in memory of him; we come to Mass to remember and turn to the Lord. Then, sharing the very mind of Christ, let us follow his example and heed the exhortation of St. Paul, offering not palm branches, but our own bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – through Him, with Him, and in Him to the glory of the Father.