Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
The mob. No, not the mafia or organized crime. The mob, as in a group of people with a unified mentality. Our readings today start and end with the mob.
As we gathered at the beginning of Mass, blessing the palms, we heard St. Luke’s account of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The crowds are there for the Passover, and Jesus enters the Golden Gate, the only eastern gate leading into the Old City of Jerusalem. It was also called Sha’ar HaRachamim, the Gate of Mercy. According to Ezekiel, it was through this gate that the Messiah would come, and in fact, as those who went on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land with me heard, it is currently closed up by bricks, because there is a prophecy that the Messiah will go through that gate again at the end of time.
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| The Golden Gate in Jerusalem |
The crowds, probably thinking about the prophecies of Ezekiel (that the Messiah would enter through this gate), and the prophecy of Zechariah (“Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! Behold: your king is coming to you, a just savior is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey”), acclaim Jesus as the Messiah, and recite Psalm 118: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” They are excited, as a whole, about Jesus entering the Holy City for the Passover feasts. They no longer really operate as individuals, but are now a mob, joyfully celebrating the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
But in our Passion Narrative, the same people are clamoring, now not for Jesus as a Messiah, but for the death of Jesus. They no longer shout with the words of Scripture, but rather, “‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’” to fulfill another prophecy of Zechariah which states: “they [shall] look upon him whom they have thrust through, they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and they will grieve for him as one grieves over a firstborn.”
Mobs are, by their nature, fickle. It doesn’t take much for people to set aside their rationality and give in to their emotions. They do not consider so much what they do or what they say, but simply do what feels good. And notice that Jesus does not placate the mob in either case. He neither basks in their adulation, nor shrinks from their murderous howls. Jesus is intent on doing the will of God, in good times and bad, no matter what people think of Him.
As those who have been configured to Christ in baptism, that is our task as well: not to give into mobs in our life, but to set our face like flint to do the will of God the Father. It’s easier to disregard when we disagree with the negative shouts that they hurl at us. Our natural instinct for self-defense usually tries to justify us and rationalize our behavior. It’s much harder to avoid the mob and cave to them when they are pumping us up and saying things that we want to hear. Especially in these days, we tend to surround ourselves with those who agree with us, and they become nothing else than an echo chamber for our mind and ego. When people disagree with us, rather than engaging in calm dialogue and rational debate, we cut them out of our lives, we unfriend them on Facebook or unfollow them on Twitter, and so the chances that those to whom we do listen encourage us becomes pretty likely. But in the face of that, Jesus reminds us both not to give in to the negative or positive shouts of the mob, but to calmly and confidently do the will of God.
Another example of the mob mentality comes from our enemy, the devil. He’s the one who does his best to entice us into doing evil, telling us that it will feel good, that it won’t hurt anyone, that it’s just a small sin that no one will know about. But then, if we fall, he is also the first to condemn us, to tell us how evil we are, and undeserving of God’s love. Again, Jesus tells us not to listen to the cacophony of voices from the devil: don’t give in to the temptation, but if we do, don’t despair of God’s mercy. Rather, try our best to do God’s will in every circumstance in life, as best as we know it, but if we find ourselves having caved to sinful activity, then to run to the Gate of Mercy, the confessional, to be granted absolution from our merciful Father.
While today’s readings began and ended with the mob, they also began and ended with Jesus, two stark examples of how to live our life. May we not be part of the mindless mob, being blown on a whim from emotion to emotion, but be like Jesus, heart, mind, and body set on doing the will of God the Father.
