Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion By Tobe Eze

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

At the Procession with Palms

GOSPEL
Matthew 21:1—11

At the Mass

FIRST READING
Isaiah 50:4—7

SECOND READING
Philippians 2:6—11

GOSPEL
Longer Form Matthew 26:14—27:66

THEME: LOOK BEYOND THE CROWD.

In one week time, the journey of our salvation which started on the Annunciation day will come to fulfillment. Jesus humbled himself, taking the form of a servant just to bring us salvation. Isaiah the prophet in today’s first reading is telling us exactly what Jesus did for our salvation. Jesus gave up everything, he did not talk just to give us salvation.

As Christians, many things are expected from and of us. We should learn from Jesus today who did not in his life time succumbed to the wishes of the crowd. The people we see today singing praises for us may also be the ones that will condemn us tomorrow. Jesus who looked beyond the crowd saw that it is best to be lifted up as recorded in the second reading by God not by crowd. In (John 6:15) after feeding of five thousand men excluding children and women, the crowd was trying to make him king which he did not accept for he know what crowd can be. The best king is the one made by God.

Crowd is a faceless identity. It is this same crowd today in the first Gospel was shouting Hosanna, throwing branches and clothes for Jesus to walk on them. On good Friday it will also be the same crowd that will shout crucify him crucify him. Jesus encountered many crowds in his life time but he was seeing beyond what ordinary men can see about crowd. Continue Reading

Do not rejoice when men praise you for so they did to the fake prophets. There is what is called in Igbo language otito ntogbu. Or oke afa n' egbu nwankita.  That is, praising you in other to deceive you. Crowd may be praising you just to make sure you will move to a certain point where they will leave you to be disgraced. Some will be praising you to make you known to people so that they will join them in looking for where you will fall pry, and they will devour you. Some praise you in other to get something from you. Some praise you for people to see that they are also doing what others are doing. While some, praise you with all their hearts, minds, souls and bodies because you deserve it.

Who and who are in this crowd? It is not only the Jews are in the crowd. You and I are the people who are making up the crowd. The Jews go to Jesus when they have seen that he has something to give them or when they want something from him even when they want to test him. Some of us here are the present Jews who don’t go to our Lord because he is Lord but because of some other things. Some of us go to him only when we feel unprotected, when we have one issue or another. Even some go to know if Jesus will do one magic which they term miracle. These are the people in the crowd. Some also in the crowd are good. Some of us here also are good. They do everything that can bring glorification of God. They discomfort themselves in other to comfort others.

In summary, the crowd may sometimes be saying good things about you which are not true. Do not follow them. Remember, the adage that if you cannot beat them you should join them is not in every case. The crowd many deceive sometimes. The crowd are also good in many ways. No one accesses himself, when crowd say something about you that is good always try to do it more in more better ways and whenever the crowd say something bad about you always look back to see if corrections are needed. Always look beyond the crowd for the place ahead is far better than here. When the crowd will push you to go in a wrong way please look beyond it like Jesus did when they want to make him king. The second reading tells us about humility which is the direct way to see beyond the crowd. Because Jesus humbled himself he got the name above every name. It is not all that crowd say that you will react to. When they were shouting crucify him, Jesus did not react. He was looking beyond them, because he knew our salvation lies there. When we are facing the same crowd shouting bad things or even doing bad things on us, we should also see our salvation from them. Let us not always see condemnation from crowd rather see and know many good things await beyond the crowd. LOOK BEYOND THE CROWD AND SEE THE GLORY OF GOD. HAPPY SUNDAY

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