Christian Reflection and Prayer

Readings: Isaiah 42:1-7;
John 12:1-11

Scripture:

"Then she dried his feet with her
hair, and the house was filled with
the ointment's fragrance." (John 12:3)

Reflection:

We usually take great pains to prepare
for big occasions. The greater the occasion,
the more personal preparation time we
need. Brides take all day to prepare for
their weddings; a teenager spends the
afternoon dressing for the prom; the coroner
spends a day dressing and perfuming a body
for viewing. During Holy Week, we watch
Jesus face the greatest events in His
ministry--His Passion, death, and resurrection.
In our gospel today, Jesus allows Mary to
begin His preparation. The costly perfume
she uses to anoint Jesus symbolizes her
love and the love of His friends who will stay
with Jesus through the tumultuous week
ahead. For Judas, who has no love or
intention to stay with Jesus, the perfume
becomes a sign of conflict.

As this Holy Week begins, who will we be?
Will we be Mary, who has a passionate love
for Jesus and respects His mysterious personality?
Can we, like Mary, take the expensive perfume
of our lives and lay it at the feet of Jesus? Can we
choose to love Jesus with all of our being (using
even our very hair to dry His feet)? This is the love
Jesus will display to us through this week!

Or will we be Judas? Will we be concerned about
all the exterior things? Will we worry about how
our money is used and what others will say?
Will we avoid the journeys through suffering and
death, eventually living more in the dark than in
the day?

Renew this day your passionate love for the Lord.
Choose to stay with the Lord and with yourself
through the sufferings of the week.

Prayer:

All-powerful God, by the suffering and death
of your Son, strengthen and protect us in our
weakness. We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Like that of the prophets of old, this was
an overt act designed to drive home the
truth of the whole matter: a king bent on
war rode a horse, but one seeking peace
rode an ass. John’s crowd was remembering
another triumphal entry, one that Simon had
decreed would be marked annually as a
Jewish independence day. Jesus’ mind,
however, was on something else:

Scripture:

Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, 0 daughter of Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on an ass,
on a colt the foal of an ass [Zech. 9:9].

Reflection:

The palm wavers rightly see triumph in
Jesus, but they don’t understand it. Jesus
has come to conquer not Rome but the
world. He comes to the holy city not to
deal death or to sidestep death, but to
meet death head-on. He will conquer the
world and death itself by dying. Just after
his triumphal entry, according to John,
Jesus makes it clear how he will win:
"Now is the judgment of this world, now
shall the ruler of this world be cast out;
and I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to myself" (12:31-32) His
being lifted up to glory is at once his being
lifted up on the cross.

We confess our misunderstanding. We, too,
come to the city gate, agendas in hand, amid
crowds lined up as though Santa Claus were
coming to town. In a world that routinely places
ultimate value on less than ultimate things, even
the faithful are tempted to come with their want
lists. Our nationalistic or consumeristic religions
preach that to keep the rest of the world scared
or guessing while satisfying our seemingly
endless material desires is to be not far from
the Kingdom of heaven.

The palms say that such an approach has been
taken before, but has been found wanting. Glory
worthy of the name, the glory that is promised,
will not be found in a new hero, system or political
movement. "My kingship is not of this world,"
says the Johannine Jesus (18:36) -- who also says
of his followers, "they are not of the world" (17:14)
Jesus’ glorification comes through an act of self-
sacrificing love. Life of eternal dimensions is the
here-and-now gift to those who believe that this
self-sacrificial One is the Son of God. The waving
branches say that we misunderstand as did his
disciples. Our hopes and dreams are too much
occupied by the ultimately doomed and dead.
And as in the case of the disciples, only Jesus’
death and resurrection will clear up our
misunderstanding.

by Byron L. Rohrig

Prayer:

Lord, you entered Jerusalem with peace in your
heart. Be our vision that we too can live as people
of peace in the face of the world’s many conflicts.
May we hold your vision of justice and peace ever
before us.

Scripture:

Matthew 28:18-21 (New International Version)

18Then Jesus came to them and said,
"All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. 19Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a]
the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to
obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age."

Reflection:

When i accepted Jesus Christ into my heart
and into my life, I was excited, I mean really
excited.  I don't think there was a person
alive that I didn't tell about my experience of
Christ as my personal savior. This experience
changed my entire life and I simply wanted
everyone know about it.
But something happened, something that
caused me to stop talking to others about
Christ.
I began to permit fear to enter my life.  I began
to fear the consequences of my testamony.
I was afraid of the ridicule, the laughter, the
weird looks, the under the breath comments,
the anger that I would receive.  I was affraid
of persecution.  
I looked to the Holy Scriptures for an answer
to my fear.  The first verses I read was
Matthew 28: 18-21.  I suddenly realized
that I had chosen to follow Jesus Christ who
had all the authority of heaven and earth.
That power had been given to Him by our
Father in heaven.  With His power behind
me there was no reason to fear!  And as a further
reward, Jesus Christ will be with me forever.
WITH THAT KIND OF AUTHORITY WITH ME
THERE IS NO REASON TO FEAR!

Prayer:

Father God thank You for Jesus Christ Your
Son Who You gave all power and authority
in heaven and on earth. With You by my side I
need not fear.
AMEN