Toward Jerusalem

Today I will be leaving Lawrence until Palm Sunday to be on an Encounter Team at the Marist Brothers' Retreat House in Esopus, NY with 60 or so teens from Central and other Marist Schools who will be making this intense retreat. We will culminate by celebrating the Liturgy of Palm Sunday. Your next Daily Bread will appear on the Monday following, so let me just call your attention to the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem where he knew that fulfillment of his mission on earth was about to reach its climax. The controversy with the Scribes and Pharisees had reached such a point, that it was deemed that it be fitting that one man die, rather than a nation perish. Jesus rode in Triumph into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, knowing that the week would not pass without their wish being fulfilled. But he also knew that it would not end in his death, but that he would rise and truly "make all things new." We need to reflect on this model, this pattern, for it means salvation for us, and deliverance from the trials and crosses each one of us bears. Without the gifted example of Jesus, we could not bear the weight of our human condition: sickeness among family and friends, poverty, suffering, unjustice everywhere. Indeed, this is NOT paradise. We all have our own personal Jerusalem with which to contend. As we bear our crosses, let us look on Jesus and find strength to carry them to the point where resurrection takes place for us as well. Indeed, it already has.