{"id":6347,"date":"2014-04-18T20:57:48","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T19:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=6347"},"modified":"2015-12-18T17:42:01","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:42:01","slug":"palm-sunday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=6347","title":{"rendered":"Palm Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday (13.04.14)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"flowers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Holy Week, which begins today, is the greatest week in the Church\u2019s year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is made holy by the death of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who died for His flock.\u00a0\u00a0 He died because of and to atone for sin.\u00a0\u00a0 Since we are all sinners, each of us can truthfully say that we had a hand in His death.<\/p>\n

Christ died so that we might die to sin and rise to a new life of holiness and grace.<\/p>\n

Note the difference between the palm-strewn route into Jerusalem at the beginning of the week –\u00a0processions that follow messiahs are triumphant affairs –<\/em>\u00a0contrasted with the road to Calvary soon after, depicting processions following condemned criminals.<\/p>\n

See how the disciples deserted their Lord and Master in face of trouble \u2013 one betrayed Him with a kiss, another denied Him with curses.\u00a0 Confronted with fight or flight, their fear made the decision.<\/p>\n

Can we have the courage to follow Christ, when authorities, governments, regimes range against Him \u2013 challenging all our Christian beliefs?\u00a0\u00a0 Can we still believe in Jesus Christ when faced with our own particular Golgotha?<\/p>\n

Denis McBride CSSR made an interesting observation when explaining the \u201cPassion\u201d of Christ:-
\nTo quote:
\n\u201cThe passion is not something that is done to Jesus by others.\u00a0\u00a0 It is the power within Jesus, His passion that enables Him to face the violence and the pain.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus has a grand passion \u2013 one that consumes His whole person and drives Him through this time of horror.\u00a0\u00a0 He could have avoided coming to Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0 He could have compromised and settled for survival\u2026. His ardent, passionate love insists that He face the ultimate test of love \u2013 the cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the life of Jesus of Nazareth reveals a man of grand passion for all His creation.\u00a0\u00a0 In the end, the cross comes as no surprise.\u00a0\u00a0 It is the penalty for making a habit of such extravagant\u00a0 love.<\/p>\n

The cross of Jesus stands at the centre of the Christian story as the sign of the lengths love will go to in its passion for others.\u00a0\u00a0 If we ever wonder about being loved, let us look at the Figure on the cross \u2013 a living sign that someone thought we were worth all that pain and suffering, someone who thought we were worth dying for\u2026.and that Somebody is Jesus, Son of God.<\/p>\n

We remember the death of Jesus, not as an arbitrary, heedless act of violence, but rather as the supreme act of love\u2026 the love of \u201cOne who did not cling to His equality with God, but emptied Himself to become as we are\u201d in order to show that in spite of our sins and transgressions,\u00a0God loves us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the heart of the Passion story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday (13.04.14) Holy Week, which begins today, is the greatest week in the Church\u2019s year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is made holy by the death of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who died for His flock.\u00a0\u00a0 He died because of and to atone … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archdiocese-of-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8253,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6347\/revisions\/8253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}