{"id":3840,"date":"2016-03-20T08:54:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T13:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/?p=3840"},"modified":"2016-03-20T10:48:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T15:48:30","slug":"the-passion-of-jesus-is-our-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/spiritual-reflections\/the-passion-of-jesus-is-our-story","title":{"rendered":"The passion of Jesus is our story"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Palm Sunday reflection by Fr. Dave Warren, S.F.M. At the procession with palms: Gospel of Luke 19.28-40; First reading: Isaiah 50.4-7; Second Reading: Philippians 2.6-11; Gospel: Luke 22.14-23.56
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\"People<\/a>

People on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua, celebrating Palm Sunday with Scarboro missioner Fr. Buddy Smith. Fr. Buddy served the people of Nicaragua who were struggling for life in the midst of armed conflict and later in the aftermath of the Contra war.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our celebration of Palm Sunday begins on a note of joy as we welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. The mood changes as we bury Jesus in the tomb. Something has gone wrong. The crowd welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem, shouting, \u201cHosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! (Mark<\/em> 11: 9). A few days later, the crowd is shouting \u201cCrucify Him!\u201d<\/p>\n

…We are the crowd.<\/em> In this age of PR firms and spin doctors, we know only too well how easily the powers that be can manipulate us.<\/p>\n

…We are the disciples.<\/em> We are not prepared for the test when it comes.<\/p>\n

…We are Peter.<\/em> We overestimate our courage.<\/p>\n

…We are Judas Iscariot.<\/em> We sell our souls.<\/p>\n

…We are Jesus,<\/em> abandoned, betrayed, or denied by those whom we trust.<\/p>\n

…We are the religious leaders<\/em> who fail to recognize God when He doesn\u2019t conform to our preconceived notions of how God should act.<\/p>\n

…We are Pontius Pilate,<\/em> the Roman prefect (governor), who responds according to the notion, \u201cMy country, right or wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

…We are Simon of Cyrene.<\/em> We help because we have to.<\/p>\n

…We are the Roman soldiers,<\/em> just following orders and crucifying our better selves in the process.<\/p>\n

…We are the acquaintances of Jesus<\/em> who watch from a safe distance.<\/p>\n

The Passion of Jesus is not someone else\u2019s story. The passion of Jesus is our story. What are we to do in Holy Week? What does Jesus ask of us? Just this: to stay with Him. This year, let\u2019s take a risk. Let\u2019s stay a little closer to Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Palm Sunday reflection by Fr. Dave Warren, S.F.M. At the procession with palms: Gospel of Luke 19.28-40; First reading: Isaiah 50.4-7; Second Reading: Philippians 2.6-11; Gospel: Luke 22.14-23.56 Our celebration of Palm Sunday begins on a note of joy as we welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. The mood changes as we bury Jesus in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3840"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3852,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions\/3852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}