When Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the scene
could not be more jubilant. While it was not a spectacle as grand as
a conquering general or an emperor marching through the streets of
Rome, it was about as exuberant as the people of Jerusalem could
manage. The people were filled with wonder and awe. The sense of
joyful expectation was widespread.

A mere five days later all of that expectation and joy had evaporated.
On Holy Thursday, when Jesus is arrested and taken away from them,
this had to be one of the worst moments in the lives of the Apostles.
When Jesus is crucified and His life taken from Him, this had to be
about the worst thing to happen to the Apostles. The only thing that
could make things worse would be for the Apostles to be taken away and
killed.

It is no surprise that the remaining eleven Apostles cower in hiding.
They are fearful that they will soon be taken away and their lives
taken from them. They are dismayed and tearful that their Lord had
been taken from them.

This is despite the fact that Jesus had told them that He would die
and rise again. From Matthew's Gospel we hear “Jesus began to show
his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the
elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the
third day be raised” (Mt 16:21). They saw Jesus go to Jerusalem.
They saw Him suffer greatly. They saw Him be killed. But they did
not expect Him to rise on the third day.

Jesus told them at the Last Supper that “A little while and you will
no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me”
(Jn 16:16) which told them that His death was not permanent. He would
leave shortly and return shortly. Yet the Apostles wept for Jesus as
if they would never see Him again.

At the Ascension, however, Jesus is leaving them again, but this time
not for a little while. Jesus is physically leaving them for ever.
You would think that the Ascension would bring the Apostles back into
the depths of despair. You would think that the tears would be all
the more bitter since Jesus is not being taken away from them by force
but leaving them of His own free will.

So how do the Apostles respond? Each of the Apostles could have
lamented “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”(Ps 22:2). After
all, Jesus' ascension into heaven could have been seen as an act of
abandonment. Yet the end of Luke's Gospel tells us that “They did
[Jesus] homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they
were continually in the temple praising God” (Lk 24:52-53).

For nine days until the descent of the Holy Spirit and even more so
afterward they praised God and prayed even though Jesus was not to
return until the end of time. This stands as a model for us, what we
ought to be doing until we draw our last breath and even until the end
of time. We need do Jesus homage, praise God, and pray continually.

And no one can take this away from us. Swords and clubs cannot take
away our ability to worship, praise, and pray. Being arrested and
thrown into prison cannot take this away. Being sentenced to death
cannot take away our ability and our need to worship, praise, and
pray. Indeed, not even having our earthly lives taken away from us
can stop our capacity to worship, praise, and pray. So let us follow
the lead of the Apostles, not just for nine days, but for a lifetime
here on earth and for all eternity in heaven.

Just before the good news of the Gospel takes root among the gentiles,
Peter exclaims “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.” Coming
from a Jewish background it was easy for Peter to assume that God had
basically forsaken the pagan peoples. After all, the Jews were the
Chosen People, they were given the Promised Land, they had God's word
revealed through Moses and the prophets, and God had gone into battle
for them countless times.

It was easy and natural for the Jewish people to think that they were
unique, that they had an exclusive relationship with God. It was easy
for them to think that they were special, that God had chosen them
because of what they had done. It was easy for them to take these
blessings and privileges for granted. They were the sons and
daughters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had Moses. They had the
Ten Commandments. They had the covenants.

They had the covenant that God made with Adam and Eve. They had the
covenant that God established with Noah. They had the covenant
between God and Abraham. They had the covenant that God initiated
through Moses. They had the covenant that God made with King David.
Given all of this, how much more exclusive could their relationship
with God be?

But they failed to realize that the covenant with Adam and Eve, where
God first promises a Savior, is not exclusive to the Chosen People.
The covenant with Noah not to destroy mankind with another flood
applied to all of humanity as much as it applied to all of the
creatures that were gathered in Noah's Ark. The covenant with Abraham
was to make him the father of many nations, not just the nation of
Israel.

Many people think the covenant that God made with Moses is exclusive
to the Hebrew people. People today assume that the Ten Commandments
apply only to the Jews and Christians, that the Ten Commandments are
not binding on nonbelievers. Not so. The Ten Commandments are a
statement of Natural Law, the law written on the human heart. It is
not written only on the Jewish and Christian heart, but on every human
heart.

And the Fourth Commandment, the call to honor our fathers and mothers,
certainly applies to all peoples of all times. Children can't help
but love their parents, especially their mothers. Mom is absolutely
central in the life of a small child. But it is easy and quite common
for the child to believe that mom loves them because the child is the
center of the universe.

Just like it was natural for the Jews to think that they were
something special and that God loved them because they were uniquely
special, so it is with children and their mothers. At some point in
childhood, every child has to realize that they themselves are not the
center of the universe. At some point in their lives they have to
realize that mom loves them not because they are more lovable than
anyone else. They also come to see that they love their mothers not
because of all the things she has done for them.

No, a mother loves her child because of who they are, not because the
child has done anything to earn her love. The child eventually learns
to love their mother not because of all the things she has done for
them, but because of who she is. The Fourth Commandment does not ask
of us anything that is foreign to our human nature. It is actually a
reminder of what is written on our hearts.

The very same thing can be said of the First Commandment. This too is
written on our hearts even though many deny the very existence of God.
And like honoring and respecting our mothers, honoring, respecting
and worshiping God is not a violation of our dignity but an
affirmation of our dignity. We love our mothers because of who we are
and who she is, and we love God because of Who He is and what He has
created us to be.

In other words, true love focuses not on the What – not what we have
done nor what someone has done for us – but on the Who – who we are
and who it is that we love and who it is that loves us.

Indeed, we can look at all that God has done for us and truly
appreciate the good things He has bestowed on us. But that would be a
childish, immature, needy form of love unless we love Him primarily
for Who He is irrespective of what good things we have received or not
received in this life. We can say the same thing with regard to our
mothers. Our moms should never have to earn our love but we owe them
our love because of who they are.

So let us never hesitate to honor, love, and respect our mothers.

If we see the image of a tiger, an eagle, or an elephant, certain
things come to mind. It is difficult for some not to associate an
image of a tiger or an eagle with one university or perhaps its
football team. The same can be said for the image of an elephant.

When we see Uncle Sam, we associate him with our country, especially
in a positive and patriotic sense. When we see a swastika, it is
almost impossible to not associate that symbol with Nazi Germany and
especially with the evil excesses of Hitler and his henchmen. When we
see the image of a red maple leaf it is difficult not to think of our
neighbors to the north, Canada.

Indeed, many national flags are quite familiar to us and we
immediately recognize the nations for which those flags stand. Most
Americans can readily recognize the British Union Jack, Canadian Maple
Leaf, Swiss Cross, Soviet Hammer and Sickle, and Japanese Rising Sun
flags. Depending on our heritage or our life experience, we might
readily recognize flags of other nations that are somewhat less well
known in general.

One flag that almost everyone recognizes is the flag of Israel. We
see the Star of David, or as some people call it, the Shield of David,
and we immediately think of Israel or the Jews as a people. Indeed,
just as the cross or crucifix has become a universal symbol for
Christians, the Star of David has become the primary symbol
representing the Jews.

We might think that the Star of David is an ancient symbol, but it is
much more modern than many people might think. It did not come to
symbolize the Jewish people or Judaism until about 400 years ago.
The most ancient symbol for the Jewish people is not the Star of David
but a cluster of grapes. If we were to see a cluster of grapes today
on a flag or on a coin, we would not readily or naturally associate it
with the Jewish people at all. But there once was a time when Jewish
money always carried an image of a cluster of grapes.

The association between grapes and the Chosen People is Biblically
based. We hear in the 80th Psalm “[Lord,] You brought a vine out of
Egypt; You cleared out what was before it; it took deep root and
filled the land. The mountains were covered by its shadow, the cedars
of God by its branches. It sent out its boughs as far as the sea, its
shoots as far as the river” (Ps 80:9-12). And Isaiah testifies “The
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, the people of
Judah, his cherished plant” (Isa 5:7).

As much as the Lord planted the Jews in the Promised Land and provided
for their needs, through human weakness and human folly the Lord's
vineyard became defiled. Through Isaiah God laments “What more could
be done for my vineyard that I did not do? Why, when I waited for the
crop of grapes, did it yield rotten grapes?” (Isa 5:4). Again,
through Jeremiah God complains that “But I had planted you as a choice
vine, all pedigreed stock; How could you turn out so obnoxious to me,
a spurious vine? Even if you scour it with lye, and use much soap,
the stain of your guilt is still before me” (Jer 2:21-22).

By spurning God and rejecting His ways the choice vine that God
planted becomes a weed, no better than the pagans that surrounded the
Promised Land. What God had freed and established through the Exodus
returns to the wickedness of Egypt.

This is why Jesus says “I am the Vine.” The people and nation of
Israel are no longer the choice vine because nations and peoples
change, and not always for the good. But when Jesus becomes the Vine,
Its goodness becomes absolute and eternal.

Once a vine becomes uprooted, it can't replant itself in the soil. It
simply withers and dies. Once a choice vine begins to mingle with
common vines, once they cross-pollinate, the pedigree of the choice
vine is lost forever. It produces grapes suitable for vinegar, not
vintage wine.

But Jesus cannot be uprooted. He remains firmly planted forever.
Jesus cannot be adulterated with things that are evil or untrue. His
pedigree as the Vine cannot be compromised by worldliness and
unworthiness.
When Israel went astray, forsaking the Lord and His ways, they had no
means to return and again become the choice vine that God had planted.
As God revealed to them through Jeremiah, “Even if you scour it with
lye, and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me.”

But with Jesus as our Vine, we have the opportunity and the means to
be re-grafted into Him if we become a spurious, wild branch or if we
become separated from the Vine. Remaining on Jesus the True Vine is
of supreme importance because we can only bear fruit by abiding in
Him. And if we do not bear fruit or if we have separated ourselves
from Jesus the Vine, we run the real risk of being gathered and being
thrown into the fire.

So let us abide in Jesus and in abiding in Him let us also bear much
fruit. Indeed, if we are not drawing life from Jesus our True Vine,
we are as spiritually lifeless as a dried-up branch.

When Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, what does she find? What do
Peter and John find after running to where Jesus was buried? Mary,
Peter, and John all find an empty tomb. And they are all surprised.
They do not know what to make of Jesus' body being missing from the
tomb.

Mary weeps all the more and interprets the empty tomb not as a sign of
the Resurrection but as a violation of Jesus' grave. She hopes
perhaps that the gardener has moved His body. “Sir, if you carried
him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” That 'if'
in her question leaves open the possibility that something far worse
than Jesus' body being moved elsewhere.

Peter and John must have had the same worries, that perhaps Jesus'
body has been left for the dogs, hyenas, and vultures. But they see
something that suggests that the body has not been stolen: “When Simon
Peter arrived after [John], he went into the tomb and saw the burial
cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the
burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place” (Jn 20:6-7). Surely
grave robbers would not roll the burial cloths neatly but would just
take the body.

The Roman soldiers report the empty tomb to the Jewish officials. The
Jews advise the soldiers by saying “You are to say, ‘His disciples
came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets
to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of
trouble. The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed”
(Mt 28:13-15).

So whether it was the women who went to the tomb, the Apostles, the
Roman soldiers, or the Jewish officials they all agree on one thing:
the tomb where Jesus was buried on Good Friday was empty on Easter
Sunday.

The meaning of the empty tomb was open to various interpretations. It
could mean that tomb robbers came to take Jesus' body, or that someone
came to defile the body, or that someone moved the body to a different
grave, or that the disciples absconded with Jesus' body. The empty
tomb does not necessarily prove that Jesus has risen from the dead.

In fact, the Resurrection is the least likely, the least natural,
least obvious explanation for the empty tomb. His own followers don't
see the empty tomb as clear evidence of Jesus rising from the dead.
It is much easier to believe in tomb raiders, the reburial of the
body, or the desecration of Jesus' body.

This is why Jesus must appear to His disciples multiple times between
the Resurrection and the Ascension. Even then, Mary Magdalene and the
two disciples fleeing to Emmaus do not immediately recognize the
Resurrected Jesus. When Jesus enters the locked room, the Apostles
“were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a
ghost.” Just like the empty tomb, an apparition is clearly not enough
evidence for the followers of Jesus to lead them to believe in the
Resurrection.

Thus, Jesus has to show them His hands, His side, and His feet. “Look
at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” And He goes further to
say “Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.” And then Jesus eats, something that a ghost
could not do.

Thus, Jesus has to prove His resurrection to His followers, He had to
convince them that He had vanquished death. Over and over Jesus told
them that he would rise from the dead, but the disciples did not
understand what He meant.

The disciples saw, touched, and heard the Risen Jesus. They saw Him
eat. They slowly began to believe. What brings us to believe in the
Resurrection? We do not have what the those first disciples had in
the days following the Resurrection. And yet we believe that Jesus
rose from the dead. Why?

Why do we believe if we have not seen, heard and touched the Risen
Jesus? Because someone in our lives, someone we trust handed the
faith on to us, they witnessed to us about Jesus rising from the dead.
Indeed, Jesus would leave us the Apostles as witnesses, He would
leave us the Scriptures to witness to Him, and He left us the Church.
Someone in the Church, a family member, a priest, a nun, or a friend
brought us to the Risen Jesus.

Can we name those who have walked with us and witnessed to Jesus?
Have we thanked them for what they have done for us? Have we thanked
mom and dad for bringing us to the baptismal font? Have we thanked
them for bringing us to Mass every week and perhaps sending us to
Catholic schools?

And if someone has brought us to faith in the Risen Jesus, who are we
bringing to Jesus now? Jesus challenges the Apostles on Easter saying
“that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in
his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are
witnesses of these things.” So we are also challenged to witness to
Jesus.

Since we benefited from the witness of a father, mother, grandmother,
grandfather, or other relative or friend, don't we have the duty to
witness to our children, our grandchildren, and families and our
friends? We can't show them the marks of the nails in our hands and
feet, but we certainly can show them what Jesus has and continues to
do in our lives on a daily basis.

The other day I had a little bit of spare time and I decided to see if
there was anything decent on TV. So I went channel surfing. I ran
across an interesting movie, 'O Brother, Where Art Thou.' I like this
movie but I hate the foul and blasphemous language that ruins this
otherwise good movie. Fortunately, this channel chose to broadcast
the sanitized version.

I joined the movie at the moment when two of three main characters,
all escaped convicts on-the-lamb, impulsively get baptized in a river.
One of the characters proclaims after his baptism 'Well, that's it,
boys. I been redeemed. The preacher done washed away all my sins and
transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out. And
heaven everlasting's my reward... Neither God nor man's got nothin'
on me now.'

The two that are newly baptized are under the impression that their
baptism has wiped away all of their guilt before both God and man,
that their baptism has washed away their moral and legal guilt. The
third character who refuses baptism pops their balloon. Despite their
baptisms, they are still wanted fugitives in the eyes of the law. One
of the newly baptized objects: 'The preacher said it absolved us. //
For [God], not for the law. // But witnesses seen us redeemed. //
That's not the issue: Even square with the Lord, Mississippi's
hard-nosed.'

The two newly baptized criminals don't understand that they are
reconciled with the Lord but not with the state of Mississippi.
Whether the authors of that screenplay intended on teaching this
profound truth or not, this truly shows how God is different than we
are. This episode illustrates how divine mercy is radically different
than the human mercy we sometimes show one another.

Isaiah teaches this very clearly: “Seek the Lord while he may be
found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their
way, and sinners their thoughts; Let them turn to the Lord to find
mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my
thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa 55:6-9).

That one character is quite correct in saying 'I been redeemed. The
preacher done washed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the
straight and narrow from here on out.' This echoes the preaching of
St Peter on the morning of Pentecost where he says “Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38).

The state of Mississippi has a different view. These men were doing
hard time on a chain gang before they escaped. They were paying their
debt to society by being incarcerated and doing hard labor. The state
sees things in terms of justice, not mercy. They have a right and a
duty to uphold, promote, and maintain justice. So long as the
punishment does not violate the God-given dignity of the prisoners,
the state is acting within its purview.

In a certain way, the state has to be hard-nosed. It has a duty to
protect society. Unlike God, no police officer, no juror, no judge,
no prison warden, no parole board, or no other human being can look
into the heart of another man. In our legal system, mercy is
possible, but the bar is set pretty high. A felon is always a felon
in the eyes of the law. A full pardon or commutation of a sentence is
a rare act of mercy. Clemency is rare because of the shortcomings of
our human nature.

With God, the bar is pretty low regarding mercy. He wants us to be
reconciled. He offers us the choice of His mercy or His justice. God
can offer us His mercy because Jesus has satisfied, through His love,
the demands of divine justice. Divine mercy is offered to all because
Jesus died for all. And the basic avenue to tap into this infinite
fount of mercy is repentance, faith, hope, love, and the sacraments,
especially baptism, confession, and the Eucharist.

Just look at how Jesus approaches the Apostles on Easter Sunday: the
first words out of His mouth are “Peace be with you.” He does not
rebuke them as He could have rightfully done for betraying Him and
abandoning Him. And to bring about that peace between God and man,
Jesus entrusts the power to forgive sins to mere men. “'Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' And when he had said
this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain
are retained.'”

Forgiven through baptism, reconciled again through confession. God is
not asking much of us at all, but many refuse these merciful graces.
The one fugitive in the movie who chose not to be baptized was more
concerned about his hair than his immortal soul. The same is true in
real life. Many do not take advantage of God's gracious offer of
mercy for very trivial reasons.

Jesus revealed to St Faustina that “The flames of mercy are burning
me. I desire to pour them out upon human souls. Oh, what pain they
cause Me when they do not want to accept them!” In other words, Jesus
has already suffered for our sins upon the cross, and He suffers even
now not for our sins, but because so many people are unwilling to seek
His mercy for the forgiveness of their sins.

So what are we to do? Well, we need to seek God's mercy. This is not
a one time act, but a way of living. If we continually seek His
mercy, we will be at peace with God. Secondly, we must strive to be
merciful to our neighbors. If we readily forgive those who sin
against us, we will find peace with our brothers and sisters. We are
only forgiven to the extent that we forgive others.

Thirdly, we need to trust Jesus and His promises to us. We are called
to have faith in Him, trust in Him, and to love Him. If we truly
trust Jesus, we will be at peace with ourselves. This peace with God,
this peace with our neighbors, and this peace with ourselves is a gift
of God's mercy. Jesus at the Last Supper tells the Apostles “Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I
give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (Jn
14:27).

So let us seek that peace that Jesus offers us through His mercy. If
we are alienated from Him, we need to seek reconciliation. If we are
alienated with a neighbor, let us forgive them even if they refuse our
mercy. And let us place our trust firmly in Jesus that we may find
that interior peace where our hearts will not be troubled or afraid.

The Catholic Church has always placed great importance on the
celebration of Palm Sunday. Many protestants are now beginning to
rediscover Palm Sunday and have increasingly returned to the practice
of distributing and blessing palm leaves. Besides being regarded as
too Catholic, one of the reasons they abandoned the practice of
celebrating Palm Sunday is because palms and palm branches had lost
their meaning.

The palm tree for the ancient Jews was a sign of life. Not just any
life, but the life of the just man. For example, in the 92nd Psalm we
hear “The just shall flourish like the palm tree, shall grow like a
cedar of Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall
flourish in the courts of our God.” (Ps 92:13-14).

Likewise, Psalm 128 assures the just man that “Your wife will be like
a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive
shoots around your table. Lo, thus shall the man be blessed who fears
the Lord” (Ps 128:3-4). Thus, the palm and olive tree came to
represent not just life, but the life of the just.

For the Romans, the palm tree became a symbol of military conquest.
It came to be that when a nation or a kingdom was conquered by the
Romans, the victorious general would return to Rome with a palm tree
uprooted from that vanquished nation as a sign and token of his
triumph. The people of Rome would also greet the conquering general
with palm branches.

Since the palm tree is not native to Italy, the palm branches waved by
the people of Rome came from trees brought back and transplanted from
the previous victories of the Roman Legions. In a certain way, the
Roman palm trees signified the life of the Empire, the victories past
and present pointing to future triumphs.

But what kind of triumph are the people of Jerusalem celebrating as
Jesus enters the city? Yes, Jesus is a Conquering Hero, but He
conquers not by spilling the blood of others. He conquers by His own
Blood being spilled. He has not vanquished human enemies, but He has
defeated the enemies of humans. Jesus has overcome our two greatest
enemies, sin and death.

Jesus triumphantly enters into Jerusalem but not on a warhorse or
riding in a chariot. He does not have someone whispering in His ear
like the triumphant Roman general. There was no man whispering to
Jesus 'momento mori,' remember, you are mortal. Jesus knows He is
mortal in His human nature and it is through this mortality that He
would conquer.

Jesus enters humbly on a beast of burden showing forth His humility
and His righteousness. He will be condemned of unrighteousness by the
unrighteous, and His suffering and death become the source of
righteousness for we who are unrighteous. We, like our ancient
counterparts in Jerusalem, shout to Jesus “Hosanna! Blessed is He who
comes in the name of the Lord!” when it suits us, and almost in the
same breath shout even louder “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

In faith, hope, and love we cry out “Hosanna” to Christ our King, and
in our sinfulness we cry “Crucify Him” to our Paschal Lamb Who takes
away the sins of the world. Indeed, Jesus becomes our Conquering King
only when He mounts the wood of the cross. The cross becomes our
King's throne, it becomes our Great High Priest's altar, and it is the
altar on which the sacrificial Lamb takes away the sins of the world.
May the suffering and death of Jesus never lose its meaning in our
lives.

One of the common realities for people of all ages is to have hopes
and dreams. The moment we begin to grasp the concept of having a
future is the moment we begin to have aspirations and dreams about
that future that lies ahead of us. Our dreams and expectations mature
and evolve as we mature and as we evolve.

For example, a young boy might think about being an astronaut. A
young girl might imagine being a princess. But as they age, their
aspirations become a little more realistic. The boy might want to be
a major league baseball player while the girl might dream of being an
olympic gymnast. The young man might lower his sights from being a
major leaguer to getting a college scholarship while the young lady
may put aside the dream of being an olympic gymnast for something that
is more within her grasp.

As we age, we never stop dreaming. It is just that our dreams become
more realistic or they get modified by the circumstances of our lives.
Reality sets in and we are forced to reevaluate our expectations of
what the future holds in store. The young woman who once dreamed of
being a princess, who later wanted to be an olympic gymnast, might set
her hopes on having a good man for a husband, a home full of beloved
children, and a fulfilling career.

Having a good spouse, wonderful children, and a decent career are
certainly attainable goals for many people today. We might consider
this a very reasonable and realistic dream. Very few people become
astronauts, very few women are or become princesses, and very few
people become olympic or professional athletes. But marriage,
parenthood, and meaningful employment are possibilities for many
people today.

Yet the realistic dream of having a good marriage, wonderful children,
and a meaningful career is still fraught with the possibility of
enormous disappointment. Every spouse is flawed to one degree or
another. Children grow up to be teenagers. A good job can be ruined
by a nasty boss or by conniving coworkers. Then there is the
possibility of never marrying, of being infertile, or of being
unemployed.

So a man might dream in his youth of being an astronaut but find
himself in a troubled marriage, having a delinquent child, and working
at a low-paying dead end job. A woman might have wanted to be a
princess when she was a little girl and find herself married to an
emotionally cold husband, suffering from infertility, and with
virtually no job prospects. Such would be far cries from the
aspirations of their childhood.

When aspirations and reality collide, when life seems less than we had
expected or imagined, when we seem to have been dealt a bad hand, we
have a natural tendency to react by losing hope, by becoming bitter,
by being regretful, or by embracing resentment.

In losing hope, we may not fall into the depths of despair but we
might become indifferent towards life, we might just decide to go
through the motions. In becoming bitter, we might blame others for
our situation, we might hold others responsible who may or may not
have contributed to our problems. We might even blame everyone in
general. In becoming regretful, we might blame ourselves for our bad
decisions, we might let the past determine our future. In embracing
resentment, we might look at the good things that do happen to us and
fail to see them as the good things they truly are.

We all know someone who is hopeless, someone who is bitter, someone
who is regretful, and someone who is resentful. They are out there
and there may have been a time when we fell into one or more of these
categories. But we also know those who are in terrible or impossible
circumstances who are anything but hopeless, bitter, regretful, or
resentful. Despite it all they have hope, they are more than content,
they are not controlled by their past, and they can see good even in
the midst of calamity.

How are these people different? Are they wired differently than
everybody else? Are they too oblivious to notice how bad things are?
Are they using better medications? No, there is a simple answer.
They have died to themselves. They themselves are not the measure of
all things and their hopes and aspirations are not the standard by
which life is evaluated.

Jesus teaches the importance of dying to oneself saying “Amen, amen, I
say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much
fruit.” If the grain does not die to itself, if it remains above
ground and unplanted, what is its fate? It will either rot and become
consumed by mold and bacteria, or it will be eaten by a bird or some
other animal.

But if that grain is planted, it brings forth life. It becomes more
alive by dying than by remaining an unplanted grain waiting around to
rot or to be eaten. An unplanted grain faces a certain future of
being consumed. It knows not when or how it will be consumed, but the
ultimate outcome is certain. The planted grain, the one that dies to
itself, has a future of bringing forth life. Its outcome is also
certain. One future outcome breeds despair, the other outcome
conceives hope.

Everyone faces problems in this life. Everyone. We might look at the
rich and famous and think that we would be happier if we were like
them. We might look with envy at Neil Armstrong, Kate Middleton, Alex
Rodriguez, Mary Lou Retton, or any number of people who seem to have
achieved the dreams we had in childhood, but they won't find happiness
in being an astronaut, a duchess, a future hall-of-famer, or an
olympic gold medalist. They might find happiness but only in spite of
their achievements and only if they die to themselves.

If we die to ourselves, despair, bitterness, regret, and resentment
will have a tougher time taking root in our lives. We will be more
open to the fruits of hope, contentment, forgiveness, and peace.
Ultimately, dying to ourselves is to put aside our worldly hopes and
aspirations and to embrace the hopes and aspirations that God has for
us. And God's aspiration for each of us is sainthood. Jesus' dying
to Himself and dying for love of the world is what makes our dying to
ourselves so fruitful.

The hope and dream of heaven is better than any hope we may have had
as a child. It is a better dream and it is a possibility for everyone
but only if we die to ourselves that we might live through Jesus, with
Jesus, and in Jesus.

We really do not see some types of businesses anymore. They have
largely disappeared from the landscape. It is not because the
mega-stores have driven these small businesses out of the market. It
is not because times are tough in our economy. These types of
businesses have disappeared because our economy has changed and
evolved over the years.

There once was a time when you could find repair shops for almost
everything. There were TV repair shops, there were radio repair
shops, and appliance repair shops. There are a few places where
appliances and shoes can get repaired. But you really can't bring
your microwave or toaster oven to get fixed at the appliance shop.
They only work on big ticket items like refrigerators and washing
machines. The same can be said regarding shoes: only higher-end shoes
can be repaired.

It has gotten to the point that it is easier and cheaper to replace
many things than it is to repair them. If something breaks down, we
throw it away and buy a new one to replace it. Many of our
possessions are ultimately throw-away items. Almost everything is
disposable and will eventually be taken to the curb and hauled away to
the dump when they break down or no longer serve our purposes.

About the only things we take to get repaired these days are computers
and cars. And the days are drawing to a close for the computer repair
shop. More and more computers are being made that are difficult or
impossible to repair and the prices of computers continue to fall such
that it is becoming easier and cheaper to replace a computer than to
fix it. It is a matter of time before we look at a broken computer
just like we look at a broken toaster.

Car repair shops, however, will be with us for a long time. This is
because cars are too expensive to simply replace when they break down.
And cars have grown so complex that the shade tree mechanic can do
little more than change the oil, replace the headlights, and rotate
the tires. You need a special computer to do a tune up or to diagnose
most problems.

Really big-ticket items, the things that only a huge company or the
government can afford to buy, have always been intended to be
repaired. The average car has about 30,000 parts, but something like
the Space Shuttle has over 2,500,000 distinct parts and components
while a 747 has something like 6,000,000. The Saturn V rocket that
took our astronauts to the moon had over 3,000,000 parts.

For these large, expensive, and complex items to be repaired, every
part has an identifier. Many parts will have a long part number that
identifies it, but some parts like electrical components are too small
to have a long unique part number but will have a two to four
character identifier. There is a conventional practice for
identifying these small electronic parts. The first character is a
letter that identifies what type of part it is. For example,
resisters begin with the letter R, capacitors with the letter C, and
so on. The digits that follow distinguish one resistor or capacitor
from another.

So, every electrical component will have an identifier like R256 or
C27. Electrical connectors have identifiers that begin with the
letter J. For the umbilical connectors that provided air, cooling,
and electrical power from the spacecraft to the astronauts' space
suits, they were labeled J316 and J317 by Frank Denton who was the
designer of those space suits.

Frank Denton, however, broke with convention when he named these
connectors J316 and J317. There were not 317 connectors on those
space suits. In fact, there were only a few dozen. A fellow engineer
challenged Mr. Denton on why he named these connectors J316 and J317.

It was no mistake. Mr. Denton explained that he named them this way
because the umbilical cable brought life-sustaining air, cooling, and
electrical power to the astronaut's space suit. Without the umbilical
connection, the astronaut would soon die. The fellow engineer still
didn't get it. What does J316 and J317 have to do with sustaining the
astronaut's life?

Mr. Denton had to spell it out for his colleague. J316 and J317 stood
for John 3:16 and John 3:17. “For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through
him.” Just as the astronaut draws life through connectors J316 and
J317, we draw supernatural life through the truths of John 3:16 and
3:17.

God so loves us that He does not see us as throw-away items like we
see our tennis shoes and our toasters. No, the Father sent His Son to
be our spiritual Repair Man. We are worth repairing because God sees
each of us as irreplaceable, of infinite value, and loved beyond our
ability to comprehend.

Jesus does not take us to the curb or the dump to be thrown away, but
if we bring our brokenness to Him, He restores us. He repairs us and
we draw supernatural life through Him, the supernatural life that
comes to us as God's grace. And the umbilical chord through which
this grace flows to us is the Church.

Indeed, Jesus is our divine Repair Man and the Church is His repair
shop. The sacraments, especially baptism, confession, and the
Eucharist, are the remedies that repair and sustain us spiritually.
And if we do not partake of the remedies that Jesus graciously offers
to us through His Church, then we deny our infinite value, then we
deny God's infinite love for us, then we deny what Jesus did on the
cross out of love for us.

If we do not come to Jesus for repair, if we do not partake of this
gracious gift from God, we will remain in the darkness of sin and
remain “dead in our transgressions.” The only thing that Jesus cannot
repair is what we fail to bring to Him. So let us live the truth and
come into the light. Let us not be afraid to come to Jesus, admit
that we are broken, and let Him repair our souls by the graces that He
offers through the sacraments. He did not come to condemn us but to
repair us, and if we do not let Him work on us, we condemn ourselves.

As a kid, you tend to take some things for granted. One of those
things I always took for granted was soft drinks bought from a vending
machine. They always seemed colder and tasted better than a can or
bottle from your own fridge. And a twelve ounce can seemed to almost
always cost the same no matter where you went. As far back as I can
remember, a can or bottle cost twenty-five cents. This held true
until high school.

I say that a can of Coke or whatever cost the same almost everywhere
you went. Almost everywhere. The first time I saw soft drinks being
sold for a different price was in 1976. Our family was traveling
across the country and we stopped at a rest area along the interstate.
This was somewhere in New York state and the cost for a can of Coke
from a vending machine was seventy-five cents, three times the price
anywhere else. My twelve-year-old mind could not fathom paying
seventy-five cents a can. It was utterly inconceivable.

You had to be pretty thirsty to pay triple the price. The only other
place that was like that was the movie theater. There you might pay a
dollar for a sixteen ounce cup filled with nine ounces of ice and six
ounces of Coke. That works out to be about eight times the cost of a
Coke from a vending machine.

The same sort of thing was true for the candy and popcorn at the movie
theater. Grossly, shamefully overpriced. It got so bad that people
began to bring their own goodies to the movies. Some of the local
movie theaters responded by banning any food or beverage brought into
the theater that was not bought at their concession stand. People
were forced to buy overpriced snacks, to smuggle them in hoping they
would not be confiscated, or to just go without.

It seems the same thing is still happening. I saw the other day that
a man in Michigan was suing a chain of movie theaters over the price
of their popcorn and other refreshments. That same theater chain also
bans bringing contraband goodies into their movies.

Movie theaters may or may not have a right to do this. Perhaps this
lawsuit will clarify the issue. But even if it is perfectly legal to
prohibit bringing food from home and charging outrageous prices for
food and drinks, it still seems basically unjust. It certainly feels
as if the moviegoer is being fleeced, that he is being taken to the
cleaners.

In today's Gospel reading, we see a similar scheme at work. The money
changers would convert the Roman coins used for everyday commerce into
shekels, the only type of money allowed for use in the Temple. The
Temple officials were adamant about the use of the shekel because the
Roman and other pagan coins had the image of the emperor or the king.
These pagan coins carried a graven image, a violation of the First
Commandment.

Likewise, the men selling sheep, oxen, and doves were selling such
animals that would be suitable for offering as a sacrifice. They,
like the money changers, were providing a service, they were assisting
people in their Temple worship.

The problem was that there was only one place to exchange Roman coins
for shekels, and the exchange rate was very lucrative for the money
changers. And one could try to bring their own sheep or dove to
sacrifice, but animals that were not bought in the Temple were deemed
unfit to offer to God. In other words, the animal dealers and the
money changers were operating a monopoly. They had the people over a
barrel.

Our Gospel reading tells us that the time for the Passover was near.
This meant that every family would soon have to obtain their own lamb
for the Passover. The Passover lamb had to be a year-old male without
any form of blemish and he had to be sacrificed at the Temple, his
blood had to be spilled inside the walls of the Temple. And since the
animal dealers had a monopoly, Passover was a very lucrative season.

So when Jesus fashions a whip and drives out the money changers and
those who sold sacrificial animals, it is little wonder that many of
the people “began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he
was doing.” The people had been victimized for years, and they were
drawn to Jesus because He had taken revenge against those scoundrels.
Jesus was now their champion, He was their hero for punishing those
shameless profiteers.

But did Jesus come to be a consumer affairs advocate? Did He come to
punish the wicked? No, He came to be our Passover Lamb, He came as
the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. And as the Lamb
of God, He offers Himself for our sins free of charge. All He asks of
us is to place our faith and our hope in Him and to love God and
neighbor.

And how do we love God and neighbor? By observing the Ten
Commandments which do not cost us a thing. In fact, the Ten
Commandments are what we ought to be doing anyhow, they describe not
simply the Judeo-Christian understanding of morality, they represent
what it means to live an authentically human life. Indeed, violating
one of the Commandments is not breaking an arbitrary rule imposed upon
us by God or the Church. Sin ultimately is a denial of what it means
to be a human being, it is a betrayal of who we are and of the God Who
created us.

Many today find the 'price' of being a Christian, the 'cost' of living
an authentic human life to be far too expensive. Jesus offers
salvation free of charge, and He asks us to embrace our true human
dignity. He does not charge admission, He does not charge for the
holy and spiritual refreshments He provides us in the sacraments. But
if He did, we would never be able to afford the true cost of admission
and refreshment. Our Divine Lamb has paid this infinite price for us.

Indeed, no matter where you go or in what age you live, the price of
salvation is always the same: faith, hope, love, and the obedience
that flows from love of God and neighbor. May we all find this to be
a more than reasonable price and may we never regard God's
commandments as a burden but an expression of what it means to truly
live an authentically human life.

It happens to us every once in a while. We have something happen to
us or we witness and event that is deeply profound, unexpected, or
even life-changing. We might stand in awe of such an event, perhaps a
joyful awe or a heartbreaking awe. The event just cries out to be
shared with others, sharing our joys or our sorrows.

The thing is, such events are very difficult to share with others.
Our ability to convey the event to someone who has not shared the
actual experience can be very difficult. It might be beyond our
ability to describe. We might not have within ourselves the capacity
to describe what we have experienced. Or perhaps there are just no
adequate words in our language or in any other language.

I suspect that no verbal account of natural childbirth would make it
clear to a man what it means to give birth. A father might be there
right beside his wife, but he can only have a vague theoretical
understanding of pregnancy and childbirth. This probably would remain
the case even if the mother gave a detailed, realtime account of
giving birth.

Likewise, it would probably be very difficult to describe combat.
Even though there have been thousands of war movies made, most utterly
fail to describe the actual experience of war. To some extent, social
decorum and limited technology keep most war films from describing the
truth about war. But even when a director chooses to portray the true
horrors of war and if technology permits this, the movie will still
fall short. 'Saving Private Ryan' would be a good example: even
though it showed how the D-Day landings might have been in 1944, it
would still fall short of the true horrors of what happened on those
beaches.

All of these things such as childbirth and war, dramatic as they are,
are all worldly experiences that defy accurate description. So
imagine how Peter, James, and John would have struggled to describe
Jesus' Transfiguration. This was no worldly event. Only three human
beings have seen Jesus in all of His glory. Only three men have seen
Moses and Elijah centuries after their deaths. Only three men hear
God the Father speak from the luminous cloud.

To make things more difficult, Peter, James, and John were all simple
men. None of them were highly educated, none of them had the gift of
poetic expression, and as far as we know, none of them had the eye of
an artist. So Mark the evangelist could only say that Jesus was
transfigured and that His clothes were an unearthly bright shade of
white. No doubt the experience would be beyond even the ability of
the best Hollywood special effects artists to duplicate.

In our own lives, when we try to explain these profound events and our
explanation is clearly not working, it is clearly not impressing the
ones with whom we are trying to share the experience, we have to say
or they think 'you had to be there.'

In a certain way, Peter is saying this before the Transfiguration is
even over. He says to Jesus “Rabbi, it is good that we are here!” and
then offers to build tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Being there
on the mountaintop with the transfigured Jesus along with Moses and
Elijah is just too good a thing not to prolong. Peter wants this
vision to last indefinitely and he may even have wanted to go back
down the mountain to bring the other disciples back to see this
wondrous spectacle. The Transfiguration is too good a thing not to
prolong and too good a thing not to share with others.

Peter did not want to have to say to Andrew, Matthew, and the rest of
the Apostles 'You had to be there.' We know that he wanted to share
the experience with the others because Jesus “charged them not to
relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had
risen from the dead.” So Peter, James, and John not only were unable
to describe what they had seen, they were also not allowed to share
this experience.

But what about the experience did they want to share with others? Was
it the transfigured Jesus? Or was it seeing Moses and Elijah? The
words of God the Father from the cloud speak volumes in this regard:
Peter, James, and John are so caught up in seeing the heavenly vision
that the Father has to correct and rebuke them saying “This is my
beloved Son. Listen to him.”

This rebuke applies to us as well. Many people want the heavenly,
glorified Jesus but do not want to deal with the less glorious things
such as Jesus' ordinary human life, His teachings, His hard teachings
on matters such as remarriage and the Eucharist, His suffering, and
His agonizing death. In other words, they want Easter without the
events the lead up to the Resurrection.

Peter, James, and John needed to see the Transfiguration so that they
would not lose hope. We need to taste the life of Jesus, listen
attentively to Jesus' teachings, and share in His sufferings so that
we do not fall for false hopes. We can't just skip the life of a
disciple, we can't ditch our own crosses. We have to be there, we
have to live it.

We cannot rely on the description of others regarding what it is like
to be a disciple. We have to be there, we have to live it. If we
want to see the glorified Jesus, if we want to say with Peter “Rabbi,
it is good that we are here!”, if we want to dwell in the heavenly
tents Jesus is preparing for each of us, then we have to listen to
Jesus and live the life that He has taught us.