Palm Sunday 2021
Jesus Christ! What does he want from us? Does he want celebrations, receptions, cheers and activities? Does he want us to welcome him in Jerusalem, or to welcome him in our hearts and consciences?
Today Jesus wants us to be like Mary, as we heard in today’s Gospel. Mary, who washed his feet with a pound of the most precious perfume and wiped them with her hair. Mary became the symbol of the good choice, because her heart, her mind and her actions were in the right place. She loved the Lord above all else. In Christianity there is no half-love, half-giving or half-forgiveness. Christianity is complete, undiminished self-giving. In Christianity there is no such state as “neutral.” Yet in reality, sadly, most Christians are neutral. Neutrality is the modern disease of Christians. That is why Christians’ mouths stay shut in the face of injustice, oppression, exploitation, occupation, poverty and displacement. Jesus’ mouth was not shut. Jesus was a revolution against sin and injustice in his words and his deeds. The scene of Mary is the scene the Church and the world need today. “Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me.” So Mary did not just give the poor a cup of water; she washed their feet with the most precious perfume and dried them with her hair, because every oppressed, poor and downtrodden person on earth is Jesus himself.
The opposite scene in today’s Gospel is Judas. Judas objected to Mary’s attitude and action and said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the money bag and used to take what was put into it (John 12:5-6). How many people like Judas Iscariot are there in our world today??? In the highest positions. The holders of “Iscariot” money bags who have seized the wealth of nations and starved human beings. These are not merely neutral like Pilate, who washed his hands of Christ’s blood; they are real criminals, conspiring against weak countries and against the poor and the needy. Just look at what is happening in our countries under the domination of the great powers, sometimes in the name of planting democracy and sometimes in the name of economic blockade and the Caesar Act, and woe to anyone who objects and thinks there is freedom of opinion and expression!
Where are we Christians in relation to our Christ, who by his own choice went to the cross to defend humanity and redeem every human being? Christ was not neutral, the prophets were not neutral, the apostles were not neutral, and the saints were neither neutral nor defeatist. Palm Sunday is a call to walk with Christ toward suffering, persecution and the cross, out of love for God and for humanity. Our people in the East, especially in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, are suffering injustice and hunger, and we are still spectators, neutral, waiting for the hour of courage to choose the truth and follow Christ, who rose up against injustice. How can we be at ease when Christ in the poor is not at ease? How can we rejoice when sorrow hangs like a black cloud over so many of our brothers and sisters in humanity?
I pray that hope will never leave your hearts, because the lights of the Resurrection are at the door!
Happy Palm Sunday to you all!
Archbishop Ibrahim Ibrahim
