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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
5 April 2009
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
At the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, the newlywed couple faced embarrassment when their wine ran out in the middle of the party. Jesus, Mary, and the Twelve were there for the celebration, and when she observed the predicament of the young couple (Notice her maternal attention to detail!), Mary pointed out the problem to her Son, implying that He should do something about it. At first, Jesus demurred, saying “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4), but when Mary then instructed the waiters “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5), our Lord relented and worked His first miracle: the transformation of water into wine, a prefiguring of the eucharistic transformation of wine into His blood.
Christ’s response to His mother (My hour has not yet come.) reveals that He understood that the miracles or signs of His divine glory which would be a part of His public ministry would both awaken saving faith in some people and stir up bitter hatred in others – hatred which would lead inexorably to “His hour”, that is, to the moment of His passion, death, and Resurrection. This is the moment for which He came into the world, the “hour” at which the Covenants, the Law, and the Prophets would be fulfilled. And three years after that first miracle in Cana, His “hour” finally arrived.
Today the sacred liturgy turns our attention to the arrival of His “hour”. In the Gospel we go to Jerusalem and to the consummation of Christ’s own wedding feast: to the Paschal Mystery of the Passover which was His Last Supper and our first Eucharist, to His agony and surrender, to His betrayal and arrest, to His trial and condemnation, to His death and burial. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the sacred liturgy makes these mysteries present to us across the distance of time and space so that we may participate in His “hour”, and Mary instructs us as she did the waiters at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.” Throughout this Holy Week, and most especially in the sacred days of the Paschal Triduum, let us repent of our sins and be united by faith, hope, and love to the eternal Son of God that we may always share in both the suffering and the victory of His “hour”.
Father Newman
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.