Sunday Readings
March 16, 2008 :: Palm Sunday
Scripture
MATTHEW 21:1 — 11
Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem
ISAIAH 50:4 — 7
Although suffering, I shall not be put to shame.
PHILIPPIANS 2:6 — 11
Every knee should bend at the name of Jesus.
MATTHEW 26:14 — 27:66
Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed.
THEME
Jesus told Peter that he would deny knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. Peter tried to blend into the crowd, but he was recognized as a Galilean. Even if the people did not see what he was up to, it seemed that he could not hide. He would be found out. The rooster crowed. Peter was guilty and he knew it.
FOCUSING OBJECT
A plastic or ceramic rooster or a picture of a rooster
REFLECTIONS
Peter is devastated when he hears the crowing of the rooster. It is as if the rooster watched him, heard his denials of Jesus, and cried out for justice to be done.
Imagine the earth witnessing and suffering with every act of injustice: the night stars seeing Judas betray Jesus, the grasses being crushed as Jesus falls to the ground carrying the cross, all the trees feeling the awful pounding of the nails of crucifixion, and the earthquake trembling when Jesus dies.
• Is this point of view far-fetched, or does it contain some truth? Can you imagine the organic planet at unrest with all the violence done to people and to nature? Or do you view most of nature as unfeeling, inanimate matter, more or less disconnected from us?
• So often we think it is “okay” to do something if we “don’t get caught.” If you see that your decisions affect all of nature, how would it change the attitude of “try to get away with whatever you can”?
CLOSING
My God, why?
Have you forsaken me?
Have you forgotten the work of your hands?
Poured out like sand — dry, lifeless, without hope, I call out to you: save me!
Remember, God, that at your command, I provided from my elements the flesh and blood of the savior. I fed, sheltered and clothed his body. And for the salvation of the world I , too, though innocent, was crucified with him. I mourned, anointed, and entombed him. I, I alone, witnessed his most holy rising. Yet I am treated with utter contempt — torn, abused, scourged and violated. How long, O Lord, must I and all creation await deliverance? Turn our death throes into birth pangs.
Behold the wood of the cross and know that I, the Earth, participated in the life, death and resurrection of the Lord. And I, reliquary and womb, will one day, with the heavens, be renewed.
Prayer of Earth Crucified
For complete Sunday reading go to http://www.usccb.org/nab/
In Touch With the Word: Lectionary-Based Prayer Reflections, by Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart (Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 2004).
Copyright © 2004 by Saint Mary’s Press, www.smp.org.
All rights reserved. Used with permission of the publisher.