Sunday, April 01, 2007

Palm Sunday

I was exhausted this Palm Sunday but it was a beautiful Mass. Fr. Aragon was the celebrant and his homily was so amazing that I really wish I could've typed as he spoke. He spoke on Peter and how his fall came about. I'm paraphrasing but it went something like this :

First, Peter followed Jesus at a distance when He was arrested. How many times do we follow Our Lord from a distance? We love Him, or at least we say we do and yet, when someone cracks a flithy joke about the church or says something ignorant about the Blessed Virgin we remain silent lest the person think we're "too religious" or just not sophisticated. How many times do we bite our tounges when our fornicating relatives come to visit bringing their current lovers with them?

Second, Peter stumbled into temptation by looking for comfort. He sat down to warm himself by the fire in the courtyard of the high priest. The people sitting around the fire were servants of the Temple or the high priest. They were in the service of the people who were going to kill Jesus. This was the last place Peter should've been. How many times do we choose comfort instead of Jesus? Do we stay in bed on cold Winter mornings with the intention of confessing our sin later? Do we pour ourselves into provocative clothes because they'll fashionable and we want the pleasure of looking like all the other women we know? How many times have we partied with people we know are antiChristian becuase they are great company, throw the best parties and amuse us to no end?

Third, when being associated with Jesus seemed dangerous Peter denied Him. We deny Our Lord each time we sin.

If we're honest , we know that we are all no better than Peter was on Good Friday but if we figh the good fight we can be like Peter was when he recovered himself. He turned, he repented, he took shelter in Our Lord's blood and wounds and became the leader of the apostles and the church.