Remembering calvary (reflection for April 9,2006)

Today is Palm Sunday, wherein we enter the paschal mystery. Palm sunday is also called passion sunday, wherein we remember calvary, Jesus suffering, freely accpeted, and faithfully undertaken

We recall the time when the people of Nazareth gave Jesus a warm welcome by shaking palms above them. The people are happy because Jesus has arrived. But when Pilate presented Jesus to the people, they were shouting, "crucify Him!". The same people who welcomed Jesus as he arrive in Nazareth is the same people who were shouting, "crucify Him!". In Filipino terms, "plastic". They were the same people who pushed Him around, the same people who spits to His face, the same people who threw Him rocks, the same people who shouted at Him, and especially, the same people who betrayed Him. All of them are "plastic"

By offering the life of Jesus, we are saved. Through death, we gain life. For each station of the crros, I realize something, I saw God's great passion, His one deep desire, "to love and save us". Because of love, he sent His only son to make it happen. If we watch the movie of Mel Gibson, "the passion", we see the grave sufferings of Jesus in calvary. We became witnesses not only to spiritual sufferings, but also to the the physical sufferings of Jesus. Historians say that what Mel Gibson have shown in the movie, was still not enough. They say that what happend to Jesus was even more fatal, more grave, and more evil.