63. The King Comes Home (Mt 21:1-11)

“He left behind the glory which he had with his Father before the world was made and went forth for the salvation of his people.”

- St Anastasius of Antioch

Matthew 21:1-11

When they were near Jerusalem and had come in sight of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village facing you, and you will immediately find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, The Master needs them and will send them back directly.’ This took place to fulfill the prophecy: Say to the daughter of Zion: Look, your king comes to you; he is humble, he rides on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. So the disciples went out and did as Jesus had told them. They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he sat on them. Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path. The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!’ And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. ‘Who is this?’ people asked, and the crowds answered, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Christ the Lord

The Pharisees had put a price on Jesus’ head by this time. The natural reaction to that kind of enmity would be for him to shy away from public attention. But Jesus does just the opposite. As the most sacred of Jewish feasts approached (the Passover), over a million Jewish pilgrims would have been swelling the already crowded city of Jerusalem. Jesus chooses just such a moment to draw all eyes to himself. Fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy (entering the Holy City on a colt never before mounted) and with the people imitating past celebrations of mighty Jewish victories (paving the road with palm branches), Jesus Christ becomes a living billboard announcing his claim to be the Messiah, the Anointed One of God come as the prophets had promised to reestablish the Davidic Kingdom. It is worth nothing as well that the event was not a spontaneous one; the throngs did not suddenly and without reason feel moved to rally around Jesus and proclaim him their king. Jesus himself organized the demonstration; he is the first one to assert his Lordship.

Christ the Teacher

In ancient times, kings of the Middle East would frequently ride on donkeys, which were (and are) much more impressive and respected animals there than in the West. During times of war, the king would ride on a horse, but not during times of peace. Christ’s gesture, then, indicates that he has come to bring peace. His sacrificial death on the cross, just a few days ahead, would reestablish peace between man and God; his Eucharist, instituted during the Last Supper and perpetuated throughout the centuries by the ministry of the Church, would sow that peace in the hearts of men, whence it would overflow into peace among peoples.

The palm branches symbolized military victory and its subsequent order and prosperity. Christ was coming to conquer sin, selfishness, and death – a victory unmatched and unmatchable by any other king.

The people shouted “Hosanna,” a cry for deliverance and salvation (literally, it meant “Save now!”). They acclaimed him “Son of David,” a title for the Messiah and an allusion to the hopes they put on him, hopes that he would bring back to Israel its ancient glory and fulfill the promises God made in ages past. This signified God’s faithfulness to his people.

Palm Sunday, when the Church commemorates this triumphal occasion in its liturgy is a preview of the Kingdom of Christ. If we welcome him each day as he was welcomed then, then his peace, victory, and faithfulness will enter our hearts as gloriously as he entered Jerusalem.

Christ the Friend

Wherever Jesus goes, he brings his disciples with him. He could easily have gone himself to untie the colt, or even made it miraculously appear at his side, but he didn’t. Instead, “he sent two disciples” to do it for him. In Christ, God wants to enter into our lives and involve us in his works of love and salvation. The Incarnation is God’s way of relating to us as the human beings we truly are. In the Church, God continues this same tactic, touching us with human hands and calling us to be his hands for others.

Jesus: That day the people of Jerusalem welcomed me into the city, but not all of them welcomed me into their hearts. Even today, many of my followers look like Christians by their outward actions, but they haven’t let me become the Lord of their lives. It is not enough to be known as a Catholic; I want to make you into a saint. The gates of the city mean less to me than the gates of your heart. Only you can open those gates, because when I created you I gave you the only key.

Christ in My Life

Lord, many times I have proclaimed my faith in you; I do so again right now. You are the fulfillment of all the prophecies, the answer to every heart’s quest, and the hope of every searching soul. You are my Lord and my God, my Savior and my closest, most faithful friend. I want to walk with you each day of my life, sharing your triumphs and your sorrows. I believe in you. I want to be faithful to you, as you have been to me…

You came to bring your peace to my soul. You came to bring your victory over sin and hopelessness and selfishness into my heart. I have experienced your peace and your victory, but you know how much I still need your grace. Come and be the Lord of my heart, Jesus; teach me to follow you more closely, to love you more fully…

Only you know how many people still haven’t accepted your offer of salvation and friendship. But I know one thing: you have asked for my assistance in helping some to do so. Give me, Lord, the prudence, charity, and fortitude I need to be your faithful messenger. Give my words, deeds, and example the stamp of authentic Christianity: self-forgetting love for my neighbor…

Yours sincerely in Christ , Fr John Bartunek, LC ThD

62. Servants and Signs (Mt 20:20-34)

“He it is whose sufferings are shared by the martyrs with their glorious courage and by all those who believe and are born again at the moment of their regeneration.”

- Pope St Leo the Great

Matthew 20:20-34

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom’. ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’ When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

As they left Jericho a large crowd followed him. Now there were two blind men sitting at the side of the road. When they heard that it was Jesus who was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord! Have pity on us, Son of David.’ And the crowd scolded them and told them to keep quiet, but they only shouted more loudly, ‘Lord! Have pity on us, Son of David.’ Jesus stopped, called them over and said, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, let us have our sight back.’ Jesus felt pity for them and touched their eyes, and immediately their sight returned and they followed him.

Christ the Lord

The cure of these two blind men immediately precedes Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. St Matthew places it here for a reason.

The two blind beggars throw the Pharisees into sharp relief. The beggars hear that the crowd has gathered because Jesus of Nazareth is passing through town. They have heard of him – by this time all of Palestine knew of the wonder-working Rabbi from Galilee. They probably thought they would never have a chance to meet him, and now here he is passing right beside them. Immediately they start yelling. They give him the messianic title “Son of David” and ask for his attention and his favor. They want him to come and heal them. They want it so much that even when the crowds try to browbeat them into silence they keep on shouting, even more loudly. They don’t care what other people think of them – they are not going to let this moment of grace pass them by. Jesus hears their cries; he senses their faith. He comes over to them. He asks them what they want. They in turn ask him to open their eyes, to let them see again. Jesus touches their eyes, heals them, and they follow him rejoicing.

Ever since the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus has been assailed by Pharisees who actually saw his miracles and heard his teaching, unlike these beggars who had only heard about Jesus from others. The Pharisees never acknowledged his claim to be the Messiah, they never admitted they had any need for God’s grace in their lives, and instead of following him, they tried to trip him up again and again. They never sincerely asked Jesus to open their eyes to the truth. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit gives us a glimpse of what might have happened if the Holy City’s leaders had shown a touch of humility in the presence of Christ the Lord.

Christ the Teacher

Jesus has just finished explaining for the third time that his messianic mission will achieve fruition only through suffering and humiliation, and two of his closest disciples come up to him, vying for power and honor in his court. How little they have understood! In spite of the frequent predictions of his passion, in spite of repeating that greatness in his Kingdom means becoming small, like a child, Jesus has not been able to convince his disciples that Christian glory is hidden in this world and only bears fruit in the next. But the Lord doesn’t lose patience. He restates his lesson, more clearly and directly this time. His followers, and therefore even more emphatically the leaders of his Church, must redirect their natural ambition for excellence. They have to seek to serve, not to be served; to praise, not to be praised; to sacrifice themselves for others, not use others for their own self-aggrandizement. They must become not only like children, but lower themselves even to becoming slaves. Then, no longer blinded by their worldly ambitions, they will be kings with the King, and their longing for a worthy life will be fulfilled.

Christ the Friend

James and John send their mother to make a bold request, one they were probably ashamed to make themselves (as evidenced by the umbrage the other disciples take at hearing about it). Jesus sees through their ploy. He addresses his answer to them and not to her. But he answers without taking offense. He is glad that these two disciples want to be close to him and be great in his Kingdom. If he could give them what they ask for, he would. But since he can’t promise them that, he will give them the next best thing: they too will suffer for the Kingdom (thus staying close to him). Here he teaches them the secret to real greatness – serving, giving, forgetting oneself. Is our path any different? Jesus wants us to confide in him, to be honest with him; that’s all he needs in order to make us his everlasting friends.

Christ in My Life

I too want to see, Lord. I want to see you. I want to see the truth about myself, about the world, and about the meaning of life. I want to see your will for me and the way to fulfill it. I want to see the needs of those around me and how to meet them. I want to see the beauty of your doctrine and of your heart, so that no other ambition will interfere with my striving to be truly great in your Kingdom…

Excellence – how ardently I long to excel! And yet you, the Lord of all, chose for yourself just the opposite: humility, obscurity, humiliation, suffering. You chose this path to prove to me that the only satisfying excellence is the excellence of love, of self-giving. Teach me to follow in your footsteps, Lord. Be my good shepherd…

Lord, I am reluctant to serve. My natural tendency is to want to be served, especially at home, among those I should serve most. So often I think first of myself. But if you call me to follow in your footsteps, to give my life for others, then it must be possible. You never ask the impossible. Through you, with you, and in you, I can be all that you created me to be. Okay, Lord, whatever you want. Thy will be done…

Yours sincerely in Christ , Fr John Bartunek, LC ThD

61. Give and Take (Mt 20:1-19)

“It is not only as past history that we know all that the Son of God did and taught for the reconciliation of the world; here and now we feel the effects of its power.”

- Pope St Leo the Great

Matthew 20:1-19

‘Now the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard. Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them, You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage. So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same. Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them, Why have you been standing here idle all day? Because no one has hired us, they answered. He said to them, You go into my vineyard too. In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first. So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each. They took it, but grumbled at the landowner. The men who came last they said have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat. He answered one of them and said, My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous? Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.’

Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the way he took the Twelve to one side and said to them, ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.’

Christ the Lord

Christ is the generous landowner. To pay these hired workers a full day’s wage for only a few hours of work is the epitome of generosity. Palestine’s day laborers had no steady work and no steady income; they were hired on a daily basis. The workers still waiting to be given work late in the day were probably resigned to another hungry evening for themselves and their families. Only a man with a generous heart would take the trouble to put them to work when only an hour remained till sundown, and only an extraordinarily generous man would pay them the full day’s wage.

Jesus Christ is extraordinarily generous; the history of salvation is the story of his boundless giving. First he gives life, then after the Fall he gives hope, then he gives redemption, and finally he gives everlasting heavenly bliss. Ultimately, we deserve none of those gifts, but his generosity is so great that he even creates a chance for us to “earn” them. Just as the landowner gave the laborers real work to do in his vineyard, Christ has arranged the economy of salvation so that it is administered through his Church, through our own efforts to defend and extend his Kingdom throughout the world. We have a Lord whose infinite wealth is wholly at our service.

Christ the Teacher

If our Lord and Leader is bountifully generous, how can we claim to be his followers if we don’t follow suit? The landowner was looking out for the needs of his fellow men. He did not carelessly overcommit himself in order to meet them, and he did not sacrifice justice (he fulfilled his agreement with the first workers) or prudence (he made sure they all worked to gather the harvest, even if only for an hour), but he went beyond the confines of mere duty. How rarely we do this! We stand by our “rights” when they are not rights at all, grumbling enviously because someone else is more successful or more fortunate than us. What peace we would have if we rejoiced in all of God’s gifts, and not only those he gives to us.

Christ the Friend

“The last will be first, and the first will be last.” This is a warning. Christ tells this parable after Peter asks him what the Twelve will get in return for having given up everything to follow him. It most obviously applies to the Jewish people in general, and to the Twelve in particular: the Jews were the Chosen People, but when the eternal Kingdom appears, they may find others honored more than them; the Twelve were chosen to be the visible foundation of the Church, but in the end, others will achieve greatness in Christ’s name as well.

Jesus wants us to have interior peace. Nothing disturbs us more than vying for honors and worrying over coveted esteem – and this can occur even within our own Christian communities. If we recognize the abundant generosity of God’s love, we will trust him enough to discard such selfish motives, and we will look only to Christ for the unshakable security that only he can give.

Jesus not only teaches that lesson in this parable; he also clears the path with his own actions. At the end of this passage, St Matthew places the third prediction of Christ’s passion. This time Jesus gets more specific, indicating the collaboration between Jewish and Gentile leaders, and even listing the different types of mistreatment he will suffer. Instead of honor, he will be scorned; instead of a reward, he will receive punishment; instead of praise, mockery. Accepting unjust humiliation and rejection is an odd recipe for success, but true nonetheless – those who seek first place will end up in last place, but those who humble themselves will be exalted. He treads the path first, so his friends won’t fear to follow.

Christ in My Life

Why am I resentful when others succeed more than me? Why do I grumble when others are praised and I am overlooked? Is it because I love you above all things and my neighbor as myself? Envy, jealousy, backbiting, criticism: these are the exact opposite of what you lived and what you call your disciples to live. Give me strength to master my emotions; make my heart more like yours…

You knew exactly what awaited you on your last trip to Jerusalem. And you didn’t avoid it. You have called me to follow in your footsteps, and that means you will give me a share in your cross as I journey through my vocation. At times it makes me tremble. But all fear subsides when I remember that the cross unites me more to you, and that you never ask me to carry it alone…

You never tire of giving. You only want to give. You are pure love, pure generosity. Thank you, Lord, for all the gifts you have given to me. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a mission in life, and giving me the generosity to accept it. Now please give me the grace to persevere and please you…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek LC, ThD

60. Giving Up and Getting More (Mt 19:16-30)

“Penance then is, as it were, a salutary weapon placed in the hands of the valiant soldiers of Christ, who wish to fight for the defense and restoration of the moral order in the universe. It is a weapon that strikes right at the root of all evil, that is at the lust of material wealth and the wanton pleasures of life.”

- Pope Pius XI Ditto

Matthew 19:16-30

And there was a man who came to him and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which?’ ‘These:’ Jesus replied ‘You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honor your father and mother, and: you must love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me’. But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’

When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is impossible; for God everything is possible.’ Then Peter spoke. ‘What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life. ‘Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.’

Christ the Lord

Who has ever spoken with as much authority as Christ? This man comes to him with the greatest of all questions; he asks about the meaning of life, about how to achieve lasting fulfillment. Jesus doesn’t hem and haw; he doesn’t present the various hypotheses of the great philosophers; he speaks clearly, simply, powerfully. Jesus knows the answer. And when the young man refuses to accept it, Jesus turns and makes such sweeping statements that he shocks even his faithful apostles. He turns the wisdom of this world on its head by identifying the dangers of earthly success, and then he proclaims his mastery over both this world and the next. He claims to know everything: how to achieve happiness; what the greatest obstacle to happiness is; the limits of human nature and the manner of God’s interventions; the past, the present, and the future…. He even paints a picture of eternity itself, with him on the throne of glory and his Twelve Apostles enthroned all around him, ruling together the new heavens and the new earth. Who has ever spoken with such audacity? Only Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and history, the one who knows you and calls you by name.

Christ the Teacher

In this brief encounter, Jesus sums up mankind’s entire moral life.

He tacitly acknowledges that the questioner is seeking the right purpose: eternal life, the fullness of life, and authentic happiness. He points out that the minimum requirement for this life is to follow the moral law that God has inscribed in human nature, the foundation for all the rest. And then he reveals what no one else ever has or ever could have revealed: the fullness of human life, for which every human heart yearns without respite, comes only and exclusively from following him – from an intimate, personal friendship with Jesus Christ that leads to the communion with God for which man was created. That’s the path to a fulfilled and flourishing life.

But the path is strewn with snares. In order to follow Christ and live in friendship with him, you have to trust in him more than in yourself; you have to be willing to relinquish the reins of your life. This is what the fallen human heart, so wounded by sin and by the sins of others, finds hardest of all to do: trust. That’s why money becomes the greatest snare and the source of so many others. Not because money is evil in itself (in fact, for the Jews of Jesus’ time, wealth was considered one of God’s blessings, which explains the disciples’ surprise at Christ’s revaluation), but because it gives you the illusion that you can fend for yourself, that you can crack life’s mystery on your own. This is a particularly tempting illusion, since it actually holds true for material matters; money really does enable a man to fend for himself – in business and pleasure. Thus money gives the seductive illusion of security, even of omnipotence; money promises to solve every problem and meet every need, because it really does solve so many problems and meet so many needs.

But not the most important ones. You can have unlimited riches and still be miserable, confused, and unfulfilled. Only Christ, only the truth of God’s love and his loving plan of salvation reaches into the heart and the conscience, where man’s deepest needs and hardest problems dwell. You can be dirt poor, sick, abandoned, and even dying, but still be at peace, if you have Christ. This is why many that are “first” in the eyes of the world will actually end up “last,” and many who are last in the eyes of the world will end up first in Christ’s everlasting Kingdom.

Trusting in Christ is harder than trusting in money, because you can’t control Christ. But you don’t need to control Christ in order to find what your heart desires; you just need to follow him.

Christ the Friend

Jesus always invites; he never forces. He wants to shower every person with his gifts of fulfillment, meaning, and abundant life (he says those who follow him will receive “a hundred times as much”), but he can’t do so if someone refuses his friendship.

St Matthew astutely observes that this young man “went away sad” after he refused Christ’s invitation. His was a divided soul. He wanted a deeper, more meaningful life. He wanted the fullness of life that comes from intimacy with God, and yet at the same time he wasn’t willing to give up his security, his self-sufficiency, or his hard-earned money that promised him comfort, influence, and respect in this world. And he went away sad, because he had already discovered that money and the things of this world couldn’t satisfied his soul; even living an honest and moral life left him wanting more. And now, when he senses a chance at true meaning, he finds himself in chains. The chains are of his own making, but he can’t seem to break free of them.

How Jesus’ heart must have bled in the face of this young man who almost made the right choice. We can hear the righteous anger in his voice as he condemns the ruin that riches so easily cause; we can see the righteous fire in his eyes as he “gazed at” his disciples and then taught them the true path to fulfillment. Christ wants hearts, because he knows that only he can satisfy hearts – in a way that far surpasses our wildest imagining.

Christ in My Life

I think I am a good Christian. But do I really trust you as I ought? Maybe I follow the commandments, do all the right things, even teach catechism, and yet in the secret places of my heart I am still unhealthily unsatisfied. What do I need to give up in order to follow you as you wish and as I need to?…

So many people around me don’t know you, Lord. They are searching for fulfillment in all the glitzy but wrong places. How can I tell them about you? What more can I do? What more do you want me to do?…

I know you are calling many young men and women to follow you more closely. First you stir their hearts, then they come to you, and finally you invite them. But how hard it is for them to give up this world’s seductions and false promises! How good this passing world looks! They want to follow you, but they need you to give them courage. Please do, Lord. Send more workers to your harvest…

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC, ThD

Sayings of Light and Love #6

A tree that is cultivated and guarded through the care of its owner produces its fruit at the expected time.

St. John of the Cross