PASSION: Amy Welborn’s intermittent “What did you hear at Mass?” thread. Some excerpts:

1. You know, the constant use of palms as swords [by children] surely indicates that the sensus fidelium finds a deep connection between the palm branches of the children of Israel and the weapons they wished to bear against Rome. Perhaps we are being told that, just as Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, so Jesus’ swords are not made of metal but of living branches of the Vine. Perhaps it is meant to say that the palm of victory over death is our surest weapon against the world. Or maybe the palm branches represent the sword of Peter, and thus mothers and fathers everywhere must recreate Jesus’ loving admonition to put the dang thing down.

2. Celebrant commenced short homily by noting that it is customary not to preach on Palm Sunday because what else can you say about the Passion? But he gave a very insightful short talk noting that while as Christians we frequently focus on how much we give up for God, Mark’s story of the young man in the garden who loses his garment when he flees to escape the soldiers is an interesting take on something we do lots of in the modern world: giving up everything to avoid God, to avoid the Passion, to avoid the suffering that comes with being faithful. We would rather be naked and running than doing the work of being faithful. Good short homily.

3. We are in Guangzhou, PRC with our newly adopted daughter. we attended Our Lady of Lourdes on Shamien Island. The service was in Mandarin I think so we followed along.

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