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<\/a><\/div>\nThe Passion (Palm) Sunday liturgy may have been enacted in your church as it was in mine, with the priest at the rear saying the opening prayers, followed by the Gospel reading about Jesus\u2019s entry into Jerusalem. Then there was a procession up the aisle, reenacting that moment awesome to think of, when the people who would scream \u201cCrucify him!\u201d only a few days later knelt and laid cloaks in the mud before Him, as He rode in. Willingly He came, knowing the destiny that was riding to meet Him. It is a vignette with so much to ponder, to digest, to be grateful for\u2014and here it was, being enacted, incarnated in our midst: with little girls in bonnets clutching bunches of palm fronds and old serious men looking seriously on.<\/p>\n
Even the fact that we had our frequent guest priest, Father Hennessey, at 8:15 and our pastor, Father Barnes, at 10:30 made the reality of Christ\u2019s presence more vivid. There are always differences of presentation when you change priests: one has a deeper voice, the other speaks more quickly\u2014like watching two different film versions of the Passion, one with James Caviezel as Christ (above), one with Max von Sydow (below). These differences are irrelevant to the story, the reality, the Presence of Christ.<\/p>\n
Two years ago right now, I was on the verge of being received into the Church. Ferde was become my big brother and unofficial sponsor in the Church. Today at 8:15, just two years later, don\u2019t ask me how or why, I was reading Luke\u2019s story of the Passion with Ferde. I was reader #1, Ferde reader #2, and Father Hennessey read the words of Christ.<\/p>\n
Then at 10:30, with Father Barnes presiding below, I was wedged into the rear left corner of the choir loft singing Isaac Watts\u2019s \u201cWhen I Survey The Wondrous Cross\u201d with my fellow choir members.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died;
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride. <\/p>\nForbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood. <\/p>\n
And so on for two more verses. Hollywood doesn\u2019t write scripts like that. They steal them and turn them into bludgeons for the blind, deaf, and dumb, meaning you and me, brothers and sisters. When all they really have to do is to say that Jesus, knowing he faced mortal danger, rode straight toward it, and for us. It happened today, in the center aisle of St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, and probably in your church as well.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Once you love a book, you\u2019ll seldom like the movie based on it. That\u2019s why I am impressed with Peter Jackson\u2019s \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d films: they are surprisingly close to my own imagination of them! <\/i>That\u2019s also why I was moved by the liturgy for Passion Sunday today. Because I had seen \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d again on Friday evening, and the film pales in comparison with the liturgy. Sorry, Mel.