Father, Forgive Us
April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - C
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
I want to focus on a single line from today’s Gospel: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
By the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus is dead. Every year on Palm Sunday, we re-live the stories that lead up to His crucifixion as seen through the eyes of saints Matthew, Mark and Luke respectively; we will re-live it once more on Good Friday as seen through St. John’s eyes.
These different perspectives of a historical event remind us that in addition to His divinity, Jesus was fully human. He lived a human life like each of us; he faced challenges like each of us; he had friends – and enemies – like us; he felt joy and sorrow like us, he experienced rejection and betrayal and emotional and physical pain, like us. And he died, like we all will one day.
While Scriptures tell us of how the chief priests and the scribes conspired to have Jesus killed and that it was the Romans who actually performed the crucifixion, Scripture also reminds us that it was for OUR SINS that Jesus was crucified. Not just the sins of those who came before Him; not those who walked the Earth with Him, but US, today.
Too often we are somewhat complacent in our complicity in His murder. In spite of our play-acting roles in which we shout, “Crucify Him!” we really don’t think about the fact – and it is a fact – that we are complicit in His death. We are all sinners. Jesus took upon His shoulders the sins of ALL mankind – past, present, and future – and that means OUR sins today.
St. Francis of Assisi is blunt: ”And even the demons did not crucify Him, but you together with them crucified Him and still crucify Him by taking delight in vices and sins.”
So, did Jesus die just to pay for our sins? Or, as Bishop Robert Barron asks, “Does this mean God the Father is a cruel taskmaster, demanding a bloody sacrifice so that his anger might be appeased?”
Barron’s answer is, “No. Jesus’ crucifixion was the opening up of the divine heart so that we could see that NO sin of ours could finally separate us from the love of God.”
Jesus’ crucifixion was the ultimate sacrifice of love. When Jesus cries out, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do”, He is speaking to US. We may not understand how our sins are serious enough to result in the death of any human being, let alone Jesus. But Jesus does. He took on the burden of our sins, and He died – a death He freely accepted – because He loved us more than we can ever imagine. And because of that, we have hope.
The story – our story – does not end with the Crucifixion. For with the Resurrection that we celebrate next Sunday, we see that sin – death – no longer means the end of everything. There is still more life to come, and it’s an abundant life.
St. Leo the Great said, “No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to him in repentance?”
Remember what Jesus said to the good thief when he asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his kingdom: "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
There is still time for us.
Have a Holy Week.
