A friend of mine, who is a priest, remarked recently after having seen the movie, "The Passion", that "This changes Palm Sunday and Good Friday forever". His thinking was that from now on, instead of reading the Passion on these two days, we should just show the movie. I think that that would be a mistake. Anybody can watch a movie. Watching a movie, even one as powerful as the "The Passion" is, still a passive activity. And this is not a story that we can be passive about. This story is our story. We need to both hear and say these words. As hard as it is, we need to say "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" because that is exactly what WE did. For us as Catholics, it wasn't the Jews, it wasn't the Romans, and it wasn't Peter and Judas. It was us. We did it. And lest we forget our own role in this, the saddest love story of all time, today the Church asks us to take our role, to admit our role, and to allow Jesus once again to show His love for each one of us. Watching any movie will never be a substitute for having to say those words. Sitting in a dark theater will never replace our reading this Gospel together, recalling as Church just how much this Jesus really does love us. No man had ever suffered like this. And the reality is that no man had ever loved like this either.

And so just as we cannot be passive as we hear this story, so too we can't be passive as we respond with our lives to this story. This story calls each one of us to love, and to care, and to sacrifice. This story blows away all the illusions that we sometimes have of Christianity being warm and fuzzy and comfortable. The Passion of Christ calls each one of us to pick up our cross or crosses and to follow Jesus. And sometimes it is going to be bloody. And sometimes it is going to be dirty. And sometimes it's going to hurt a lot! But you can't get to the Resurrection without the cross. And you can't do the cross, without Passion, without passionate faith, and passionate hope, and passionate love.

Mark this story well. Remember it every day. This is not just about what God did two thousand years ago. But it is also about what He is still doing in us today.

May God bless us on this Palm Sunday, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN!!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us!!!