Applause!

31/03/2012
Fr. Jose Kaimlett

Applause

Christ is at the summit of his glorious carrier, and it is the Palm Sunday, the day of his triumphal entry into the Holy City of Jerusalem.

On the day of his baptism, Heaven opened itself and everyone had heard loud and clear the testimony regarding him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” His preaching was successful, great crowds listened to him. He could feed thousands with almost nothing. His very touch, or even a touch of the fringe of his outer garment could heal any sickness known to humankind.

At his very sight, the fiercest of the demons would cringe and beg for mercy. He could exorcise the meanest of the devils. He could restore sight to the blind, strength to the wasted muscles of a paralytic, cure a deformed leper, or bring back to life even if one was dead already for several days and the corpse decaying. Anything imaginable, he was capable of. It was to your great advantage to make friends with him and welcome him, acclaim him publicly. And that is what the citizens of Jerusalem, young and old, poor and the rich, lowly and the noble, all with one mind and heart did. Christ’s entry into the Capital City of the Jews that day was as glorious and triumphal as it could be; and everyone with one voice shouted, JAI, JAI, ViVA, LONG LIVE, HURRAH, HOSSANNA !

Everyone rejoiced at his/her own good luck to have such a powerful friend, and leader.

Less days than one could count with the fingers of a single hand had not elapsed, before he was betrayed, arrested and ignominiously paraded in public. What a shameful end he has come to. There is nothing to be gained by being known as a friend, a sympathizer to such a bundle of shame; instead there is everything to loose, your well being, your security, in one word, your future.

So all the rabble of the previous Sunday, young and old join the heinous and wily hypocrites, the unholy alliance of priests, scribes and the Pharisees, and shout even louder than them, “CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!” Christ that day was the loneliest person on the face of the earth.
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Christ is just one, even if the best known, of the victims sacrificed on the altar of man’s selfishness. Anything that serves his interest is all that counts for man. BUT …. RIGHT or WRONG does not depend on the MAJORITY. WRONG is wrong even if all are doing it, as on that most shameful day in Jerusalem.

Human applause lasts only as long it is advantageous to the applauder.

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