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Passion
(Palm) Sunday, Cycle A
Towson
University Newman Center
April 9,
2017
Matthew’s
Gospel: God’s Love and It’s for Everyone
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Passion
According to Matthew
In each of the four Gospel writers – Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John –tells the story of the Passion, their account of Jesus’
suffering and death.
If you follow them along in four parallel
columns, you begin to see how each of them gives his account in a slightly
different way, ways that include different details or highlight different points.
This morning we heard the account of the
Passion according to Matthew.
I want to comment on just two features that
convey some of Matthew’s unique insight into Jesus’ Passion and what it may
have to say to us today.
God’s Love
First, Matthew is the only gospel writer who informs us about
the suicide of Judas. So, one would wonder, why does he mention it?
Judas comes to realize that he has betrayed a good and holy
man, but tragically, Judas does not realize that Jesus is so good that he still
loves him and would forgive him and accept him.
Judas, for all his walking with and knowing Jesus
personally, fails to see or trust this.
So implicitly, by recalling the suicide, Matthew wants us to
be clear that nothing we could do is too bad to be forgiven by God.
God’s love for us is unconditional and there is nothing
about us as individuals, nothing about our behavior that is beyond God’s love
and forgiveness.
One other application I would make is that we as a Church
must live out this love of God in our ministering. This means that everyone is to be welcome here
– regardless of who they are or how they think or what they have done.
It must be this way, if we as a Church are to be as Jesus is.
If this understanding would assist someone you know and who
feels uncomfortable coming here for whatever reason, please tell them about
God’s unconditional love and acceptance and how they can find that love and
acceptance right here any Sunday.
God in Everyone
The second feature in Matthew’s account of the Passion that
I want to note is the tearing of the curtain in the temple.
The passage says that at the moment Jesus dies, “The
veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.” Ever wonder what
significance that has?
This curtain separates what is called the Holies of Holies, the
area of the temple where God is seen as dwelling. It separates this area from
the rest of the temple. So the tearing
of the curtain is a sign that this separation of God from us no longer exists.
It means that with Jesus’ death and eventual resurrection,
God is with and within each of us. And
so, we are to see God in ourselves and in others, whether they are Catholic or
not, whether they are Christian or not, whether they are believers or not.
Pope Francis has given us some wonderful examples of this,
as when he gave an interview to a journalist who is a non-believer and showed
such complete respect for him.
So we come here to this chapel, the building that proclaims
the presence of God and gives us the Eucharistic presence of Jesus.
Our doing this is to stir us to God’s presence in
everyone. This is the underlying,
positive message for us of the tearing of the curtain in the temple as Jesus dies
on the cross.
Conclusion
Matthew’s message of God’s love for us and that God is for
everyone impacts us profoundly on this day of palm and passion.
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