THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Palm Sunday 24 March 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

Let us consider today a mystical interpretation of the ass and her colt. Some of the Fathers of the Church inform us that these animals represent to us the different nations. The ass who was accustomed to the harness represents to us the nation of Israel. Her colt that had never been ridden was as yet still wild and unbridled represents to us the gentile nation.

The Israelites have been harnessed by the Law of Moses and was broken to the halter and as such should have been ready to receive Our Lord, but they were not. It is they that rejected Jesus even though He came to them first. The second to be invited supplanted the first. Christ rode upon the colt that had never been ridden before and its mother naturally followed behind. The gentile nations carried Our Lord and left the Israelites to follow.

We see manifest the power of God when the Apostles were sent to bring the animals. The owners were as Christ had predicted willing to let the animals go with the Apostles simply at their word that the Lord needs them. It is a rather unusual situation. Owners of things of this earth usually do not allow their property to depart from them as easily as the owner of these animals did. God was able to inspire these men to freely give these animals for His use. It might be compared to someone coming to take your car and when you ask them what they are doing they tell you that the Lord has need of it and you let them take it away. God can and does change men to accomplish His will. It is therefore already a manifestation of God’s power in predicting and disposing these men as He wishes. He likewise inspires us very often with a detachment from the things of this earth, but sadly most of us refuse to let go of the things of this earth or to allow them to be used for the purposes of God. In clinging to these things we deprive ourselves of a very great reward. We must be certain that the man who gave of these animals to God is even now rejoicing over the good that he was able to help accomplish.

If God is able to inspire men with these things, we might ask, why did He not motivate the Israelites to love Him instead of crying out for His Blood? God can and does inspire and move the hearts of men, but at the same time He always recognizes and considers their free will. When man opposes his will to God’s then God is likewise able to use their evil wills so that good may come from it. The devils inspired the people to hate Jesus and to force His crucifixion, but in doing this they actually were helping to bring about the redemption of the world. So we see that an evil spirit is made to assist and bring about good in spite of itself. All those devils and those who have aligned themselves with the devils reject God and seek the destruction of God and all who would follow Him, but the ones that they harm are only themselves.

Ultimately God is still in Heaven and still in charge and there is nothing that any or all of the demons in Hell can do about it. God’s Divine Will will ultimately be brought to fruition. Those opposed to It, will only be made to conform to It against their own perverted wills, and will only bring death and destruction upon themselves. God will not be harmed in the least nor will His Divine Will. Those of evil dispositions are only harming themselves and causing greater and greater misery for themselves.

As Christ enters Jerusalem upon these beasts of burden, they conform to His will either willingly or unwillingly as the ass and her colt. The colt willingly allows Jesus to ride upon his back, but the ass only follows her colt. One conforms to God’s will directly and the other indirectly. The Israelites follow the Gentiles in the spiritual realm, but only from material reasons. In this world we still find these two peoples: those who willingly seek out to do the will of God and those who ultimately end up following the will of God not for spiritual motives but for worldly ones. The one will be rewarded eternally; and the other that helped to accomplish the Divine Will, even against her own will, will be eternally punished in Hell.

As we carry our blessed palm today may we consider which of the two we are. Do we find ourselves counted among those who rebel against God and in spite of ourselves are forced to accomplish His Divine Will, or are we to be counted among those who willingly seek to do and fulfill the Will of God? May this Holy Week find us welcoming Jesus upon His entry into Jerusalem as well as find us weeping beneath His Cross. And may we also, pray for the enemies of God as Jesus did upon the Cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” In their rebellion and hatred they are fulfilling the Divine Will against their own will, and at the same time they think in following their own will that they will find happiness, when in reality, all they will find is eternal suffering.