Palm Sunday_A - Wash Away My Troubles_040520

Deacon Tom Writes,

Wash Away My Troubles

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Year A

As we stand powerless in the face of the ravages the coronavirus is unleashing around the world, we come to Palm Sunday and witness Jesus, the Son of God, rendered powerless before Pilate. There will be a complete turn-around for Jesus come Easter Morning. And there will be a turn-around for the world too. We see it already. People doing amazing things to come to the aid of neighbor and stranger. This time of adversity will show peoples' true character... They will either take great personal risk to come to the aid of others or they will talk the good talk... Time will tell. 

As we read through Jesus’ passion by St. Matthew today, we hear how Pilate handled matters when he lost control of the crowd...“he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood. Look to it yourself’”.

In capturing so vividly Pilate’s attempt to wash himself clean of any complicity in Christ’s death, Matthew has given us an image we may, at times, use to escape our own culpability in wrongdoing; we wash our hands of the matter. This need to become clean when things have gone wrong is universal and timeless. Pilate obviously realized that. Along similar lines we recall the story of King David years before whose guilt drove him to journal his remorse in Psalm 51:

            Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness;

            in your abundant compassion blot out my offense.

            Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me.

            For I know my offense; my sin is always before me.

And, guess what? This need to become clean again when we are troubled by our guilt is still around today. It has even been popularized in our music, I’m sure some of you may recall these words to the song, “The Road to Shambala by Three Dog Night:

            Wash away my troubles, wash away my shame

            With the rain in Shambala

            Wash away my sorrow, wash away my pain

            With the rain in Shambala

Yes, in all honesty, we make mistakes, (yet rarely own up to them) and we do things that hurt others and ourselves. Or, sometimes, we fail to do the right thing and that makes us feel just as guilty as if we did something wrong. We need to get back on the right path... the path of righteousness. What better image than that of water as a sign of our becoming clean again as a first sign of our willingness to show remorse and begin anew?

That is the exact function of the Sacrament of Reconciliation…which also has fallen victim to the coronavirus. You see, this Sacrament provides real cleansing. It provides healing from the inside out, in the heart and attitude. And real forgiveness comes from the very person Pilate unjustly condemned to death. It’s unfortunate that today when there is so much need of forgiveness and such a profound underestimate of our own sinfulness, this healing Sacrament is so underutilized. As we come to the end of our Lenten journey, let us attempt to take advantage of the graces Our Lord makes available to us when we ask Him to cleanse us of our sins.

Remember: enjoy the day and let your joy touch others!

Deacon Tom