Palm Sunday Processional
Mark 11:1-10

1. Did some of the people waving palms and shouting “Hosanna” expect the Messiah to have power and to dominate? Could they have recognized Jesus as someone who reawakened hopes, understood misery and healed their bodies and souls? Which group would you have liked to be with?

First Reading
Isaiah 50:4-7

1. We understand Jesus as the subject of this reading. Could it apply to others too? Name some people, like John Lewis, who have spoken on God’s behalf and have “set their faces like flint” when confronted by injustice. What injustice do you feel strongly about? Is there anything can you do to help make it right?

2. “Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear.” What am I hearing now? The cries of starving children? Of the planet in crisis? Of racial injustice?

Second Reading
Philippians 2:6-11

1. “Agape” love is selfless and free from self-concern and self-preoccupation. It includes conversion, vulnerability, search for justice, and suffering. Explain Jesus’ love for us in terms of agape. What would the world be like if everyone had some of this kind of love?

2. Discuss Javier Melloni’s statement: “The will of God is the divinization of every creature; and it was to bring about this divinization that the one who was in God and who was God, emptied himself in order to participate in our human condition and transform it from within.” Can you agree with such a statement?

Gospel
Mark 14:1-15:47 or 15:1-39

1. The woman “wastes” expensive perfumed oil on Jesus. Does this relate to God’s self-wasting love on humankind? How is the Eucharist a continuation of Christ’s self-giving love for us? Does your busy schedule allow time to “waste” on love?

2. Do I sometimes “fall asleep” when something might take too much time or be too difficult? Does God fall asleep in our moment of need?

What does Pope Francis say about this?

… But he is always with us, because he is a Father and cannot abandon us.”

This contrasts with the fallenness of humanity. For example, when the disciples fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane during Christ’s agony: “God asks man not to abandon him, and man instead sleeps.”

Instead, in man’s moment of trial, God keeps watch with them.

He explained, “in the worst moments of our life, in the most suffering moments, in the most anguishing moments, God watches with us, God fights with us. Always close to us. Why? Because [he is] a father,”

Pope Francis says Satan is real  May 1, 2019