Wave Energy (2011-04-17, Palm Sunday)

This is my homily for Palm Sunday, 17 April 2011. I am a Catholic chaplain at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) campus and for the FDU Newman Catholic Association. We celebrate Catholic Mass - during Fall and Spring semester - every Sunday Mass (7:30 p.m.) at the Interfaith Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck, NJ.

[The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew]

[__01_energy comes in waves_] Energy is delivered to us in waves. We speak of waves of electricity. Sometimes, these waves are small ..sometimes, these are large (even harmful)…. We ride these waves all the time. We can surf waves of channels or surf the internet with waves of electricity.

Waves equal energy.

An important environmental and economic challenge for us, today, is the conversion of waves of natural energy into waves of electrical energy for homes, automobiles.

[__02_energy so strong, need protxn & storage capacity_] For example, waves of sunlight are so powerful that we have to protect ourselves from them with Coppertone and UV-ultraviolet-rated dark lenses. These are waves of light, waves of energy.

The same would be true of other waves we hear about – wind, ocean tidal-waves. We can feel this energy … perceive it, even literally surf these waves and get somewhere.

That is, we may not have find the perfect wave (unless you are floating in the ocean salt water on a board) but rather simply use what we have.
The challenge, then, might not necessarily discovering the energy but rather simply capturing the energy, storing it, transmitting it … using the energy

[__02 __] Jesus also rides into town on a wave. Entering Jerusalem, the Lord encounters waves of energy in the palm branches, the crowd is waving, enthusiastic …
Hosanna to the Son of David.

Jesus is welcomed as a king; he also is crucified, nailed to the cross as a king. A different curve to that wave.

[__03-E in the crowd, + & -__] Entering Jerusalem, Jesus encounters the activity of individual believers, of his disciples.

Jesus receives the energy, the enthusiasm, the waves of palm branches which we also hold today.Jesus perceives energy in them, energy in the crowd… a wave which now raises him up …

As Jesus lays down his life in Jerusalem, we might observe – simply – the power going out of him. A new wave has knocked him over. Be careful in the waves.

[__04, pwr lost, regained in death, stop & pray, discover the wave.___] At first, the Lord’s disciples will mourn because the power goes out of him. In s similar way, we mourn the death of a loved one, losing their touch, their personal presence, their energy in our lives. We also feel sadness.

In his Passion and Death, the Lord is giving us hope for life beyond death.
In other words, our true spiritual power does not depend on new sources of energy.

Rather, our spiritual journey depends on the strength which he displays in weakness, the light he reveals in darkness, and the movement, the next wave which he discovers for us … when we pause … when we stop moving, when we stop waving… to pray with him in the Garden about what is coming next. [__end ___]