Once there was a famous bishop who was driving by a church. He saw an elderly priest sitting outside on the steps, reading his prayer book. The bishop ordered his driver to stop. The bishop got out of his car and walked over to the elderly priest and sat down next to him on the marble steps.
After a few moments of small talk, the bishop asked the priest if he could share with him a story, which went something like this...
Once there were a bunch of rough and tough street kids, who were looking for something to do on a boring Saturday afternoon. As they walked by the town church, they noticed that confessions were being heard.
And so, one of the boys thought that it might be fun to think up the wildest and most outlandish sins, and then go and confess them, so to give the priest a hard time. Whoever was brave enough to do this would win a bet of twenty dollars.
Well, one of the hooligans, ran into the church, went into the confessional and began to recite the wildest list of sins any priest had ever heard. The priest listened quietly, granted the youth absolution, and handed him a piece of paper, on which was written the boy's penance.
The young tough grabbed the piece of paper, and ran out of the church as fast as he could, knowing that his friends now owed him twenty dollars.
His companions asked him about the piece of paper he held in his hand. He told them that it was his penance. "Well, then," they said, "you have do your penance first, before you get your twenty dollars."
And so, he walked back into the church and read his penance. It said: "Kneel at the foot of the altar, look up at the crucifix, and repeat these words ten times."
The boy folded up the paper, put it in his back pocket and began to say: "I gave my life for you, and you don't even care. I gave my life for you, and you don't even care."
By the time, this hardened juvenile had said those words for the eighth time, tears began to roll down his face, falling to the floor below.
"Father," he said to the Bishop, "that boy was me, and you were that priest."
Today we celebrate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The beginning of his journey to the hill of the three crosses, where, obedient unto death, he would accept death, even death on a cross, for the salvation of the world-- for you and for me.
For Christians, Holy Week is not just another seven days. There is no "business as usual."
The celebrations of this week form the heart of our Christian life, and their timing should cause us to pause, and perhaps, even rearrange our normal schedules to make time to celebrate with one another the liturgies of the Easter Triduum.
I invite you to break into your daily routines and find a way to celebrate with us the liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.
Everything we do this week helps us to make sense of all that we do each and every Sunday. Together, let us all be ready to join with Christ in his Paschal Mission— his passing over from death to life.
Jesus gave his life for us: for you and for me.
Let us show him and one another that we really do care?