“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” Romans 7:19-20

Nothing reveals the true nature of humanity like the liturgy of Palm Sunday. We are complex beings that vacillate between good and evil.

When Jesus walked into Jerusalem, the people rejoiced because they saw the goodness in Jesus. They saw the hope in Him and danced for joy. They saw in Him everything that they desired a King to be. He was the answer to their prayers. The enthusiasm was real. People loved Jesus because He was the symbol of goodness for them. Even today, almost everyone loves everything about Jesus, even atheists. Well, not just Jesus, they also love Buddha, Gandhi, Socrates, …..anyone that is a symbol of goodness and truth. As humans, we need these symbols. They inspire us. They appeal to the goodness that is within us. We desire to be good because instinctively we know our true nature lies in discovering everything that is good and beautiful in this world. Unfortunately, the liturgy of Palm Sunday doesn’t stop here. It leads us to the Passion where the same people who rejoiced in Jesus cast Him out of their lives. They wanted to extinguish the fire that He sparked in their hearts. It is not just Jesus but most of the symbols of goodness have suffered a similar fate.

When the crowds heard everyone shouting, “Crucify Him!”, they had a choice laid out before them. They could have chosen to follow the good that they desired to do or they could have just gone with the flow. We know how the story ends. The ending would be the same if it happened today. The people who yelled, “Crucify Him!”, are just like us. We are weak just like them. We share the same nature. They did the evil that they desired not to do. We do this today constantly. Palm Sunday is a living reality for all peoples. We are always choosing the wrong road.

St. Paul said that it is the “sin” that lives in us that detours us from doing the right thing. The Biblical word for “sin” means “missing the mark”. It is not about offenses that we commit. It exposes a lifestyle that convinces us that we are on the right path even when we actually living and doing things which cloud all things good and beautiful in this world. We embrace lifestyles today which cause us to detach ourselves from those who make our lives rich and wonderful. Our life choices make us suspicious of everyone. Our neighbors are no longer images of God but enemies who want to deprive us of our material gains. At the same time, we desire their fellowship and presence in our lives. We need friends and people to enrich our lives. We resort to drugs or medications or meaningless TV programs to dull the pain of loneliness. We watch movies that promote the beauty of friendship and love in an environment completely isolated from human companionship. Modern people spend so much time and energy in creating a future of contentment while rejecting the joys and wonders of the present life before them. The contradiction of Palm Sunday is not an isolated biblical event. It happens constantly.

If Jesus was here today, He would suffer a similar fate. However, it wasn’t the torture and rejection that made Jesus suffer. This was a small part of His suffering. His major pain came from knowing that the people would choose the worst possible option for their lives in order to go with the flow of the world. He knew that the majority of the people would to choose to ignore the Truth that they sensed in their hearts. They would opt for the lie instead. Jesus suffered because the people whom He loved would prefer death rather than Life. He still suffers today because we still choose death. It is because of sin which dwells in our hearts. It clouds our way of thinking. We are constantly making the wrong decisions. No one is free from this. There are no enlightened ones. We are not better than the rest because we are religious. Most of the people who yelled, “Crucify Him”, were religious. It did not stop them from making the wrong choice.

Thankfully, all is not lost.

No matter how hard the world tries, it cannot silence “goodness”! No matter how much sin tries to deviate us from the path of goodness, it will never have the final word. Goodness is much larger than us. It is more powerful than our will. We cannot domesticate goodness. Death cannot erase the memory of beauty and joy. We still commemorate Palm Sunday even though we know that it is followed by the torture and death of our Lord. It is because we know that torture and crucifixion cannot triumph over Goodness.

This week, we had heavy rain for the most part of the week. Since everything we do in the streets is out in the open, rainy days means that we cannot be with the children. We took this opportunity to visit with Filipe. Just to remind some readers, this is the young man who recently became a father and decided to change his lifestyle completely. He lived in the streets since he was nine. Now, he is working but barely makes enough to support his child and the children of his wife. We visited with him to find out how things going. The first thing he asked of us was if we could be the godparents of his newborn son. This, of course, made our day. However, this is not the main thrust of our conversation. We talked about his time in the streets. We asked about the period of time when he went through depression. He said that during these periods, he felt that there was no meaning in his life and drugs was the only way to numb this feeling of emptiness. He ran away to the streets looking for something better than what he encountered in his home. Unfortunately, he found himself walking down the road to self-destruction. He told us that there were several occasions when he cried out to God to help him find a better way. There was a time when he was so sick that he thought that he was going to die and he pleaded to God to allow him to find some meaning in life before he dies. Everything seemed hopeless and lost for Felipe and then, suddenly a tiny baby gave him a new meaning. He saw something real and concrete before him. He saw God’s goodness in the face of his tiny child. Now, he is the path of reconciliation. He learned to forgive the trauma he suffered in the hands of people who were supposed to protect him. He is listening to the voice of goodness that is present in his soul. Sin is still present but it is weak. It is losing its appeal because it has nothing to offer. However, he knows that he needs to listen to the voice of Goodness to continue in this path. He cannot do it alone. However, he knows that he is never alone.

The next day we went back to the streets. We saw our children and teens sniffing paint thinner so much that they were completely oblivious to our presence. It was a day we spent without anyone approaching us. They preferred self-destruction rather than relationship. Some seemed like they had regressed to a worse state. It seemed like a day that was completely gone and hopeless, like nothing would ever change. Like the day when the sky grew dark and a small group of women stood before a bruised man hanging on Cross. They thought all was lost. However, nothing can overcome goodness.