Cathedral's Palm Sunday celebrant: Jesus places himself squarely inside human brokenness

Story and photo by Beth Donze

With the ongoing pandemic making St. Louis Cathedral sit empty as Catholics begin the church's “week of all weeks,” Father Colm Cahill said the opening words of Psalm 22 – articulated by Jesus himself on the cross – have added poignance this year: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

“Why is the oldest active cathedral in this country empty today? Why have you forsaken me? Why am I at home? Why am I alone? Why do I feel distant? Even in a house full of people at times, I can feel alone. I can feel distant,” asked Father Cahill, celebrating the cathedral’s April 5 Palm Sunday Mass before a “virtual” congregation of thousands.

Ironically, in choosing these very words of human despondency, Christ signals that we, too, are invited to call out in hopefulness to the Father, who awaits us always, no matter how empty and broken our lives become.

“As we enter this week, distant as we are (from one another), our hearts are supposed to be all the more yearning and reaching out and yes, screaming – from your kitchen, from your living room, from wherever you are: ‘My God! My God!’”

Reaching out, the priest added, “is what the Christian does. We’re not alone in this. We have a God whom we can stretch out our arm to.”
 
Christ waded into every ‘human condition’
 
Father Cahill noted how the dark times in which the world currently finds itself would be very familiar to Jesus. During his walk to Calvary and in the week leading up it, Christ suffered “all of human dysfunction,” including betrayal, stupidity, violence and even the sin of sloth – when his apostles fell asleep on him in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“Everything in the human condition, every bit of brokenness, is in that story; it’s all there, and where is Jesus in it? He’s right there in the heart of it,” said Father Cahill, noting that even the context of Jesus’ crucifixion – between two criminals – put him at the center of human brokenness.

“Wherever you are, it’s not somewhere where Christ is afraid to go,” Father Cahill said, acknowledging that his remote listeners might be feeling the sting of being physically separated from the Eucharist in past weeks and into the foreseeable future.

“But, as we know from this Gospel, Jesus will go anywhere amidst the brokenness, dysfunction and whatever mess you’ve got – whatever that looks like,” he said.

“I don’t know where you are, and I don’t know from where you’re watching this Mass today and the ways in which you feel empty, but the God who you believe in (and) the God who believes in you is willing to be empty with you and come to meet you!"

“Recognize that there is nothing so dysfunctional, distant, far off, broken, that he’s not willing to be right there with you.”

Father Cahill concluded his homily by noting that crucifixion itself – the Roman Empire’s most “horrific” mode of putting someone to death – shows the depth of God’s love for us. He noted how crucifixions were always conducted outside of cities, so that travelers would see the dead when entering – and take note.

Miraculously, Jesus took that cross – a symbol of great fear – and transformed it into “a symbol of hope,” he said.

“Whatever your fear is (including any fears relating to the pandemic), there’s nothing that Jesus Christ himself cannot transform; there’s nothing that he cannot redeem,” Father Cahill said.

“The Lord himself comes to meet you in this brokenness; he is empty with you; you are never alone. Trust in the God, who walks into all dysfunction, all brokenness, and stays there with you.”

Beth Donze can be reached at bdonze@clarionherald.org.