The Master Has Need of You

Palm Sunday is the only day of the year in which we hear two Gospel readings at Mass. We tend to focus on the reading we just heard, the narrative of Jesus’s Passion and Death. But it’s such a powerful reading; maybe it’s better to let it speak for itself. Perhaps a better way to enter into Holy Week is to take a moment to reflect upon the Gospel at the beginning of today’s liturgy, the story of Jesus entering into Jerusalem.

In that reading, we heard that before Jesus makes his way into Jerusalem he sends two disciples ahead of him to find an animal for him to ride in on: in Matthew’s account, a colt and a donkey. And Jesus tells those two disciples that when they are asked by the animals’ owner what they are doing they are to say, “The Master has need of them.” 

“The Master has need of them.” Interesting – Jesus is in need. He who is going into Jerusalem to fulfill his Father’s will, he who as God and Man is at the brink of undoing the ancient evil of sin and death and throwing open the doors of heaven, is himself in need of something first. The whole drama of God’s plan of salvation hinges upon those willing to cooperate with what the Lord needs.

James Tissot, The Foal of Bethpage (c. 1890)

And so it is still today. The Lord’s plan of salvation has been accomplished, but Jesus is still unfolding his redemption in the world around us. And he does so asking us to cooperate with him, asking us to bring him what we have because he has need of it. He has need of our generosity, our material goods, our work and our service, to bring help and healing to those in need, such as those who suffered damage and devastation from Friday’s storms. He has need of our mercy and our compassion, to help heal divisions, to bring peace to the brokenhearted, and reconciliation in homes and in families. He has need of our teaching, our example, our commitment, to give witness of our faith to the world, especially to our young people. In some way, the Lord calls each of us this week to do something for him, to be at his disposal, so that his work of redemption can take place in a fuller and deeper way. Even if we feel we have nothing we can give – even if we ourselves are suffering and in need – the Lord asks us to bring him our faith, our perseverance, our trust, so that even our emptiness can become a sign of his fullness.

Friends, as we listen this week to hear how the Master sends us, to see how he has need of us, let us also recognize our need for him. The meaning of this Holy Week – the whole point of our celebrating it – hinges on whether we realize anew how much we need Jesus’s redemption and so enter again into his saving mysteries. “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Truly He is the Son of God.”