Homily – Palm Sunday - March 20, 2005

 

 

In the early hours of March 1, 1943, an Austrian peasant, Franz Jagerstatter, bade farewell to his wife and home and set off by foot for the neighboring town.  On a hill on the outskirts of St. Radegund, he turned one last time to take in the village of his birth, the parish church where he had served as sexton, and the fields where he had labored as a farmer.  Upon recognizing him, a neighbor called out in the customary greeting, “Go with God, Franz,” to which Franz answered, “You’ll see no more of me.”

 

The next day he turned himself in at the induction center in Enns, where he had been ordered to report for military service.  After stating his refusal to serve in Hitler’s army, he was arrested and imprisoned.  He was later tried before a military court in Berlin, and sentenced to death.  On August 9, 1943, he was beheaded as an “enemy of the state.”

 

In a remarkable document written in prison, Franz described a dream he had had in 1938 in which crowds of people were struggling to board a shiny new train.  At some point he heard a voice announce, “This train is bound for hell.”  It occurred to him afterward that this train was a symbol for the Nazi movement.  Surely, he concluded, one should not board such a train; surely, having discovered its destination, one ought to jump off such a train before it reached its goal, even though it might cost one’s life.

 

For Franz there was no compromise. His parish priest, his attorney, and friends urged him to compromise. But he saw only one way – the way of the Gospel, the way of Jesus Christ. Only embracing love was an option.

 

We have seen others who have refused compromise – Archbishop Oscar Romero, Mother Theresa, Brother Damien of Molokai and others.

 

There is the story of Theophane Venard in Vietnam of how he considerately shed his clothes before his head was chopped off so that the executioner who was paid for his deed with them would not be receiving blood-stained garments.

 

These are dramatic stories – people whose insistence that loving the other was a call which allowed for no compromise.

 

And of course as we enter this Holy Week we listen to the dramatic story of Jesus – and of his insistence that doing God’s will – loving God’s creation – embracing the other was the only way – and it allowed no compromise.

 

The fact is that perhaps we concentrate too much on the Cross – we need to look beyond it. Jesus embraced the Cross not because he wanted to but because he insisted on being true to the demands of Love. Jagerstatter and the rest did not look forward to execution and suffering - they insisted on the way of Love – and would not compromise.

 

The real focus of this Holy Week needs to be that commitment to loving – the insistence that there is only one way to live God’s plan – and the realization that  God is present in that way.

 

We need to spend this week looking at our own way and how true to are to The Way that Jesus walked.

 

There is always the challenge to compromise – to say that there is a middle way.

The fact is that we are not often called to the dramatic path of Franz Jaggerstetter or Oscar Romero or the rest. But each day we are given the opportunities to love and the temptations to do otherwise.

 

We can easily fall into judgment – to exclusion – to anger – to dismissal.

But we follow this week Jesus’ way – and his way was always to love – the sinner, the outcast, the poor, the hungry and even those who would persecute him.

 

Jesus didn’t choose the Cross – Jesus chose love – and that radical love meant that he faced the Cross – and through the Cross the love of God.

 

We journey with Him this week. Let us look for how we too can love without compromise – and bring His love to the world.