Preparatory Prayer:
"Hear us, O God our Savior, Who art the hope of all the ends of the earth and in the sea afar off." Psalm 114.
Setting:
Jesus, on Palm Sunday, riding in triumph into the city of Jerusalem. The whole place is buzzing with excitement. Our Lord has come in over the hill from Bethany, preceded and followed by a great multitude, and, according as He advances, the crowd increases. It is likely that many of those accompanying Him have joined the procession without altogether knowing its purpose; there is something afoot this morning and they do not want to miss seeing it. In the street the people have spread their garments for the Master to ride on; they have cut down branches which they wave before Him, and the archways reecho with the cries of jubilation: "Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Here I have come too, to make my prayer. I kneel at the street corner as the procession approaches and, as I lift up my eyes to fix them on the face of Christ, I see, to my amazement, that He is weeping. On the day of triumph, when the whole city is applauding, Jesus is in tears. In my prayer He will tell me why.
Fruit:
To see life, and feel about life, as Jesus Christ sees it and feels about it.
It is a chilling experience to meet with lack of sympathy. If you have a scheme upon which your heart is set and it is treated with apathy, perhaps even cynicism or contempt, you will come away keenly disappointed, violently inclined to give up all effort. If you are bereaved by the death of someone whom you dearly loved, you are hurt if people neglect to show the ordinary signs of sympathy.
Sympathy - to feel with a person what he feels; to share his interests and give evident proof that one wants to cooperate; to enter into his joys or sorrows with genuine sincerity; to have the power to see his point of view, to appreciate it and recognize that it is the right oneall. this is comprised in the word "sympathy." This is eagerly sought from us by the Son of God. He wept on Palm Sunday because it was missing. It is inculcated on us by St. Paul when he urges us to "let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." It is the thing Paul is proud of, and legitimately, when he writes: "We have the Mind of Christ . . . I think that I also have the Spirit of God."
There is, first of all, the mind of Christ concerning His eternal Father. The more deeply and prayerfully one studies His life, the clearer does the truth stand forth that devotion to the Father and the doing of His Will was, in Our Lord, what would be described as a masterpassion in any other. His whole life, from the first instant of the Incarnation till His head fell forward in death on the Cross, was one act of unswerving obedience, most lovingly yielded, to that Father.
So many instances occur in proof of this statement that it is difficult to decide on what to select. When the Jews ask Him what they shall do in order to work the works of God, He tells them to believe in Himself, Whom the Father has sent. This is the Father Who sends them bread from heaven. He is come to preach a doctrine - not His own, but that of the Father, and those who do that Father's Will recognize, as by intuition, the truth of His words. Let not those who trust be uneasy about food or raiment, for they have a Father Who knows that they need these things. When they pray they should not make display of their devotion in the eyes of men; rather let them seek the silence and solitude of their own room, and there, closing the door, let them pray in secret to their Father, and their Father, Who sees in secret, will hear them.
When men hailed Him as a great prophet, He withdrew from them; when they wanted to crown Him as their king, He slipped away; when they cheered Him to the echo on Palm Sunday, He wept bitter tears. It mattered not at all to Him that they were prepared to accept Him and welcome Him merely on His own merits. His own glory was nothing to Him. But He thirsted with insatiable desire that they should discover through Him the Father. What was it to Him that men were ready to glorify Him as a prophet if they would not see that it was through the Father's power He did the things they admired? He withdrew from them when they were ready to accept Him in this spirit only, because of their lack of sympathy. They were missing the whole point of His coming, His teaching, and His miracles. These were all intended to lift their eyes and hearts Godwards, but their hearts were still cloyed with worldly ambitions and worldly dreams, and their eyes still remained turned down towards the ground.
Jesus. give me a living faith in the providence of my heavenly Father, a boundless trust in His promises; an ardent love that will goad me to do the works of the apostolate, to make others know Him and love Him too.