"By their fruits"

While Fox News, CNN and MSNBC slumbered, recycling their tired, bickering-as-usual offerings of the night before, we awoke in the wee hours and surfed to EWTN/BCTV -- Eternal World Television/ Boston Catholic Television -- where a mass dedicated to young people was just getting under way, broadcast live from St. Peter's on this auspiciously sunny Palm Sunday in Vatican City. We caught a glimpse of Boston's own newly-elevated Cardinal O'Malley amongst the distinguished assembly. Update: It couldn't have been Cardinal O'Malley that we saw, as blogfriend Matt of MartiniPundit explains in the comments:  "I hope this isn't meant to suggest that Cardinal O'Malley was in Rome yesterday. He was not. Our new Cardinal Archbishop was in Norwood at St. Catherine of Siena where he officiated at the Palm Sunday Mass. It seemed like nearly a thousand people had crammed into the quite lovely church for the moving liturgy, and yours truly received communion from His Eminence's very hand."

"Pope Benedict XVI yesterday sent a towering wooden pilgrim's cross on a two-year, cross-continental journey that will conclude in Sydney in 2008 with the promise he would be in Australia to celebrate World Youth Day," reports tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald re events broadcast live early morning here in New England:

On the steps of St Peter's Square in Rome, after the traditional Palm Sunday Mass, the Pope symbolically handed over the cross to a group of 13 young Australian Catholics to mark Sydney's role in hosting the festival in July 2008.

The event is the world's largest gathering of youth and is expected to bring 500,000 pilgrims to Sydney -- including 130,000 international visitors, more than came for the Olympics.

In briefings to the Vatican at the weekend, the Premier, Morris Iemma, said the State Government would offer $20 million worth of facilities and logistical help, including transport, security, police and medical services . . . the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau has booked every hotel room in the city. The Catholic Church is organising family billets and school halls to help house pilgrims.

We were reminded of the facilitating activities of the Haj Committee of India, "the official website for [Muslim] pilgrims looking to make their obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca" brilliantly blogged by Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna the other day.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:20)

"Palm Sunday tells us that . . . it is the cross that is the true tree of life," [Pope Benedict XVI] said, calling the cross a symbol of poverty, peace and the universality of the church. "The new weapon that Jesus gives us from his hands is the cross -- sign of reconciliation, sign of the love that is stronger than death." On Good Friday he will join thousands at Rome's Colosseum for a nighttime, torchlit Way of the Cross re-enactment of Christ's Passion and death. 'Hope EWTN/BCTV will carry it live.

Palm fronds of victory were strewn in Christ's path when he entered Jerusalem five days before his crucifixion, but "later in that week, many of the people in that cheering crowd would be among those shouting that Jesus should be executed," explains the BBC's Religion & Ethics website, noting the symbolism of the all-too-common failure of courage and the willingness to go along to get along when the going gets tough:

Christian clergy will often use the Palm Sunday story to help people think about the strength of their own commitment to their faith. They may ask believers to think about times that they have been unfaithful to Christ, or been hypocritical in proclaiming their support.

It's an old story that transcends Christian belief. It speaks to all times and places.

On Palm Sunday 2003, Pope John Paul II entrusted a copy of the icon of the Salus Populi Romani from the Borghese Chapel of the Patriarchal Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome to a group of German young people in Cologne, saying "From now on it will accompany the World Youth Days, together with the Cross. It will be a sign of Mary's motherly presence close to young people who are called upon, like the Apostle John, to welcome her into their lives.“ 

Checking out the original icon of the Salus Populi Romani (detail above), "recounted by pious tradition to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist," we noticed a few "enhancements" -- brighter, come-hither eyes and augmented, bee-stung lips, not to mention a soft, dreamy color palette -- in the peripatetic copy designed to appeal to the young people of today, jaded by an overdose of eye candy.

We couldn't help but notice the contrast in attitude and body language between youthful keepers of the faith at the Vatican this morning (above) and their generational cohorts demonstrating against the Mohammed cartoons in London a couple of months back (below):

Can we talk?

Comments

[goomp]

And those among us who sneer at the common folk believe all cultures are of equal worth.

[Jane]

nice

[Jane]

thanks sissy

[Gayle Miller]

Those pictures yesterday gave me renewed hope for the future. And your blog gives me daily comfort and pleasure.

Thanks Sissy. Love to the fur-bearing critters as well! Tell Tuck he has inspired me to do something about my living room windows!

[MartiniPundit]

Nicely done, but I hope this isn't meant to suggest that Cardinal O'Malley was in Rome yesterday.

He was not. Our new Cardinal Archbishop was in Norwood at St. Catherine of Siena where he officiated at the Palm Sunday Mass. It seemed like nearly a thousand people had crammed into the quite lovely church for the moving liturgy, and yours truly received communion from His Eminence's very hand.

[Sissy Willis]

Jane and Gayle: Thanks for your kind words.

Jane: Tuck is amused that he has inspired you to do something about your living room windows. :)

Matt: Totally awesome.

I must have seen what I wanted to see on TV yesterday. I'll admit it did seem rather soon for the good Cardinal O'Malley to be back in Rome again, especially as he has indicated -- and the Holy Father agrees -- that he should spend much time in these parts since -- as Vatican expert John Allen put it so eloquently recently -- "There is a truckload of work that has to be done in Boston."

[MartiniPundit]

Heh. Older bearded guys - there must have been a few.

Funny thing is in his homily yesterday, Cardinal O'Malley said a friend of his quipped on hearing of his elevation that "central casting must be running out of people."

He'll also be officiating at Easter Vigil in the Cathedral in Boston at 8pm on Saturday.