1. Does Jesus enter the Holy City to get power and to dominate? Did some of the people waving palms and shouting “Hosanna” expect a Messiah like that? Could some have recognized Jesus as someone who reawakened hopes, understood misery and healed their bodies and souls? Which group would you have been in?
1. What is the relationship between listening daily to the Lord and living confidently as Christ’s disciple?
2. Name some people who have spoken on God’s behalf and have “set their faces like flint” when confronted by injustice. Are you restrained about standing up for justice if it involves some discomfort for you? What injustice do you feel strongly about? What can you do to help make it right?
3. God opens your ears many times and in many ways. Give some reasons why God would come to you with messages “morning after morning.” What communications have you received from God? Do you get them through what others say or do? In your thoughts? Your heart? Your ears? Your eyes?
1. Describe the “emptying” in Jesus’ life. Go from his birth to his death, as much as you are able. What is the power of emptiness?
2. What is the profound wisdom that lies behind the assertion, “… at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”?
2. What is the profound wisdom that lies behind the assertion, “… at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”?
3. Which characteristic of Jesus would you most desire to have, or to have strengthened in your life?
4. What does it mean practically, to bow the knee to Jesus; to confess with the tongue that He is Lord?
1. The woman was “wasting” expensive perfumed oil on Jesus. Does this relate to God’s self-wasting love on humankind? How is the Eucharist a continuation of Christ’s self-giving love for us? Does your busy schedule allow time to “waste” on love?
2. What is the most “beautiful thing” you could do to express your love for the Lord?
3. What examples of good intentions gone awry do you see in this passage? What were the reasons they were not
kept?
4. Who do you most identify with in this Gospel account?
5. How can we bring Christ to people who feel hopeless and abandoned?
6. After listening to the Palm Sunday Gospel account of how his disciples fell asleep before Jesus was betrayed by Judas, Pope Francis asked himself and the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square these questions: “Has my life fallen asleep?” and “Am I like Pilate? When I see that the situation is difficult, do I wash my hands?” (Palm Sunday 4/13/2014) Are those hard questions? How do you answer them?
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