Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022 – Luke 19:28-40; Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 23:1-49

Some years ago, there was a book written, called “You Are What You Eat,” by a woman named Gillian McKeith. But she borrowed the expression from someone who wrote something similar about a century and a half before that, a French philosopher and doctor named Jean Savarin. And what he wrote was just a little bit different. He said, “Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you what you are.” Slightly different. He was also a medical professional, so he was interested in good nutrition, the same way that Gillian was, but his words bear a broader interpretation.

For us Catholics who believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, bodily present - body and blood, soul and divinity – we have, each time we receive Holy Communion, a moment when Christ’s body is part of our body, and we carry that with us throughout our lives. Each time we receive Holy Communion we renew that intimate earthly and divine contact with Christ. Which means that we carry within ourselves all the time the scene that St. Luke portrays in today’s gospel - the part we didn’t read, the longer form – where, right in the middle of the Last Supper, Jesus’ closest friends are continuing to argue over which one He loves best, who’s the greatest. And Jesus, in the midst of that squabble, takes bread and says, “This is my body, broken for you.” And then He takes the chalice on the table from Passover and says, “This cup is filled with my blood, just about to be poured out for everybody for the forgiveness of sins, so you can forgive one another’s sins.”

And we bear in our bodies, the incredible scene in the garden where, according to St. Luke, Jesus was in such turmoil, He was like someone who had been heavily exercising and was pouring out sweat like drops of blood. Of course, lots of people think the Bible says that He sweat blood. He didn’t sweat blood; He sweat sweat. It was pouring out as though He was bleeding. As a matter of fact, the priests’ prayer book, called the Vespers, has a line that says Jesus wept bloody tears. He didn’t do that either. Things kind of get mythologized a bit. But the point was that the stress was so great to make up His mind to accept this challenge for our sake that it was like a great athlete, exhausted after his trial.

And we bear in our bodies, the rejection by friends, the betrayal by a friend. We bear in our bodies, the lies that were told against Jesus. And we bear in our bodies, the political machinations of people jockeying for position. And we bear in our bodies, the police brutality that Jesus experienced. And we bear in our bodies, the terrible torture which ended His life. But we also bear in our bodies, the things that Jesus said. “I am broken for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” “This day you will be with me in paradise.” “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.” The confidence to face the un-face-able, to put everything in God’s hands.

We are what we eat. One of our saints wrote that in a slightly different fashion. “Imitate what you handle. Imitate what you handle.