The 'shortest Greatest Story Ever Told'

Last week in this space, I wrote about hope. This week, I write about the very foundation of all human hope. It’s found in the story that will play out before us over the next 10 days – the shortest greatest story ever told.

It begins on Palm Sunday, when Luke’s Gospel reading that will be used for processions that occur before Mass includes the following cry of the people:

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” – Luke 19: 38

Before our priests begin their homilies in that same Mass, we have heard what the people cried out only a few days later:

“Crucify him! Crucify him!” – Luke 23: 21

So, they did; they crucified him. And on the third day, the Apostle’s Creed tells us, he rose again from the dead.

Have you ever paused to contemplate that what many call “the greatest story ever told” takes less than 30 minutes to read aloud? The Gospel witness that has survived threats across more than 2,000 years … that has served as the foundation for our Catholic faith, which now encompasses a worldwide community of more than a billion people … takes less time to read than many of us spent preparing any meal on any given day.

It truly is the shortest greatest story ever told.

I have written here before that I am one of “those Saturday people” who generally attends the Vigil/Anticipatory weekend Mass on Saturday. Every Palm Sunday, that Mass always includes Christ’s full passion as the Gospel; this year, from Luke – as noted by the quotations above.

If you attend a Palm Sunday Mass at which the Passion serves as the Gospel, try to really pay attention to what you are reading and hearing – really think about it, and attempt to imagine being there when they crucified our Lord. And remember, with every word, that you are recounting – with your Catholic family in that moment – the story that is the lynchpin of our hope for eternal peace and happiness.

Its exclamation point comes in John’s Gospel account, which we will read on Easter:

‘When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, 
and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.” – John 20: 6-7

In less than two chapters of Luke’s Gospel and less than one chapter of John’s Gospel, we get the entire story of the foundation of our hope. Have you ever paused to think about that? Most of us read magazine stories on a regular basis with longer word counts about “stuff” – not anything we likely will remember or even care about a few days later, let alone after millennia.

Friends, we have reached the threshold of our annual observance of the reason we have hope for salvation and eternal life. And we can describe that reason – through the story of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection – to anyone in less than 30 minutes. Seriously.

For an epilogue, just add nine words:

“Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.” – Hebrews 13: 8