Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 29 March 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Can’t believe it is already Palm Sunday. Life comes so quickly that you need a kind of extra vision that helps you see what’s coming at the same time being 100% in the present. My intention was to do a fifth column on the Biblical Walk through the Mass, but I realize that I need to write about Palm Sunday and Easter in these two bulletins... We will come back to the Mass when we can.

To all of you who are traveling this week for the holiday, we will miss you. One of the best things we do at Saint Bernadette is celebrate the Sacred Triduum. It is a profoundly moving liturgy that begins with Holy Thursday night and travels with Jesus in his passion, death and resurrection, ending with the Vigil Mass. We hope your holidays are safe, holy, and full of joy and celebration wherever the road takes you.

As a preparation for inserting ourselves into the story of Jesus later in Holy Week, this weekend we listen to the Passion of Jesus according to Saint Matthew. It can become so familiar that we can be tempted to get lost in the haze of a very long Gospel reading.

Have you ever asked yourself how this could have happened? We witness endless inhuman-ity in our world today every time we watch or read the news. It is the way of the world, and it is no wonder that Jesus speaks often of the world as even an adversary. The prince of this world, in the Gospel of John, is none other than Satan. “I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me...” but Jesus allows himself to become subject even to the sin of this world so that he might be victorious over it. It is the plot of so many movies and books, the need of an unlikely savior to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save humanity, then to find rebirth, resurrection.

But how could this have happened to Jesus, with many turning on him - and so quickly after Palm Sunday? In many instances in the Gospels people are just confused: the man they see before him doesn’t fit the mold they have come to expect. Whether his origin, or his teaching with authority, or his miracles. “Where did he get all this? We know who he is...” - a nobody. Even King Herod was troubled with killing John the Baptist, but he had a reputation to uphold. His words, like Jesus’, rang true to those who were listening.

We see the same things happening today, even with those who hold positions of leadership. There clearly isn’t a reverence for the rule of law, there is an angry mob joining others in shouting “crucify him” without really even knowing him. If they had bothered to get to know him, If they had, I believe circumstances would have been different.

I attended a talk at Georgetown University week before last about the teachings of Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J. He was a great light in the 20th century and had a lot to say about Catholic social teaching and democracy. The first speaker was Cardinal McElroy of D.C., who turns out has written a book on Fr. Murray.

The purpose of democracy, he said, is not to serve ideology. The purpose of democracy is to serve people. If you stop seeing the person, it is no longer democracy. Even in our Church, he indicated, we have stopped seeing the person and define them by what they think or believe. Even in faith and morals, no one should be shut out from the possibility of conversion and the ability of God’s grace to change hearts. We are the ones who close the door and lock it, not God.

Ideology develops camps, and tribes, and parties. It becomes the tool to divide rather than enrich. It is no longer an opportunity for deeper understanding. There can be no dialogue if you first don’t acknowledge the fact that you might have something to learn from your dialogue partner.

Pontius Pilate was free of ideology and did see the man Jesus, and tried to convince the mob to let him go. The man who was not even a believer found no fault with Jesus. There was a frenzy happening that blinded everyone from seeing the goodness of the Son of God, despite their inability, ultimately, even to accuse him of anything.

This blindness cripples all levels of society. Is it any wonder children bully each other when they witness this behavior by adults, even parents and leaders? We need to stop, take a breath, and look intently at the human person in front of us and truly see them. This is a son or daughter of God, a beautiful creation we can’t begin to explain. Then we might work together as adults to make things right even if our ideologies don’t necessarily match.

The Lord be with you,