Homily for Palm Sunday

April 10, 2022
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56

The Passion Narrative of the Gospel of Saint Luke shows us the wisdom, gentleness, and compassion of Jesus in His complete gift of self for our salvation. The Gospel tells us that Jesus entered Jerusalem and heard the shouts of the crowd yelling “Hosanna to our King!”  He is not embraced but rather He is grasped at by a people who have been expecting a king and Messiah with their own agenda in mind. Most of this agenda included their political purposes to overthrow their oppressors and to turn the tables by leading them in revenge to oppress their oppressors. They remain God’s chosen people who had been offered a covenant by God and, in Jesus, God is now offering them the fulfillment of that covenant.

It is true that Jesus Christ has come to fulfill the covenant and make them a triumphant people as their King. Yet, we see that once they recognize that their King’s throne is to be the cross, they reject this fulfillment of the covenant and their Messiah and they become a mob without identity or belonging — unruly, indifferent, and apathetic, filled with rage and self-will.

The Passion Narrative of the Gospel of Saint Luke teaches us that Jesus’ compassion is not withdrawn but selflessly extends even to those who are not His professed followers but is closed to those who reject it and would instead cast Him in the role of their king on the terms of their own script. Jesus is not a revolutionary or the leader of an ideological movement. He is not placing Himself at the center of His Gospel apart from the centrality given to Him by His heavenly Father in His perfect obedience as the Son of God in carrying out His mission of the salvation of every human being and all creation. He is neither emotionally manipulated nor emotionally overpowered by the crowds.

At His arrest, Jesus heals the ear of the slave of the high priest cut off by the sword of Saint Peter, Jesus’ own Apostle, who had been overpowered by his emotions of fear and anger in the moment. These same emotions will prompt Peter to deny Jesus when he is mocked and questioned about his loyalty to Jesus. In contrast and as an example for all of us, Jesus remains calm, as the One who is innocent and who trusts God’s presence amidst the anguish of the moment.

Only in the Gospel of Saint Luke do we meet the good thief, to whom tradition gives the name “Saint Dismas.” He has not been a follower of Jesus. Dismas addresses our Lord directly by His name of Jesus. It is one of only two times that Jesus is addressed directly by His name “Jesus.” Christ responds to his direct and humble plea for help with greater generosity than Dismas would have hoped for. Jesus promises the man’s entrance that day into His Kingdom of Paradise.

Jesus speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem, who also are not His followers but are still deeply touched by His passion and death. Jesus is more concerned about all these people and their children than about Himself as they recognize Him with basic human pity and not with selfish demands. He blesses them and encourages their faith and that of their children.

Finally, when Jesus dies, He does so in a great act of surrender, entrusting himself to the mercy of his Father: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” The final act of His earthly life in the culmination of His ministry is to abandon Himself and our humanity into the hidden mystery of the Trinity. His self-sacrifice is His offering to his Father and His gift to us in the Holy Spirit. This simple and complete act of total trust so touches a Roman centurion that he recognizes and by grace professes the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The Passion Narrative of the Gospel of Saint Luke teaches us that Jesus’ compassion is not withdrawn but selflessly extends even to those who are not His professed followers but is closed to those who reject it and instead would instead cast Him in the role of their king on the terms of their own script. To make Jesus our king on our terms or in accord with our own agenda is to live not in faith, hope, and charity, but according to the tyranny of self-preservation that dominates this world fallen to sin and the power of hell. Saint Leo the Great states, “By dying Christ submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again He destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity.”

As we enter this Holy Week and the celebration of the mysteries of our redemption, let us remind each other that the way of Jesus necessarily includes but goes further than the cross. Let us remind each other that we belong to Him and that He is not an object of our possession on our own terms. As Catholics and Christians, believers in the Good News, we know that the cross is indispensable, but it is not our end when we surrender and commend our spirits into the merciful hands of God.