Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Life on the Chrism Trail

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.

Homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

March 28, 2021
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 21-22
Philippians 2:6-11
Mark 14:1-15:47

When you get right down to it, every death is a disaster. Death is a total and utter negation of every part of life that leads up to it. It ends friendships, it makes widows and widowers, it makes orphans, it closes the future, it ends life. Many nonbelievers, even those who enjoy life, in their more honest moments admit the unmentionable: death mocks our every action and achievement; it mocks all our hopes; it casts a shadow on everything we do in life.