Palm Sunday

          One would think that with all of this material it would be easy to preach.  But my experience in almost fourteen years of priesthood is that nothing could be further from the truth.  I have always found it more difficult to come up with a homily on these great holy days of our tradition.  Maybe it’s the pressure of having a typically larger, more intently focused congregation on these high holy days, but I think it is mostly because the events we commemorate in these days speak so well for themselves.  What more can I say?  How can I add in any meaningful way to what we have just heard?  Why talk about these things when, in a sense, we are living them this week?  Thankfully, the Church in her wisdom also recognizes this.  And so, the instructions for Mass today state that after the reading of the Passion “a brief homily should take place, if appropriate.  A period of silence may also be observed.” 

          I don’t know if it’s “appropriate” or not, but I would offer just a few brief thoughts on our Lord’s Passion, so that perhaps we can start off on the right trajectory for this Holy Week.  To this end, I invite you to reflect with me on what we have just heard and what it means for each of us by focusing on the various people involved in this story.

          In Judas, who had walked with Jesus for three years, who had heard him preach and witnessed His miracles, we should see just how easily we ourselves might “sell out,” how easily we might betray our Lord in a thousand little ways, or perhaps even in some more serious ways.

          In Peter, James and John, we should see our weak, tired selves who cannot wait even one hour with our Lord.

          In Peter, Jesus’ close friend and chief of the apostles, we should see how quick-tongued we can be in pledging our faithfulness to Christ, but really how fickle we are, and how easily we might find ourselves denying our friendship with Him.

          In the crowd shouting, “Crucify him,” we should recognize in ourselves that dark part of us that feels somehow threatened by Christ and all that true belief in Him would mean for our lives, and so would prefer to be rid of Him.

In Pontius Pilate, we should see that part of ourselves that would just like to say, “Not my problem,” to wash our hands of Christ, and for that matter of the poor and the oppressed, and go back to our comfortable lives and petty “problems.”

But it’s not all bad.  In Simon of Cyrene, we should see that part of us that is willing to take up the Cross with our Lord, for our Lord, even if our being “pressed into his service” seems to have happened almost by accident.

In the centurion at the foot of the cross, we should see that part of us that truly does believe, that sees Jesus for who really is and dares to give voice to that truth: “Truly, this man was the Son of God!”

In Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Salome and Joseph of Arimathea, we should see that part of ourselves that is truly devoted to our Lord, and would follow Him to the end, even to the tomb.

Finally, we should see ourselves in Jesus, who suffered, died and is risen from the dead.  That is, after all, the meaning of our baptism.