Who are “Them”?

ST. MARY OF THE VALLEY | 2022

Bottom line: None of us realize the magnitude of our sins. With humility we thank Jesus for opening the path to forgiveness.

“Father, forgive them”. Well, we have to start with Pilate He makes the decision to condemn Jesus to death. The Bible tells us to pray for those in authority. Instead of praying for Pilate, the people make demands: “crucify him, crucify him”. As an extension of Pilate, we have the Roman soldiers. Some are just “doing their job”. Others use Jesus for perverse pleasure – like the guards at Dachau who forced prisoners into ice cold showers then turned the water scalding hot. Just so, the soldiers mock Jesus, crowning him with thorns. Jesus asks the Father to forgive them and even makes excuses, “they do not know what they do”.

RELATED HOMILIES | 2022 Homilies

• The Cross Confronts Us (2019)
• First Things: Jesus Suffering Today (2016)
• Strengthen Your Brothers (2013)
• The Good Thief (2010)
• What Do We Have To Offer God? (2007)
• The Passion of the Christ (2004)

My Life I Give Freely

SINGLE HUMANITY | 2019

You may have seen it somewhere in the social media someone expressing the intention of suing in court people, or state, deemed to be responsible for the death of Jesus. Even if we don’t know the motivation, that gives us some idea about the way the death of Jesus is perceived -as murder.

No doubt, we can see malice and the injustice not only in the accusations but also in the judgment against Jesus. However, seeing only injustice in his death, our passion liturgy becomes only a commemoration of a murder victim. But Jesus is not a passive victim; he is an “actor”.

Glory and Blood

KUALA LUMPUR | 2022

The most visible accoutrement for this Sunday is the palm branch, and for good reason. The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and of victory in the ancient world, and in Jewish tradition. But having paid closer attention to the first Gospel taken from Luke, it is at least a little ironic to refer to this Sunday as “Palm Sunday.” Actually, only John (12:13) mentions “palm branches.” Matthew mentions “branches from the trees”, while Mark describes them as “leafy branches.” Luke mentions nothing about any foliage. So, if you didn’t manage to get your hands on a nice leafy palm, don’t complain.

Be that as it may, why “palms?” It was a common custom in many lands in the ancient Near East to cover the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honour. The Hebrew Bible reports that Joshua was treated this way. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and John report that people gave our Lord this form of honour. In Matthew/ Mark they are reported as laying their garments and cut branches on the street, whereas John more specifically mentions palm fronds. Luke mentions only garments being spread on the road as a kind of ancient red-carpet reception to our Lord whom the people feted as their Messianic King.

RELATED HOMILIES

• It’s How You Choose to End the Story (2019)
• Emptied and Exalted – (2016)
• Departing from the Script– (2013)

Humming “All Glory, Laud and Honor” — Palm Sunday

DIOCESE OF KNOXVILLE | 2011

For about a week now I have been humming, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” – the traditional hymn associated with Palm Sunday.  The hymn is usually sung after the distribution of palms and as the congregation enters into the church calling to mind our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem.

Since Ash Wednesday we as the Church have been preparing for the celebrations of the upcoming week.

Words Embedded in Our Hearts

A CONCORD PASTOR COMMENTS | 2013

Although it’s at the very heart of our faith, the story of the suffering and death of Jesus is recounted in its entirety only twice a year, and then in the same week, on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

Though we hear this story infrequently, its images, scenes and characters are vivid in our imagination. Particular words and phrases have embedded themselves in our memory and in our hearts, evoking repentance and prayer…

Click link above to read words/phrases in the Passion…

MORE ARCHIVED HOMILIES

• Homily for Palm Sunday (2018))

When We Neglect Mass,
We Neglect Christ

BC CATHOLIC | 2022

At Mass, we become contemporaries of Christ’s passion: his passion is present for us and we are present at his passion. When we hear Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? we can answer “Yes!”

This re-presentation is possible through the two sacraments Jesus instituted on Holy Thursday: the Holy Eucharist – when he said, “This is my body … this is my blood” – and Holy Orders, when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

If we neglect Mass, we neglect Christ and what he did for us.

In Human Likeness

SUNDAY WEB SITE | 1997

It is our human circumstance, grand and grotesque, that is at issue in the Passion. Our predicament is the healing of the wounds without the cover of cosmetics. Our problem is the solving of sin without endless stratagems of denial. “Not guilty,” we all say, having taken the ploys of the courtroom as our method of life. We plea bargain our way through while the slaughter goes on. Lacerations we bear in quiet. Cruelties we have inflicted go unmentioned. Deprivations we share in common are unnoticed.

The Various Characters in the Passion Represent Our Sins

YEAR C HOMILIES | 2009

As the early Christians looked back, so many events of Jesus’ Passion meant so much. As we look at the Passion of Jesus, so many events also take on new meaning for us. We see a whole host of characters who each had a role to play that eventually led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Once we realize that it was our sins that crucified Jesus, we can see these different characters in the Passion representing our sins which caused Jesus to die. We remember the love of the Lord for us which caused him to suffer for our sins; let us love the Lord in return.

RELATED HOMILIES

• The Passion of Jesus shows us up as sinners and heals us
• The Passion of Jesus Speaks to Us
• Meditate on Jesus’ Passion
• Jesus’ Sufferings Revealed by the Turin Shroud

HOLY WEEK HOMILIES

Hosanna… Crucify Him!!!

FR. JUDE LANGEH, CMF | 2019
Claret Media Cameroon

Palm Sunday can be summarized in two words HOSANNA and CRUCIFY HIM. It is called Palm Sunday, signifying the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem with people laying down their palms for him to trample upon. Sometimes it is called Passion Sunday, indicating the beginning of the Holy week and the beginning of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas and the utter rejection by the same people who shouted Hosanna, now asking that he should be crucified. On this note, this Sunday is rightly called PALM SUNDAY OF OUR LORD’S PASSION.

Proclaiming the Gospel
with Your Life

CHRIST IN THE DESERT MONASTERY | 2013

We are called not to acclaim the Lord merely with our lips or just on certain days of the year, such as Palm Sunday, but with our very lives, each and every day, every moment of our life. Blessed Charles de Foucauld put it in terms of “proclaiming the Gospel with your life.” How we live should be different from the way someone who does not believe in God would live. That means evaluating how we use our time, talents, words, thoughts and deeds. We not only evaluate, though, but also change what needs to be changed…

Today You Will Be With Me
in Paradise

HOMILIES – YEAR C ! 2019

Luke is concerned to show Jesus consistently caring and forgiving to the end. He responded to the wailing women with the warning that there were worse things to follow for them and their nation because of the general popular refusal to accept the message and the way of Jesus. Totally ignoring Jesus’ emphasis on the futility of violence, the nation, only four decades after Jesus’ death, violently revolted against Rome. They succeeded for a brief time, but eventually were utterly crushed by the Roman military after almost unbelievable suffering. Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple burnt to the ground.

God Destroys Death

PRIESTS FOR LIFE ! 2019

God destroys death, and he continues to do so through us. The events related this day make us the People of Life. They renew our conviction that God cares about human life, and that we must as well. In the light of the passion and death of Christ, which is the passion and death of God himself, no human being can be indifferent to violence. In the light of what Christ did to rescue us from death, we realize our call to rescue others from death. This rescue starts with the most vulnerable human beings in our midst, the children still living within their mothers’ wombs, and deprived of the right to life by abortion. Some are tempted to take life rather than sacrifice themselves to protect and nurture it. Yet when we see what God has done for us, we find that the very meaning of life is to give ourselves for the good of the other. In the light of Palm Sunday, it makes no sense to hold back on our love, or our sacrifice on behalf of human life.

And it is that simple truth that the palm branches we carry home today are meant to remind us of throughout the year. Let us run to the cross of Christ, thanking him for the eternal life he brings, and resolving to be the People of Life in the world.

Never Forget

from Proclaim Sermons
LifeIssues.net

Summary : The memory that binds a community together is not necessarily a photographic representation of the past. Remembering often means reliving the ways in which a community came together to support each other to create a new way forward.

In the coming days, we will again remember the final days of Jesus’ life. We will sing. We will pray. We may have visual representations of the stations of the cross. Some may watch movie renditions of Jesus’ last days. For a whole week we will remember with our hearts and our actions. In many ways we will relieve those final days, taking on the perspectives of Jesus, his disciples and even the God who weeps for his only Son.

RELATED HOMILIES:

• Ministering with Love til the End – We are asked to reflect on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus — the three inseparable parts of the Paschal Mystery. As we do so, let us focus on God’s love and mercy — which Jesus liberally dispensed even amidst His sufferings and which He continues to do in our time and for all time.
• Kenosis – Some choices are simple matters and will not need much in-depth moral reflection such as what shall I wear or what shall I have for lunch? Other choices however have important consequences not only for us individually but also for the society where we belong. There is a moral dimension to politics.

Blood and Mercy

DIOCESE OF ST. PETERSBURG | 2022

The Blood of Christ saves us. The devil has lost his hold on humanity, all of us and each of us. Death has been defeated by death. Eternal death has been defeated by the death on the Cross. The fruit of disobedience has been destroyed by the fruit of obedience. Pride has been defeated by humility. Hate has been defeated by love. And we are participants in all this, we are participants in the Victory of the Cross. For, like Dismis, we accept the death of Christ as our pathway to heaven. Remember us Lord when you come into your Kingdom.

RELATED HOMILIES

• Between Heaven and Earth (2019)
• A Call to Faith – (2016)
• Following Him Wherever He Leads Us– (2013)

Will You Follow Christ to the Cross?

DOMINE, DA NIHI HANC AQUAM! | 2007

That desert was forty days long. Along the way we dropped coffee and tea, booze and cigarettes, TV and shopping, email and chocolate. We dropped gossiping, nagging, sex, meat, cussing. We picked up extra hours of prayer, daily Mass, weekly confession, spiritual reading, volunteer hours, being nice to little brother and sister, obeying mom and dad, obeying husband or wife, extra money in the plate on Sunday. The devil bought out his best temptations to show us our weaknesses and sometimes he won and sometimes we won. But he knows and you need to know if you don’t already: God wins…

Gestas and Dismas

HOMILIES – YEAR C 

There is a moment that I find particularly meaningful that is only found in the Gospel of St. Luke. It is the dialogue happening between Jesus and the two condemned men crucified with him on both sides. They are both not named, however tradition refers to the repentant criminal as Dismas and the unrepentant criminal as Gestas. The fact that they are not named however invites us to consider, how are we like these men? In what areas of my life am I like Gestas? In what areas of my life am I like Dismas?

The Challenge of Easter

BUILDING ON THE WORD | 2007

EASTER SUNDAY – Each year Fr. Sigma exercises the option to proclaim the full account of the passion and omits the homily. As a result there are no homilies available here for Palm Sunday.

It should be a consolation to us that the first response of the apostles to Jesus’ resurrection was one of disbelief. Luke makes this very clear in the gospel we just heard. The women come, bringing the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and the apostles do not believe them. The apostles consider their words an idle tale, a pile of nonsense.

RELATED HOMILIES

• Alleluia Is Our Song
• The Challenge of Easter
• Easter Doubt and Faith
• Letting Christ Out
• The Curious Omission
• The Easter Egg

Corruption: Being Spiritually Blind

DIOCESE OF SACRAMENTO | 2022

APRIL 24, 2022 – Divine Mercy Sunday

No one likes or admires a person who lives a double life. People who live double lives present only one side of themselves to us. This side usually makes a favorable impression upon others. However, there is that other side of them that completely contradicts who we think they are. They hide that side of themselves, because they know we would see them for who they truly are. Thus, they would lose our approval – and, probably, our friendship. If we are honest, most of us would admit that there are things for which we are ashamed – especially in our past. This is because we are all sinful and have made selfish mistakes. Hopefully, however, we have repented of these sins. There came a time when we rejected those things which were harmful to our life as Christians.

Jesus Places a New Pattern
of Life in Front of Us

ST. LOUIS REVIEW | 2022

Palm Sunday and the passion of Jesus add some extra movement and voices to our celebration. As we begin Holy Week, we are urged and challenged to embrace Jesus on more than just an intellectual and cerebral level, but to engage our bodies, minds and spirits on this faith walk with Jesus.

As we draw closer to Easter, we should ask: Have our Lenten practices have given us hope that we will be different by Easter, or have we simply lived this season so that we’ll come out just the same or worse than we started it?