A homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, March 28, 2021
Mk 11:1-10, Is 50:4-7, Phil 2:6-11, Mk 14:1—15:47
Regular church-goers know Palm Sunday’s Mass as the one with the extra Gospel and the extra-long Gospel. A lot of standing; a lot of thinking. With any luck, not a long homily or sermon, though the extra time to sit might be welcome if the preacher is not too boring.
And today’s Gospel about the humiliation, torture and horrifying death of Jesus, though familiar, always provokes strong emotions. What his persecutors did to Christ. What Christ did for us. What Christ still does for us every day of our lives, which themselves are a gift from our Triune God and for which we should — we must — be grateful every day of our lives.
This isn’t a homily about any of that.
Bob Dylan’s lyrics for “Subterranean Homesick Blues” —
You don’t need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows
— lay bare what today’s Gospels and historical recollections say about human nature.
As the Jerusalem crowds in “Jesus Christ Superstar” sang,
Hey sanna ho-sanna
Hey J.C., J.C.
Jesus was The Man. Jesus was The Star. Jesus was The Superstar.
Hosanna in the highest! Greet him with palms! Give him a parade like the ones the Romans give their conquering heroes fresh from the wars!
Yeah, Jesus was going to reach into that carpenter’s toolkit of his and fix everything.
Ev.Er.Eeee.Thing.
He’ll sand down the rough spots. Reinforce the weak structures. Cut out the rotted wood and replace it with something that will last millennia.
The crowds in Jerusalem did get that right — Jesus did do all those things — but they were expecting a palace and a kingdom for themselves right then and there. A New Jerusalem, their New Jerusalem. A kingdom in Judea without Roman overlords, not a kingdom of the Lord of Hosts.
So they ditched him. They changed the channel. They quit Facebook and Instagram and headed over to TikTok. They looked for a newer, shinier thing.
Or was that us?
Two thousand years later, how readily do we jump on the latest bandwagon, politically, socially, economically, even religiously or spiritually?
How quickly do we change course, or stop altogether, when we encounter headwinds?
How strongly do we hold on to our beliefs, our moral compasses, our essences?
How well-formed and fortified are our consciences?
As we enter Holy Week 2021, we still have time to reflect.
As we hold our palms today — these supercharged symbols we wait all year to take home from church — as we hold our palms, will we symbolically drop them as did the crowd that hollered “Crucify him!”?
Or will we stand at the foot of the cross and mourn, celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, and then spread his Good News to the world?
The worm turns
I read through your well written homily but have no idea how your title matches? What am I missing?
I appreciate your inviting us into your thoughts by posing questions. My thoughts are:
Sometimes the headwinds are the best thing that can happen if they if they do stop us and we take the opportunity to reassess our direction
Sometimes it’s our very beliefs that need to be reexamined
And what do we use to inform our consciences if we have not grown into a more mature understanding of our beliefs