|
 |
|
Homilies are posted no later than during the week
prior to the Sunday they are needed |
|
|
Palm Sunday
|
Passion (Palm) Sunday - A Cycle - Matthew 26:14-27,66 or 27:11-34
In 1962, President John F Kennedy met USSR's Premier
Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. Their wives were present. The US State
Department warned Mrs Kennedy to avoid the prickly Mrs Khrushchev. Mrs
Kennedy did not follow the advice. She gave silver plate as a gift. Mrs
Khrushchev was embarrassed, for she had no gift. She searched through
her large handbag. Finally she found a cross. The premier's wife of the
officially Christless USSR gave the cross to Catholic Jacqueline
Kennedy. Though neither spoke each other's language, the cross served
as their translator.
The ideal way to spend Holy Week is to fly to
Israel. Since we will not be able to do that, our parish church is the
Holy Land. Within those walls, we must be creative enough to find
Jerusalem, the Upper Room, Gethsemane, Calvary, and the Tomb.
The week's focusare the Christ of Alfred Lord
Tennyson: "The Lord from heaven born of a village girl. Carpenter's
son. Wonderful. Prince of Peace. The Mighty God."
Today the church vestibule becomes the Bethany
suburb of Jerusalem. There Jesus had spent the night at the home of
friends. Hopefully He had enjoyed a good night's sleep. He would need
it. Bethany was the jumping off point for His procession into
Jerusalem. US News & World Report says, "It was a hero's welcome
for this maverick figure, an early Palestinian equivalent of a ticker
tape parade." The center aisle of the church must become for us the
dusty road on which our Christ rode surrounded by cheers. As you watch
the Man on the donkey pass, you might think of the lines of HE Fosdick:
"Genghis Khan, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon all perished from the earth
as fleeting shadows from a glass and conquering down the centuries came
Christ the swordless on an ass."
Monday, Tuesday, and Spy Wednesday of Holy
Week were quiet days for the Nazarene. Wednesday is so called because,
according to Matthew, Judas sold Jesus out that day for chump change.
He spent them in the Great Temple of Jerusalem. For us, our church must
become the Great Temple. There we go for daily Eucharist. Our theme are
these words of an unknown poet: "I thought I would follow Him. But,
when my feet drew near to Calvary at dead of night, I quailed in utter
fear. Whereat a voice came whispering through darkness like a sea:
'Child, child, be not afraid. Your cross is occupied by me.'"
On Holy Thursday, our sanctuary becomes the Upper
Room. Its altar becomes the long narrow table where Jesus sat. When He
whispers, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," we remember TS
Eliot's words: "In the juvenescence of the year comes Christ the tiger
to be eaten, to be divided, to be drunk among whispers."
On Holy Thursday late, your church becomes the
Garden of Gethsemane. There the Nazarene undergoes the dark night of
the soul. Before Him is a cruel death. Our thoughts are those of Joseph
Mary Plunkett, executed in the 1916 Irish rebellion: "I see His blood
upon the rose and in the stars the glory of His eyes. His body gleams
amid eternal snows. His tears fall from the skies."
Good Friday is a day that will live in infamy. We
shall
crowd into our church for services. The side aisle becomes Jerusalem's
Via Dolorosa. We will follow Christ in the Stations of the Cross. We
dwell on Sydney Carter's words: "I danced on Friday when the sky turned
black. It's hard to dance with the devil on your back. They buried my
body and they thought I'd gone."
On Holy Saturday, we come mourning to church but
full of hope. Our thought could be Francis Thompson's Lilium Regis:
"Look up, O most sorrowful of daughters...for His feet are coming to
thee on the waters."
Emerging from the church on Easter Sunday, we will
shout the words of Gerard Manly Hopkins: "Let Him Easter in us. Be a
dayspring to the dimness in us. Be a crimson cresseted East." Hopkins
tells us because of Christ's empty tomb our hope in the resurrection is
actualized.
You must think of the words of Frederica
Mathewes-Green. "'Do you love me enough to tell them I have risen?'
Christianity is rare among the world religions in containing an
explicit command to tell unbelievers the Good News and to urge them to
convert. It is an uncomfortable calling. This obligation to evangelize
is perhaps the aspect most resented by those outside the faith and most
neglected by those inside. It is an awkward calling. But it is a
command of Jesus, as blunt as the calls to love our enemies and to care
for the poor." |
|
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Palm Sunday
|
How Can You Say "No" to this Man?
We begin Holy Week by focusing in on the Passion of
the Lord, this year according to Matthew. On Thursday we will relate
the Passion to Sacramental celebration of the gift of the Lord in the
Eucharist, on Friday we will zero in on the suffering and death of the
Lord, then on Easter we will celebrate the triumph of Eternal Life over
Physical Death.
The Passion accounts begin with the Agony in the
Garden, that horrible evening when Jesus was attacked by the reality of
what he was facing. He would be tortured to death as a sacrificial
offering to the Father for the sins of the world, everyone’s sins, your
sins and my sins. What was going through Jesus’s mind? Did He doubt
that He could take upon Himself the sins of the world? Did He fear that
He would deny His Father. Was He afraid for his life? Certainly, all of
these fears must have attacked Him. But He was not about to give in to
the temptation to make everything go away. He would suffer whatever it
would take to renew the world. And He would suffer whatever it would
take if He were to save only one of us. Christ died for you, and me.
"See, I make all things new," we read in the Book of
Revelation. Gibson’s movie put these words on Jesus’ lips during the
way of the cross when He meets His mother. He makes all things new. He
gives our lives meaning and purpose and eternity.
He suffered for us. And what does he ask in return?
He asks that we love his Father. He asks that we believe in Him. He
asks that we love each other. He asks that we fight for his Kingdom. He
asks that live as moral, decent people. He asks little, this Tremendous
Lover who has given so much.
How can we say "No to this man."
|
|
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see Spanish
homilies
Palm Sunday
|
Your Will Be Done
(March 16, 2008)
Bottom line: Jesus prayed, "not as I will, but your will be done!"
Jesus saved us by his obedience and wants us to become sons &
daughters in him - King Henry of Bavaria gives an example of doing
God's will here and now.
In reading St. Matthew's account of the Passion, I was struck by Jesus'
obedience to the Father's will. In the Garden, he prayed that he might
not have to face terrible suffering, but each time he added, "not as I
will, but your will be done!"
Jesus came precisely to do the will of the Father. If you attend the
Good Friday Service, you will hear - that, by his obedience, Jesus
became the source of salvation. He is the true Son and he wants us to
become sons and daughters through him. That is why he taught his
disciples to pray, "Father...thy kingdom come, thy will be done."
What does it mean to do the will of the Father? For each of us, it will
mean something different. A famous story illustrates that. Perhaps you
have heard about King Henry of Bavaria. Being a man of deep piety, the
intrigues of court life made him weary. Henry decided that he wanted to
spend his final years in a monastery. He approached Prior Richard with
the request. Fr. Richard explained the strict rules of prayer and work.
King Henry listened eagerly and said he would gladly accept that
discipline. The prior told the king he would have to pledge
unquestioning obedience to the superior. King Henry said, yes, he knew
how authority worked and he would obey the superior without question.
"Then," said Prior Richard, "Go back to your throne and do your duty in
the station God assigned you." The monk's words shocked the king, but
he obeyed and became one of the fairest rulers in Europe. After his
death, the people called for his canonization. The King who learned
obedience to the Father's will is now known as St. Henry of Bavaria.
As we celebrate Holy Week, we might ask St. Henry of Bavaria to
intercede for us. We may not have such a high post, but God has some
task for each of us. For some it might mean simply to embrace their
suffering: Not as I will, but your will be done! Like King St. Henry we
will not find God's will in some place apart - but right here, right
now, today. And it might require great sacrifice. This Holy Week we
want Jesus' prayer to become our own: Dear Father, not as I will, but
your will be done!
**********
Spanish Version
|
|
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Palm Sunday
|
Background:
Were the same people in the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem
and in the crowds which demanded Jesus' execution a few days later.
Perhaps some of the same people were at both events. More likely,
however, they were two very different crowds. The former was made up of
his followers and friends from Galilee, the latter from the wandering
mobs that characterize any city on a big festival day. Where were the
followers of Jesus? With a few exceptions they were somewhere else.
They knew they couldn't fight "city hall." They realized that the dream
was over and that what they had feared all along would happen. The
leaders would snatch Jesus secretly and put an end to his "good news"
which they perceived as a threat to their power. What the realists
among Jesus' followers had predicted all along had at last happened.
The best thing to do was to go to ground and hide till the trouble blew
over. Jesus was wonderful all right, but what had he done for them
lately.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a basketball coach. When he came to
his new school, they had not enjoyed a winning season for eight years.
The media vultures naturally said he was a poor choice and pouted
because no one had paid any attention to their recommendations. His
first season the team broke even. The fans were unhappy. Maybe the
media vultures were right. The next season, they ended up in second
place in their conference. The vultures said that the team would have
won if the coach had not made a lot of mistakes in key games. Then for
seven years in a row the team won their conference championship. The
vultures continued to complain and the important alumni worried about
how long the run could last. The following year the team finished in
second place. The vultures went wild with glee. The coach was losing
it. The next year was worse because the team was stricken with
sickness, injuries and academic ineligibility; the coach had only one
year left on his contract. . The alumni were now whispering to the
athletic director, get rid of the bum! What has he done for us lately.
The athletic director agreed because he resented the coach’s
popularity. They wanted to fire him on the spot. But the president of
the school insisted that he be permitted to finish out his contract
(Presidents sometimes have the odd notion that sports are not the only
really important thing in a school.) The coach was booed at the early
games as he tried to hold together a team of talented but inexperience
freshmen. You know what happened then? They won the national
championship and coach accented a ten million dollar contract at
another university.
|
|
http://benedictine.stvincent.edu/archabbey/Weeklywords/Weeklywords.html
Palm Sunday
|
Gospel Summary
Mar, 16, 2008
Matthew 26:1 4-27: 66
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Gospel Summary
Matthew's passion narrative begins with the plot of Judas Iscariot to
betray Jesus and continues through the well-known scenes: celebration
of the Passover meal; the promises by Peter and all the disciples that
they would never lose faith in Jesus; the agony in the garden called
Gethsemane; the arrest of Jesus; the abandonment of Jesus by all his
disciples; the trial; Peter's denial of Jesus; the suicide of Judas;
Pilate's release of Barabbas and condemnation of Jesus to death by
crucifixion; the torture and mockery by the Roman soldiers; the
crucifixion accompanied by dramatic signs of a new age; the burial of
Jesus.
Life Implications
Jesus began his mission with his baptism at the Jordan. The Spirit of
God came upon him, and a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:13-17). Immediately
following this event, Matthew tells us that from that moment until the
end Jesus would undergo temptations to reject his truth of being
beloved Son, pleasing to God. The passion narrative presents the last
and most severe trial of Jesus' fidelity. Every earthly reason is
progressively removed for trusting in God's love, even to experiencing
a horrible and shameful death on a cross.
Matthew in his passion narrative gives us some insight into the mystery
of how the Spirit enabled Jesus to pray through his experience of
suffering and dying. It is in this pattern that the Spirit of Jesus now
enables us to pray through the trials of our own life and death.
Jesus begins his passion with the observance of the Passover meal with
his disciples. The structure of this sacred ritual meal consists of
readings, hymns and psalms of the biblical tradition he knew so well.
Through these prophecies and prayers of the Hebrew scriptures, he
recognized and accepted his sacrificial role in the divine plan to
create a new covenant with all humanity. Matthew mentions that after
Jesus sang a final hymn with his disciples, they went out to the Mount
of Olives.
With three of his disciples Jesus went to a place called Gethsemane,
where he began to feel sorrow and distress. Here again, now foreseeing
his imminent suffering and death, Jesus prays, "My Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you
will" (Mt 26:39).
Finally, Jesus dying upon a cross, cries out in prayer the
heart-rending plea of the twenty-second psalm: "My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me" (Mt 27:46)? In his dark night of the soul,
emptied now of every human evidence of God's loving presence, Jesus is
sustained in hope through the pure light of faith. Trusting that even
in this fearful moment of dying he is beloved Son, Jesus freely gives
up his life into God's hands (Mt 27:50).
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB |
|
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
Palm Sunday
|
Passion (Palm) Sunday
Procession Gospel: St. Matthew 21, 1-11
Mass: Isaiah 50, 4-7; Psalm 22, 8-9. 17-18. 19-20. 23-24; Philippians
2. 6-11; St. Matthew 26, 14-27, 66.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We prepare now with Christ to enter the holiest of weeks in which we
celebrate all of the events leading up to his passion, death and
burial. And in doing so we recall how by his death he has transformed
our death from a curse into the door of eternal life.
Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself
suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite
his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and
free submission to his Father's will. (Cf. Mk 14:33-34; Heb 5:7-8) The
obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.
(Cf. Rom 5:19-21) (CCC 1009)
With the procession of palms which begins today's Mass, we celebrate
Christ's entrance into Jerusalem to accomplish his paschal mystery.
Those who today acclaim him king, and cry "Hosannah!", will days hence
demand he die as a criminal. On Holy Thursday we will take part in a
re-enactment of the foot-washing of the Apostles, the twelve men chosen
as foundation stones of the Church. To them Christ gave the gift of
Christian priesthood and through them he has handed down to us the
perfect memorial of his suffering and death in the Eucharistic
sacrifice. We will honor our Lord's gift of his Body and Blood as we
carry the Blessed Sacrament in procession following Thursday's solemn
liturgy of "The Lord's Supper." We will remain in silent adoration
until midnight.
On Good Friday we enter more fully into the death of the Lord in our
celebration of the Passion.We are strengthened to face our own death as
we accompany our Lord on the via crucis, the way of the cross. We join
ourselves to the obedience of the Son that we may also obey the
Father's will and die a truly "Christian death."
It is in regard to death that man's condition is most shrouded in
doubt.'[GS 18.] In a sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is
in fact 'the wages of sin.'(Rom 6:23 ;) (cf. Gen 2:17 .) For those who
die in Christ's grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord,
so that they can also share his Resurrection.(Cf. Rom 6:3-9 ; Phil
3:10-11 .) (CCC 1006)
Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: 'For to me
to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' (Phil 1:21) 'The saying is
sure:" if we have died with him, we will also live with him." ' (2 Tim
2:11) What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through
Baptism, the Christian has already 'died with Christ' sacramentally, in
order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace, physical
death completes this 'dying with Christ' and so completes our
incorporation into him in his redeeming act." (CCC 1010)
This day in particular is appropriate for the celebration of the
sacrament of Penance. We will adore the holy cross and remain until
midnight in silent contemplation of the glorious Son of God who "reigns
from the wood".
Holy Saturday with its silence bespeaks the breathless waiting of a
world yet held in bondage to ferocious death. The faithful are tested
as they persevere in hope for the Lord of life to manifest himself and
give light to all men. No liturgy is celebrated on Holy Saturday, for
Christ's Church cannot pray except through the living Christ. We watch
and wait at the silent tomb with our Lady and the other faithful ones
who have not abandoned Jesus.
To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must 'be away from the
body and at home with the Lord.' (2 Cor 5:8) In that 'departure' which
is death the soul is separated from the body. (Cf. Phil 1:23) It will
be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of the dead. (CCC
1005)
St. Leo the Great, pope, speaks compellingly of the mysteries of Holy
Week:
"True reverence for the Lord's passion means fixing the eyes of our
heart on Jesus crucified and recognizing in him our own humanity. The
earth-our earthly nature- should tremble at the suffering of its
Redeemer. The rocks-the hearts of unbelievers- should burst asunder.
The dead, imprisoned in the tombs of their mortality, should come
forth, the massive stones now ripped apart. Foreshadowings of the
future resurrection should appear in the holy city, the Church of God:
what is to happen to our bodies should now take place in our hearts."
(Liturgy of the Hours, Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent)
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick
(Publish with permission.) http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
|
|
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
Palm Sunday
|
|
|
Contact Father at cbonar@cfl.rr.com;
information about his book of homilies is available at www.clydebonar.com.
Palm Sunday |
Palm/Passion Sunday, Cycle A
Readings: Isaiah 50: 4-7; Philippians 2: 6-11; Matthew 26: 14 - 27: 66
The Joy of the Parade, the Sadness of the Cross
Introduction
What a strange liturgy we do today. Almost as if the church cannot
decide what to do! So, we just squeeze together everything from Jesus
entering Jerusalem with the crowds shouting "Hosanna" through the
crucified Christ being laid in a borrowed tomb.
Even the name for this Sunday. Today is "Palm - slash - Passion
Sunday." It's neither "Palm Sunday" nor "Passion Sunday." It's not
"Palm and Passion Sunday." Its "Palm - slash - Passion Sunday," two
different events jammed up against one another.
To Fulfill a Prophecy, To Save Us
Perhaps the church does strange things today because what Christ did
was strange. Everything about Christ's entry into Jerusalem strikes us
as mighty peculiar.
First of all, there's the donkey. No place else in Scripture do we hear
about Jesus riding. Always, Christ walks. To get to Jerusalem, Jesus
had walked about 90 miles, all the way from Galilee. Now, here he is,
just a couple of miles from Jerusalem, and Jesus sends his disciples
into the village to get a donkey for him to ride on.
Why not just walk two more miles? Or, why didn't Jesus get a donkey to
ride on 90 miles ago? Because, Christ had to fulfill prophecy. The
prophet Zechariah (9:9) had said, "your king, triumphant and
victorious, will come to you, humble and riding on a donkey."
A strange picture, Jesus riding on a donkey, a little pack animal, his
feet dragging in the dirt.
The crowd waves palms and spreads their cloaks and put cut branches on
the road, and sing out in loud voices, "Hosanna to the Son of David." A
wonderful welcome. Waving branches like at a victory parade welcoming a
conquering hero.
Until we remember that today we also read the Passion. Shouts of
"Hosanna" are replaced by "Crucify him, crucify him." Palms were always
thought to be the sign of peace between heaven and earth. Today, palms
lead God the Son to his death.
First, palms; then, the cross. We recall strange things happenings in
today's Mass.
And, one more unusual thing about these events, Christ chose to suffer.
Not many of us would choose to suffer. In fact, we do just about
everything we can not to suffer. The choice by Christ may seem unusual,
until we remember he is God the Son. Our sins so offensive to God, God
cannot ignore these sins; Christ so full of love, Jesus freely goes to
the Cross for our redemption. As Paul wrote, Jesus "emptied himself,
took the form of a slave, came to us in human form, humbled himself."
By his incarnation, Jesus is born as a man. Human like us, divine as
God the Son, when God the Father asked Jesus to die on the Cross, Jesus
did it.
At first glance, what we celebrate today might seem strange. But, not
at all. For our salvation, to fulfill prophecy, to convince the world
he was God the Son, Jesus had to ride on a donkey into the holy city of
Jerusalem amid the triumphant cries of "Hosanna," and he had to die on
the Cross.
Jesus Transformed Suffering
What does all this mean? We know, we believe Christ died to save us.
Perhaps we might ask what difference his suffering makes.
By his suffering, Christ transformed suffering. As we are confronted
with the intense suffering of Jesus, as we hear again the story of his
pain on the Cross, we come face to face with the suffering of all
people. By suffering himself, Jesus transformed suffering.
First of all, the suffering of Christ tells us that God understands
suffering. God’s love for us so great, God enters life as a human
being, sharing everything, even suffering, even death. Jesus suffered
just like we suffer. During his agony in the garden of Gethsemane,
Jesus suffered such intense anguish his sweat was drops of blood. Being
nailed to the cross, thunderbolts of pain shot to his brain. Hanging on
the cross, he slowly strangled to death.
When we suffer, Jesus can say, "been there, done that." Jesus says, I
know how much you are suffering, I know how great your pain. In our
suffering, we have God's attention; Christ knows.
Another way the suffering of Christ transforms us is by teaching us
compassion. As we recall Christ suffering for us on the Cross, we
attune ourselves to the suffering of others. And, there is a long list
of how people suffer. Heart attacks, Alzheimer's disease, broken bones,
the common cold. On and on the list could go.
Then, other types of suffering come to mind. Consider the homeless. On
any given night, over 760,000 people have no place to sleep. Each year,
at one time or another at least 1,000,000 homeless children sleep on
America’s streets.
So much sickness, so much suffering. By his suffering, Christ taught us
compassion. Compassion tells us: help those who are suffering, help
anyway possible. If we can, take away the pain others suffer.
Another benefit of suffering. Never forget, we, you and I, at times we
hurt other people, we cause someone to suffer. Some days we’re hard to
get along with, our own bad disposition makes tempers flare, and we
cause heated arguments with family and friend. Maybe we’re careless at
times, and cause an accident, and someone gets hurt. Perhaps we are lax
in our duties to our family or on our job. Whatever the reason, from
time to time we do hurt other people. Recalling our own suffering,
recalling the suffering of Christ on the Cross reminds us, we need to
ask forgiveness, we need to be more careful.
What do our readings mean? We know by his death Jesus conquered death.
By his suffering, Christ transformed suffering. Reading the Passion, we
are confronted with the intense suffering of Christ, we are reminded of
our own suffering, and of the suffering we cause others. And, by this,
we know, God understands, God has blessed all suffering.
Conclusion
Today is "Palm - slash - Passion" Sunday. The ecstasy and the agony
jammed packed into one liturgy. The joy of a parade with palms waving,
the sadness of Christ suffering on his Cross.
God has such absolute love for us even the death of Christ did not
count too high a price. God loves us, God suffers for us, by his death
Christ saves us. |
|
|
|
These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
