Homily (2) Palm Sunday
ABC: Michael U. Udoekpo
Processional Readings ABC: Matthew 21:1-11;
Mark 11:1-10 and Luke 19:28-40.
Christ’s Humble
Entrance into Jerusalem,
Every year the Church
celebrates Palm Sunday which ends the Lenten Season and marks the beginning of
the most Holy week in our Christian Liturgy. It is a week our savior will
be exalted on the Cross. It is a week of that hour of glory come to fulfillment.
This is the week Christ, our Lord and
Savior will be betrayed, falsely accused, plotted against (John 11:45-53),
arrested (Matt 26:47-56), interrogated by Annas, Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin (
Matt 26:57-58), tried by Pilate ( Matt 27:1-14), denied by Peter (Matt
26:59-66), mocked and executed in a Roman way ( Matt 27:15-56). It is a
week Christ will draw all people to himself, Jews and the Gentiles, Nicodemus
and Joseph of Arimathea (John 12:32). It is a Holy and Salvific Week for us; a
week of grace; a week of victory over death and injustice, lies and hatred; a
week we see new life in the death of Christ. It is a teaching week for our
religious communities, families and homes.
Usually before the
principal Mass our palms which will be turned into ashes for “renewal”
next year are blessed. A moment from now we shall reenact the Gospel story we
have just heard from Matthew 21:1-11. Like those ordinary people, those
pilgrims in the street of Jerusalem (those men, women and children) who gave
Christ a royal welcome to Jerusalem for his paschal mystery we are also
prepared in our pilgrimage to embrace Christ with enthusiasm, to welcome
him into our lives in the Eucharist we are about to celebrate today. Through
the “Hosanna” (Psalm 118:26; Mk 11:1-10 and Luke 19:28-40) we sing we
shall be inviting Christ, Son of David, the King of Israel to “save” us, to
come into our lives, into our homes, offices, parish communities and families.
Again from that Gospel
(s) Reading (s), He is a humble King, a King of Peace, riding on a donkey
instead of a horse. Remember at the time of David and Prophet Zechariah (cf
9:9) the donkey had been a sign of kingship, but later an animal for the poor,
while the horses came to represent the might of the mighty. Christ today
presents us the image of a King of peace arriving Jerusalem on a donkey not on
a bullet and nuclear proof presidential Limousine.
With this we are
reminded not only of Christ’s humility, his identification with the poor, but
also his fearlessness, his prophetic courage to conquer death even death on a
cross.
Let us now with enthusiasm go forth in peace, praising Jesus our
Messiah, and welcoming him like the Jerusalem multitude!
Homily Palm Sunday (2) Years ABC:
Michael U. Udoekpo
Readings: Isa 50:4-7; Ps 22:8-9, 17-18,19-20,23-24; Phil 2: 6-11(A) Matt
26:14–27:66 (B) Mk 14:1–15:47 (C) and Luke 22: 14–23:56
Christ’s Victory over
Death
Today begins our Holy Week. As we saw at the beginning of this Mass, it
is mark with the blessings of our palms and then we solemnly process into the
Church, singing “Hosanna to the Son of David…! This ushers us into the most
Holy Week of Christian Liturgy.
It is a week we read and share a lot of scriptural passages, like the ones just read. In the passion narrative of Christ (this year from Matthew, Mark, and Luke) - it is
clear that Jesus is the center of our focus as well as his teaching endurance and
living perseverance. In this
week our savior will be exalted on the Cross. It is a week of that hour of
glory come to fulfillment. This is the
week Christ, our Lord and Savior will be betrayed, falsely accused, plotted
against (John 11:45-53), arrested (Matt 26:47-56), interrogated by Annas,
Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin ( Matt 26:57-58), tried by Pilate ( Matt 27:1-14),
denied by Peter (Matt 26:59-66), mocked and executed in a Roman way ( Matt
27:15-56). It is a week Christ will draw all people to himself, Jews and
the Gentiles, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (John 12:32). It is a Holy and
Salvific Week for us; a week of grace; a week of victory over death and
injustice, lies and hatred; a week we see new life in the death of Christ. It
is a teaching week for our religious communities, families and homes.
That third song is
chanted in the second reading of today, Deutero- Isaiah (Isa 50:4-7). In the
Second reading, the Lord God has given him, the servant, and a well-trained
tongue that he might know how to speak to the weary, the weak, the poor and the
powerless. The Suffering servant is a skilled counselor, because he himself has
been trained by the Lord, how to endure and how to be humble, how to get up
when you seem to be down. The suffering servant is a disciple, before anything
else. He listens to the Lord, morning by morning. He does no rebel, like some
Israelite in the desert. He does not say, “No I can’t make it to that cross, it
is too rough”! He handles all the beatings, the insults and spiting with
patience, wisdom and humility, “he gave his back and cheek to those who slapped
and plucked his beard.”
He had every power to
resist his arrest in the garden, but he did not. He taught Peter in the Malchus
incidence to put back his sword, that violent was not necessary (Luke 22:50) -
then. It is not necessary now. Rather, patience, wisdom, forgiveness, love,
endurance and humility.
It is these same humble
virtues of Christ that Saint Paul emphasizes in the Second reading.
“Christ
Jesus though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God,
something to be grasped…he became obedient to death, death on a cross” (Phil
2:6-11).
I believe, we all come
here today because we do like Paul recognize this legacy of limitless love
Christ handed to us. Throughout the whole world, in Rome with our new Pope Francis,
Thousands of people, men, women, seniors and children, attorneys and
physicians, philosophers and theologians, factory workers and business men and
women of diverse cultural and political background., have all gathered to
commemorate this mystery of Christ’s events. It reminds us of those women at
foot of the Cross, the Beloved Disciples? What about the Gentile Roman Soldiers
and other Jews like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who went asking for
the body of Jesus for a kingly anointing and speedy royal burial in a new tomb
that had been hewn in a rock (Matt 27:57-61; Mk 15:42-47; Lk 23:50-56 and John
19:38-42). The tomb was never going to be the final destination of
Christ. It all comes to fulfill the victory of the cross and what Christ had
said that, when he will be lifted up on the cross he will draw everyone to
himself (John 3:14; 8:28 and 12:31-32).
As we walk through this Holy Week may we see
it as a Holy and a Saving Week; a Week of grace of victory of peace over
violence and war, a victory of life over death? Let us not only focus on the
weaknesses of Judas, Peter, Pilate and other disciples who betrayed,
denied and fled the suffering and the trial scenes of Christ. But
with God’s grace we want to imitate the teaching endurance of the Kingly
Christ, a King of Endurance, Peace and Love with the faithful examples of those
women, men, the Beloved Disciples at the foot of the Cross, by uniting our
sufferings, our illnesses, our setbacks, frustrations, dejections, feeling of
abandonment (Ps 22), the mockeries we experience in life with the Exalted Cross
of Christ and with the victory of the Resurrection.
