“You who fear the Lord, praise him; all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him; revere him, all you descendants of Israel.” (Psalm 22:24)
Reflections on the readings for Palm Sunday (April 10, 2022): LK 19:28-40; IS 50:4-7; PS 22:8-9,17-18,19-20,23-24; PHIL 2:6-11; LK 22:14-23:56
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Today, as we clutch some palm fronds, let us remember the people who welcomed Christ to Jerusalem as well as those who called out for His crucifixion, and those who watched Him die.
From the Gospel reading that accompanies the procession commemorating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, it is obvious that He knows that this time is different; that this time there will be His last. Today we hear Jesus instruct His disciples to obtain a particular colt for Him to ride that no one has ever ridden. So our Redeemer enters the city, not like an earthly king riding to war, but rather with a spirit of humility and peace, and a sense of something new. The crowd recognizes Him as one set apart. “As He rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; and now as He was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of His disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. They proclaimed: ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest’” (Luke 19:36-38).
The perception of Jesus as King and of His Kingdom comes up several times in the Passion from the Gospel according to St. Luke: at the Last Supper, with Pontius Pilate, from the mocking soldiers who crucify Him under a sign proclaiming, “This is the King of the Jews.” Then, near the point of His death, one of the criminals executed with Christ, in a moment of faith and of hope, asks our Lord to remember him when He enters His Kingdom. So our Savior promises him, not a place in an ordinary kingdom, but an eternity in Paradise. Jesus, the Son of God and of Man, regained for His people all that was lost when our first parents failed God. In their arrogant, selfish desire to claim God’s power for themselves they could have lost everything. Except God would not let that happen. At the cost of His own Son, His people once again became His children with the gift of life-everlasting. We are redeemed; at the cost of our eternal King hanging from a cross that became the tree of life. Today, as we clutch some palm fronds, let us remember the people who welcomed Christ to Jerusalem as well as those who called out for His crucifixion, and those who watched Him die. Let us think about what we would have thought and said and done if we had been among them. Let us thank Christ for His mercy that encompasses the whole universe. Then we can resolve to spend this Holy Week as though it were our first; as though it were our last.
