Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for Palm Sunday (A), Vigil
April 4, 2020
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry once again and it’s a privilege to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation that Jesus wants to have with us tomorrow on Palm Sunday and throughout this upcoming week that theChurch calls “holy.” It’s holy, first, because of all Jesus Christ did during these days, from the triumphal entry into his city, to his teaching in the Temple, to the Last Supper, to his prayer in Gethsemane, to his arrest, torture, crucifixion, preaching and death on Good Friday, to his rest in the tomb, and his glorious resurrection on the third day. It’s also called holy because it’s meant to make us holy, if we live this week the right way, if we enter into the mysteries we celebrate, if we internalize all Jesus won for us during these most holy of days, if we, in short, enter into a conversation with Jesus not just with thoughts or words but with our whole life. Holy Week is supposed to be our most faith-filled week of the year, but that requires our choosing to make it the most faith-filled week of the year.
- That’s obviously going to be more challenging to do in 2020 because of the various restrictions that have been placed on public worship due to the coronavirus. The liturgies of Holy Week are so powerful that, when we show up and are attentive, the palms, prayers, readings, music, homilies, smells and bells will normally bring us into the heart of the mysteries. Prioritizing the time to be there already predisposes us to receive what God wants to give. Just entering into the Church is a choice to leave the profane and enter the sacred. Such settings cannot be replicated. But this Holy Week we’re summoned to do the best we can. Such settings cannot be replicated. But this Holy Week we’re summoned to do the best we can. To live it well will require taking responsibility to give greater than normal cooperation with God’s grace, more focused prayer, and far greater interior and exterior preparation.
- The interior preparations are going to involve prayer and reading. There are some great books to help us. I would recommend Bishop Alban Goodier’s classic The Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ and Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth, Part II, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, which could be read individually or, better, as a family. It would also be a time to watch some of the great movies about Jesus, which help us retrace the steps of Jesus’ life that led to the Upper Room, Calvary and the tomb, like Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ or the Visual Bible’s films on each of the Gospels. As most of us will have to watch the sacred ceremonies on television or on devices, learning how to use these media better to focus on Jesus through movies like these will make it easier for us to pray through them better as we watch the ceremonies.
- The exterior preparations are likewise important. They begin with trying to create, as best we can, sacred space in our home where we can block out distractions. The place should be cleaned and put in order, like a well-cleaned Church. We should dress up like we would if we were attending our parish. We should actively participate in the liturgies to the extent possible, praying aloud the responses, kneeling, standing, and sitting as we would when attending. Even though we will not be receiving Holy Communion, it would be good nevertheless to live a Eucharistic fast in preparation for Mass, to increase our hunger for God and to prevent needing to run needlessly to the restroom. We should turn off all our other devices, to prevent interruptions and distractions. Another part of the external preparations is finding the broadcast to watch that will best foster prayer at home. Some will prefer the live stream from their Church or rectory chapel celebrating with their parish priests. Others will prefer a broadcast from Churches or chapels used to televising Mass — with music, multiple angles to focus better on what is happening in the liturgy, and much greater experience conveying the sacred mysteries through media. It’s important to find one that feeds your hungers and best allows you to enter into the prayer of the Church.
- We begin Holy Week tomorrow on Palm Sunday and in the Gospel at the beginning of Mass and the reading of St. Matthew’s passion, we see five different ways we’re called to respond to Jesus with faith so that through the mysteries of this week he may fulfill his desire to make us holy.
- The first thing we learn is how to welcome The crowds laid their cloacks on the ground, lifted Palm Branches, and exclaimed: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Their attitude shows us the type of exhilaration we should have to welcome Jesus this Holy Week.
- The second thing we learn is how to value Jesus appropriately. At the beginning of the Passion, Judas goes to the Chief Priests and the Scribes and asks, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Jesus over to you?” They gave him 30 shekels of silver, the equivalent about three months’ wages. Many today betray Jesus for less. If we’re going to live Holy Week — and life — the way God wants, we need to commit ourselves never to sell Jesus out. We see an example of someone who would never betray Jesus in Mary of Bethany’s spending the equivalent of 300 days wages, almost a full year’s salary, just in anointing Jesus’ feet. Jesus’ love is so amazing, so divine, that it demands my soul, my life, my all.
- The third thing the readings teach us is how important it is to stay awake with Jesus in prayer. Jesus asks us to stay awake with him and pray, reminding us that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The apostles in the garden fell asleep and we see how they abandoned Jesus despite their love for him. Jesus wants us to stay close to him in prayer, to enter into greater intimacy with his suffering, especially during the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Are we ready?
- The fourth thing the readings teach us is about the dramatic choice we’re called to make. Pilate asks, “Which one do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, called Messiah?” The mob asked for Barabbas. Whom do we choose? Choosing Jesus on the most momentous occasions comes from choosing Jesus repeatedly and faithfully in small decisions, choosing to pray, choosing to receive his forgiveness and share it, choosing to love him in our neighbor, choosing to ponder his words in the Bible rather than spending our time watching or reading the news, choosing to make him in the Eucharist the source and summit of our life.
- The fifth thing the readings teach us to live Holy Week well is our need to help Jesus carry his Cross. We are called to become like Simon of Cyrene. Jesus said that we cannot be his disciples unless we deny ourselves, pick up our Cross each day and follow him. That’s a condition for the entire year, but especially in Holy Week, it’s a particularly pressing summons. Jesus wants us to be co-redeemers with him, to make up what is lacking in his sufferings for the sake of the salvation of the world. This week is a week in which we help Jesus carry his Cross by helping others carry theirs, by visiting and consoling the sick, especially those who are suffering because of coronavirus, mourning the death of loved ones, or otherwise impacted. The more we help others the closer we will be to Christ.
- To welcome Jesus, to value him appropriately, to accompany him in prayer, to choose him over every Barabbas, and to help him carry his redeeming Cross, that is the means by which we will live with faith this most important week of the year. That’s the pathway by which Jesus will make us holy like he is holy during this special week of sanctification. God bless you!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download