Staying Awake and Praying With Jesus Throughout This Week, Palm Sunday (A), April 2, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Palm Sunday, Year A
April 2, 2023
Mt 21:1-11, Is 50:4-7, Ps 22, Phil 2:6-11, Mt 26:14-27:66

To listen to a recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• We have now begun the week the Church calls “holy.” It’s holy, first, because of all Jesus Christ did during these days, from the triumphal entry into his city that we marked at the beginning of this Mass, to his teaching in the Temple, to the Last Supper, to his prayer in Gethsemane, to his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death on Good Friday we heard in the Passion account, 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 what Jesus won for us, if we cooperate with him in his saving work. Holy Week is supposed to be our most faith-filled week of the year, but that requires our choosing with determination to make it the most faith-filled week of the year.
• Right before the passage of today’s second reading from the Letter to the Philippians in which we focus on how Christ emptied himself to take on human nature, St. Paul tells us to have in us the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself to the point of death on the Cross. Holy Week is meant to help us enter into the mind and heart of Jesus. Today in the Gospel at the beginning of Mass and in the Passion we just recited, we see five different ways we’re called to put on the mind of Christ and respond to him with faith this week so that through these sacred mysteries he may fulfill his desire to save and sanctify us.
• The first thing we learn is how to welcome Jesus. There was great expectation as to whether Jesus was coming to the feast. Many thought he wouldn’t because they had heard the rumors that the chief priests and the Sanhedrin were trying to arrest Jesus and have him executed. But Jesus came anyway. And we see how the people responded. St. Matthew tells us, “The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding him and those following, [especially the young people,] kept crying out, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” There was tremendous excitement. People came out of their homes. They laid down their garments on the path, something they would do only for a king. They saw him riding on a donkey, just as David had Solomon do when he made him his successor (1 Kings 1:33, 38). They recognized that this was the fulfillment of Zechariah’s messianic prophecy, “Say to daughter Zion, ‘Behold your King comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Their attitude shows us the type of exhilaration we should have to welcome Jesus this Holy Week. We should be running out to greet him. We should be praising him with our words, with our gestures like waving palms, with our clothes, and with our whole mind, heart, soul and strength. Our life should change as we seek to welcome Jesus as he during this week seeks to rescue us from sin and death and make eternal life possible.
• If we’re looking for an even deeper image of how we’re supposed to welcome Jesus and live this Holy Week we can turn to the donkey that Jesus used to enter into the Holy City. Jesus had sent two disciples ahead of him, saying, “Go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me. And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, ‘The Master has need of them.’ Then he will send them at once.” And that’s precisely what happened. We’re called to serve Jesus like that donkey. The Master has need of us this week. In the ancient Gregorian chant for the hymn Christians sing on Palm Sunday, “All Glory Laud and Honor,” there is a verse in Latin that reads, “Sis pius ascensor tu et nos simus asellus. Tecum nos capitat urbs veneranda Dei,” which can be translated as, “May you be the holy Rider and we your little colt, so that the venerated City of God may embrace us together with you.” Jesus wants us to enter the Holy City with him. He wants us to collaborate with him in this work of his salvation. St. Josemaria Escriva, the 20th century apostle of the sanctification of the laity, sought to imitate and help others to emulate this donkey in welcoming Jesus and assisting his work. “There are hundreds of animals more beautiful, more deft and strong,” he commented. “But it was a donkey Christ chose when he presented himself to the people as king in response to their acclamation.” Jesus wants us, like a donkey, to be a docile, diligent, steady companion.  That’s the type of cooperation Jesus wants in all of us this Holy Week and beyond.
• The second thing we learn is how to value Jesus appropriately. At the beginning of the Passion account, 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 pieces of silver, which likely meant the 30 shekels of silver that it cost to purchase a slave. One shekel of silver was about 3 days wages. And so Judas got the equivalent of about 90 days wages, or a quarter-of-a-year’s salary. For someone making $40,000 today, that would be about $10,000 in today’s money. Judas took the deal. It raises the question for us as to how much we value Jesus. Would we take $10,000 to betray him? What about $100,000? What about $1 billion? Do we have a price for betraying Jesus? The reality is that some people today betray Jesus not for 90 days wages but for one day’s wage, putting work above worship on the Lord’s day. Many account Jesus less valuable than an extra hour’s sleep. Some sell him out for soccer practice or perhaps to watch something on TV. We need to be candid about these betrayals.
• 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 the scene that occurred right before the Palm Sunday procession. Jesus was in the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany. Mary came and anointed Jesus with costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and dried Jesus’ feet with her hair. Judas — who as Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said knew the price of everything and the true value of nothing — objected, “Why was this oil not sold for 300 days wages and given to the poor?” She wasted basically a full year’s salary anointing Jesus’ feet! Jesus, however, defended her, not because he wanted such attention, but because of the love that was behind her gesture. “She has done a beautiful thing to me,” he said. “She has anointed my body beforehand for burying and wherever the Gospel is preached what she did will be told of her.” We need to ask ourselves the question: What are we going to do in anticipation of Jesus’ burial? Are we going to “waste” our time, “waste” our money, “waste” our lives on Jesus like Mary did, or are we going to say that Jesus isn’t worth it? What sacrifices are we willing to make this week for him who made the supreme sacrifice for us? Will we be present on Holy Thursday when he invites us to the most important meal of all time, when he served himself as the food and drink? Will we be present on Good Friday when the one who has loved us so much and whom we’re summoned to love with all our mind, heart, soul and strength, dies to save our life? Will we come to be with him to celebrate his eternal triumph over darkness, sin and death at the Easter Vigil, the most beautiful and important liturgy of the year, in which the Church pulls out all the stops in praising him? This week is one in which we’re called to look at our priorities, ask how much we truly value Jesus, and act according to those priorities.
• The third thing the readings today teach us is how important it is to stay awake with Jesus in prayer. We see what happened with Peter, James and John in the Garden. St. Matthew describes that when as they were on their way to Gethsemane, Jesus said to them, “This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed.’” St. Peter said to him in reply, “Though all may have their faith in you shaken, mine will never be.” Jesus answered, “Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter forcefully retorted, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” St. Matthew tells us that he and all the disciples spoke likewise. But we know that within a few hours Peter three times denied even knowing Jesus and all of the other disciples abandoned Jesus as well. During the Last Supper shortly before, Jesus had said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” He could have said more accurately, “Amen, I say to you, all of you will betray me.”
• But the question for us is why. Why did they betray Jesus whom they truly loved? It’s hard enough to ponder why Judas treacherously betrayed Jesus, but why did Peter and the others? Jesus gave the explanation to Peter and to us in Gethsemane. He brought Peter, James and John to a secluded place of the garden to pray with him, but when he returned to where the three were, he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Peter’s spirit would never betray the Lord, but his flesh was frail and needed to be fortified by vigilant prayer in order to remain faithful. As we enter Holy Week, Jesus wants us to come away with him and pray that we may not undergo the test, that our flesh might be strengthened to be faithful like our spirit desires. Like Peter, we who have so often professed our faith in Jesus have fallen when the temptations have struck, temptations to hide our faith in him in the front of others, temptations to sell him out, temptations to place someone or something in front of him. We’ll be tempted again this week to prioritize all types of other things than to stay close to him. Jesus says to us, what he said to Peter, James and John, “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. For the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” He wants to strengthen us through our prayer with him to remain faithful under trial, as he was faithful all the way to the end. He wants and asks for our solidarity, as his soul is sorrowful unto death not just because of what he would have to suffer but because of how many would receive his sacrifice on the Cross in vain. The Master has need of us. He wants our company. Please make a commitment to come to be with Jesus up close and a lot, so that he may strengthen and sanctify you this week as he wants to.
• The fourth thing today’s readings teach us is about the dramatic choice we’re called to make. After Pontius Pilate recognized that Jesus was being framed, he wanted to set him free, but he wanted to do it in a way in which the crowd, rather than he, would take responsibility for his liberation; that way, he wouldn’t be vulnerable to retaliation if the Sanhedrin reported him to his superiors in Rome. So he proposed, according to custom at Passover time, to set free one prisoner, he chose a “notorious” convict whom he never would have imagined the crowds would choose over the innocent Jesus. He asked, “Which one do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, called Christ?” Spurred on by the chief priests and the elders, only five days after they hailed Jesus with palm branches crying out, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” the mob in the praetorium shouted out, “Barabbas!” Pilate, shocked, said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus called Messiah?” And St. Matthew tells us the crowd yelled, “Let him be crucified!” Pilate was aghast, saying, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Let him be crucified!” And so Pilate, a true coward, assented.
• We’ve heard the name Barabbas so many times that the choice that was made in that courtyard doesn’t shock us as much as it startled Pontius Pilate. But to update it in today’s terms, to choose Barabbas then would have been like choosing James Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald — or worse, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot or Osama bin Laden — over Jesus. Pilate nominated someone that he never thought the crowd would choose over Jesus and yet the crowd not only chose the insurrectionist, thief and murderer but clamored for Jesus’ crucifixion! We might look back and say that we would never have done that if we were present in Pilate’s courtyard that day. But as Archbishop Sheen says in his beautiful Stations of the Cross that we have been praying throughout Lent and will pray again on Good Friday, “How would I have answered that question had I been in the courtyard that Good Friday morning? I cannot escape answering by saying that the question belongs only to the past, for it is as actual now as ever. My conscience is the tribunal of Pilate. Daily, hourly, and every minute of the day, Christ comes before that tribunal, as virtue, honesty, and purity. Barabbas comes as vice, dishonesty, and uncleanness. As often as I choose to speak the uncharitable word, do the dishonest action, or consent to the evil thought, I say in so many words, ‘Release unto me Barabbas.’ And to choose Barabbas means to crucify Christ.” 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. To live a truly Holy Week, we must choose Jesus over all of the tempting Barabbases that will come our way. And we’ll be tempted by Barabbas in disguise this week, to put something more important than God on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday. Stay alert!
• The last thing I’ll mention that the readings teach us to live Holy Week well is our need to help Jesus carry his Cross. St. Matthew tells us, “As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon whom they pressed into service to carry his cross.” Simon didn’t want to do it. They had to force him, to press him into service. But he did it and over the course of the journey he was transformed, such that not only he became a disciple but his whole family did, such that St. Mark tells us his sons Rufus and Alexander became leading members and missionaries among the first generation of Christian disciples.
• Similarly, this week, God the Father wants to press us into service to help his Son carry his Cross. 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 urgent 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. As he was dying, he was incorporating into himself all our sacrifices, all our crosses, united with his. He continues to carry his Cross through time in all the suffering members of his body. This week is a week in which we help him carry his Cross by accompanying him up close like Simon did as well as by helping others carry their crosses, finishing well, even heroically, our Lenten call to almsgiving. The Father wants to press us like the Romans compelled Simon of Cyrene to help Jesus carry his Cross because if we’re carrying the Cross with Jesus we will be near him, we will be united with him, we will be collaborating with him throughout this week.
• To welcome Jesus, to value him appropriately, to accompany him in prayer, to choose him over each and every Barabbas proposed to us, and to help him carry his redeeming Cross, these are the means by which we will live with faith this most important week of the year. This is the pathway by which Jesus will make us holy like he is holy during this special week of sanctification.
• There is no better place to start these five activities than here at Palm Sunday Mass. The Mass we celebrate is Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday altogether in one. In a few minutes we again will shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.” We will enter into the Upper Room, where Jesus, as St. Luke tells us, “eagerly desires to eat this Passover with us,” where we stay awake and pray with him, and where he seeks to strengthen our weak flesh from the inside with his own flesh and blood. Like Simon of Cyrene, we will climb Calvary with him, where we will be not just witnesses but through our own sacrifices participants in the death of the Lord once-and-for-all for us and our salvation we just proclaimed in the Passion account. And through receiving his risen Body and Blood, we will leave with him from the tomb of death and get a foretaste of the eternal wedding banquet in that kingdom Jesus won for us by the very passion, death and resurrection we celebrate this week. As Pilate asks us anew today whom do we want, let us say with fervor and perseverance, with our choices and not just our words, “We want Jesus! We really want Jesus! Give us Jesus!”

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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