Jesus Christ, the rightful king empties himself to make the ultimate sacrifice for us. We must follow his example.
A homily from the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion based on readings from
Matthew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22, Philippians 2:6-11, Matthew 26:14-27:66
These readings are available at the USCCB website.
Author’s note:
Morton Blackwell is attributed with the following quote, “The mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure.” This quote is especially fitting for longer liturgies such as Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. In a normal Sunday Mass, Catholics will hear four readings. Generally, we spend about ten minutes reading from Sacred Scripture. On Palm Sunday, we listen to five readings, one of which is the Passion of the Lord. On this particular Sunday, we spend over thirty minutes reading from scripture. I behooves the homilist to be very selective on these days, as I have been in the brief homily that follows.
“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
Philippians 2:6-7
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,”
This morning we consider Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his passion, and death. We see him entering Jerusalem as King – and he definitely was entitled to that and so much more! We see him taking on even death – death on a cross.[1] If we are to imitate Jesus in our lives, this may very well be the hardest thing. I know that from a very early age – my parents would have said from my terrible twos – I was an avid believer in justice, at least for me. I still struggle when I feel thar someone is not giving me my due.
Jesus, however, teaches us otherwise. He is God. Period, full-stop. He was entitled to so much. He was entitled to absolutely everything, from the people of his day and from us. And yet, to show us his love, he puts all that aside because it was better for us. If justice is simply getting what we truly deserve, this act of Jesus, this act of God, is perhaps one of the most unjust, most loving things ever done.
And so, this becomes our lesson in self-giving love. This becomes our challenge – to love as Jesus loved. We must give up what we deserve in order that others may come closer to Jesus. We give of ourselves to help others among us, those we love and those we don’t even like. Jesus gave his life for everyone. We should follow him and give our lives for everyone, too.
Holy Week has officially begun, and the time to put this lesson into practice is now. A good beginning to becoming more Christ-like is to let go of our sins. We can do that by finding our way to the Sacrament of Reconciliation some time in the next three days. I’ll offer you one further challenge. Let’s try two things each day this week, a minute and an opportunity. Let’s take a minute each day this week to think about some aspect of our Lord’s passion for us. Let’s take one opportunity each day to be Christ–like by setting aside something to which we are entitled in order to help someone else. This Holy Week, let those around us see in our actions that Jesus Christ is our Lord, so that they too can see the glory of God the Father.[2]
“Let us live so that those around us may see that Jesus Christ is our Lord,
that they too may see the glory of God the Father!”
[1] Philippians 2:8
[2] Philippians 2:11