Palm Sunday Homily

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 3/28/02)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde for Palm Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington.

Dec. 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor; Nov. 22, 1963, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; April 4, 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City, at the Pentagon and in the skies over western Pennsylvania. Many among us remember these days, where we were when we heard the news, and our overwhelming shock and grief at the realization that these tragedies had actually occurred. With the recent terrorist attacks we have seen people glued to their television or radios, revealing an inner desire to linger over the last few days, hours and minutes surrounding these tragic events. That response itself typifies a general feeling that a person’s last few days and death are very special to those who love him/her, and the deeper the love the more precious his/her life and death are to their loved ones left behind.

It is this same general feeling that explains to us why this week is so special — so unique — to the followers of Jesus Christ, for in this week, we recall the last days, the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus: Son of God become man. Not only do we recall, but through the liturgy, we really relive these events: from the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to His cruel and painful death on Good Friday culminating with the wondrous victory of rising to new life on Easter morning. This journey of Jesus is also our journey; because we recall and relive these central events with Him, this week is rightly called "Holy Week."

You see, the Holy Week liturgy is not play-acting or even the yearly unfolding of the familiar Passion play. Liturgy makes present for us and with us the actual events of the dying and rising of Jesus and enables us to experience in our lives here and now what Jesus went through then. In other words, the liturgy enables us to be inserted into the mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising and allows our lives, loves, joys, hopes, disappointments and sufferings to be made over by Christ’s experience of these same realities. What we commemorate and relive during this week called "holy" is not just Jesus’ dying and rising, but our own dying and rising in Him.

Will we bring to Jesus in the Holy Week liturgies, especially today, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, our real selves, all that is in need within us of forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and redemption? Will we go to Jesus, so that He who was slain for our salvation can forgive us our sins, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, heal our wounds and reconcile us again with Him and with one another? Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, reminds us that, "The heavenly Father’s saving plan was completed in the free and total gift to us of the only begotten Son. ‘No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord’ (Jn 10:18), Jesus declares, leaving no doubt that he decides to sacrifice his own life for the salvation of the world. In confirmation of so great a gift of love, the Redeemer goes on: ‘Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (Jn 15:13)" (Message for Lent 2002, 1).

We must follow the example of our Savior by freely laying down our lives during these liturgies to allow Him to forgive us our sins, heal the wounds in us caused by our sins and the sins of others, transform us more closely into the image and likeness of God and, thereby, live the divine life we received at Baptism. Saint Gregory Nazianzen puts it this way: "…we must sacrifice ourselves to God, each day and in everything we do, accepting all that happens to us for the sake of the Word, imitating his passion by our sufferings, and honoring his blood by shedding our own. We must be ready to be crucified."

Let me share with you some advice concerning our observance of Holy Week, which caught my attention. "The holiest week of the year begins today. But the world does not stop. Everything goes on — the regular TV programs, the regular work schedule, income tax … So, if I want this to be a ‘holy week,’ what do I do? I decide."

Yes, this week is unique; it can become "holy for us" if we actively and consciously take part in the liturgies of this week. Won’t you join me in each liturgy? Let us support one another united in prayer. Let us journey together this Holy Week from sin to grace, from darkness to light, from discouragement to hope, from boredom to enthusiasm as we, united with Christ, pass over from death to life — to live in a new way Christ’s Gospel of Life and Love. Amen.

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