Homily PALM SUNDAY C
Crowds waving palms; shouting hosanna and blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem! Palm Sunday!
As parades go, it was probably no match for the Rose Bowl Parade – it might have looked more like a pared down Pierogi Fest Parade. But, for those who marched into Jerusalem that day, it was a breath of spring…Israel’s long winter seemed to be over. The Messiah had come! Deliverance from Rome seemed in sight.
The simple folk who marched in that parade, who waved palm branches, and sang joyous songs, saw – as the religious and political leaders did not see – the Kingdom of God in the pangs of rebirth. God would rule again! The Lord would once again dwell in the temple.
But it would turn out to be a false spring; much like those days in late February, when the temperature got near 60 and we worked in our yards and took some fresh air on our patios, only to have winter return with cold and flurries.
The cut palms dried out, the hosannas ceased, and their songs of triumph turned into the chant of crucify him. We have no king, but Caesar!
At the beginning of Lent, we were eager to shout hosanna, but then reality reared its ugly head. The novel-coronavirus has locked us in our homes.
There will be no joyous Easter Masses and no family gatherings. And we have to admit that what we thought was going to be another celebration was only a false spring – at least for this year.
Yet, even false springs can be a taste, a foreshadowing of things to come. Winter may not have had its last hurrah, but spring will come. Covid19 will take its toll, but we will eventually get a handle on it. So take heart! Palm Sunday is a symbol of great things to come, of resurrection and life.
False springs remind us that we cannot move from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without passing through Calvary and the tomb. For it is true that as soon as we are born, we begin to die. It’s also true that before we can begin to truly live, we must learn to die to self. Only when we have mastered that lesson are we free for abundant living.
Even as the shadow of a cross hangs over us right now, muting our celebrations, let our songs of joy and triumph today encourage us to walk in faith toward a garden of agony and a hill of suffering, confident that the night will pass and a third day will be ushered in.
For the lesson of Palm Sunday says, not yet. Wait a little longer. We must first pass by the cross and the tomb. And after we have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory in Christ, will restore, establish, and strengthen us. To him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.