Palm Sunday

Father Dan Juelfs
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024

“Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one? I am.”

When Jesus declares “I am” before the high priest he effectively signs his death warrant. From that point on the Jewish leadership sees no alternative other than to put Jesus to death. They could no longer find excuses, not that they were trying, but that simply put an end to any possibility that Jesus could avoid being crucified or being put to death, because Jesus was violating all of the things that the Jewish leadership believed about who God was and what they believed about the kind of relationship that they had with God. For Jesus to claim to be the Son of the Blessed One was blasphemy and there was no way they could accept that. 

Why did Jesus admit that? Why did he allow himself to continue that plan, continue that process that they had in mind? Because in a very real sense it was also the process that he had in mind. Because by his death and ultimate resurrection, he proclaims the care of God and God’s power over all of the earth, over sin, over death — all of those things that separate mankind from God or from one another. And Jesus is proclaiming his power over those things. Jesus, by his act of giving his life, proclaims the real presence of God and only the pagan centurion standing at the foot of the cross can proclaim, can recognize, that Jesus truly is the Son of God. 

As we begin our celebration of Holy Week, we begin with all of these contradictions. We have a triumphant entrance into the city of Jerusalem, and then we have a trial by those who refuse to believe. We have the denial of a beloved disciple, Peter, who claims he has no idea who this man is. We have the profession of faith of a Pagan. We have that list of contradictions and yet all of these events, in one sense, offer us a real picture of the human condition and the extremes of human behavior. 

I think it’s an opportunity for us to reflect upon our own behaviors as we prepare to celebrate the triumph of God over human weakness. The triumph of God over our sinfulness. This week we celebrate and remind ourselves who God is and God’s desire to share his life with us despite our often-contradictory behaviors. God loves us while we’re still sinners. He loves us not because of our goodness but because of God’s goodness. 

Let this Holy Week be a time of reminding us of why we celebrate, why we proclaim God’s goodness in the midst of all of the realities that exist within us and around us.