Sunday Homily 3-28-10, Palm Sunday
Readings: Entrance procession, Luke 19, 28-40; Isaiah 50, 4-7; Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?; Philippians 2, 6-11; Passion, Luke 22, 14-23, 1-49.
Some short reflections on the readings, short because of the length of the readings, i.e., the Passion.
It is very unfortunate that we only read little sections of the Luke’s Gospel each Sunday. It is like seeing a few minutes of a movie; we keep getting interrupted and can too easily lose the whole plot. Remember, Luke’s product is both the Gospel and the Book of Acts and together they form a complete message.
The very early church was Jewish. After the Resurrection, the followers of Jesus continued to go to the synagogue or temple, this we see in Acts, and they also met in each other’s homes to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. As they reflected on the life of Jesus, they turned to what they were most familiar with, namely the Old Testament, in their efforts to try and understand Jesus’ place better. And so after forty or fifty or even sixty years of this, as our Gospels emerge they are hugely influenced by the Old Testament. It was the only way the gospel writers and the early communities knew how to understand Jesus and his message.
Today, we have one of those points, if we were watching a movie, when the music would be cranked up. For Luke, from Chapter 9:51 up until today’s first Gospel reading Chapter 19:28 Jesus has been journeying towards Jerusalem. Today he enters Jerusalem and begins what we know as the Jerusalem ministry, a mere two and a half chapters. You will remember way back at the beginning of this gospel, when Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem, he says to his parents, “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs.” Right after today’s reading, Luke has Jesus go to the temple and clean it out and then begin teaching in the Temple every day.
We get the sense of more time than just the few days we experience between Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and what we will read about shortly as the Holy Week events.
Finally, recall on the first Sunday of Lent, we read of the temptations of Jesus after his 40 days in the desert. Luke ends that story with the words “the devil left him to return at the proper time.” We will see that return in our reading of the Passion when Peter denies Jesus 22:31, when Satan enters Judas 22:3 and at the hour of darkness, 22:53.
We are almost done with Lent. Now we turn to the events of Holy Week and Easter. Our Gospels give us different interpretations of these events, influenced by the early church’s interpretation in the light of the Old Testament. Each one of us also needs to reflect on what these events mean to us and how our lives are different. Was this just a sad story, which happened over two thousand years ago, or are our lives today lived with a different meaning because of Jesus?
Picture 1: Palm Sunday Mass begins with Tony
Picture 2: Tony blesses the Palms
Picture 3: Denni, Nancy, & Ron await the Procession
Picture 4: The Procession with the Palms
Picture 5: The Kless Family await the blessing, Christine, Cara, her friend, Sean, and Ed