Palm Sunday 2026 - Unique perspectives of the Passion

We just heard the great Passion according to St. Matthew. All four Gospels contain an account of the passion of Jesus –the events leading up to and including his suffering and death on the Cross. There are similarities between each of the Gospel accounts. But like any event described by different authors, each Passion account contains the evangelists' unique perspective.

St. Mark’s passion, is the shortest. It is fast-paced and concise, written for the Roman Christians already being persecuted by an empire working to destroy the Church. Mark emphasizes Jesus’ suffering, his agony, likely to embolden the Christians who were already being persecuted for his name.

St. Luke’s Passion highlights the Lord’s compassion, forgiveness, and universal love. St. Luke recorded the merciful words of Jesus on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

We read St. John’s Passion every year on Good Friday, which focuses on Jesus’ divine nature, his fulfillment of His Father’s plan. “It is finished”, the Lord says, as he accomplishes the salivific mission for which he was sent.

St. Matthew’s original audience were the Jewish converts—those who came to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. And so, Matthew’s Passion, as we heard contained explanations of how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. St. Matthew even recorded Jesus from the cross quoting one of the Psalms in Hebrew: “"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

To quote the famous biblical scholar Raymond Brown: “Matthew emphasizes Jesus as the fulfiller of Old Testament prophecies, Mark emphasizes Jesus’ abandonment and the scandal of the cross, Luke emphasizes Jesus’ compassion, and John emphasizes Jesus’ sovereignty and control over events.”

Again, each of the Gospel writers narrate the Passion from unique perspectives. What about yours? What does the Passion of the Lord mean to you, at this particular moment in your life, at the beginning of Holy Week 2026.

For our Catechumens, perhaps this is the first time they’ve ever heard the entire Passion. Christ’s journey to the cross parallels their own journey to the Sacraments at Easter. As they prepare to die and rise with Christ in Baptism, they are reminded that to belong to Jesus is not simply to admire him, but to follow him—to pass with him through suffering, surrender, and death into new life.

But what about the rest of us? What does the Passion mean to us?

For those who are undergoing illness and suffering, the Passion means that suffering is no longer meaningless. The Son of God has entered into pain, weakness, humiliation, and agony. He knows what it is to suffer in the body, to feel abandoned, to endure suffering patiently and out of love. And so your suffering, united to his, can become a participation in his redeeming love—in God’s very life.

For those who are struggling with faith, the Passion shows us, what? That even in darkness, confusion, and fear, God is present. Jesus, united even to the portion of humanity which feels forsaken by God, showed us the importance of persevering in crying out to God, having faith even when God is difficult to see.  If your faith feels weak, if prayer feels dry, if God seems silent, look at the crucified Jesus and know that he has entered even that darkness, and he has not abandoned you.

What does the Passion mean, for young people discerning what God is calling them to do with their life? The Passion reveals that the purpose of our life is discovered not in seeking our own will, but God’s. Jesus embraces the will of the Father, even when it is costly—and teaches us to seek how God is calling us to love, to sacrifice, to trust, and give of ourselves for the kingdom. 

What does the Passion mean for married people raising a family? The Passion reveals the shape of authentic love. Love is not merely a feeling; it is sacrifice, perseverance, forgiveness, patience, and fidelity. To love your spouse, to care for your children, to provide, to endure the daily dying to self that family life requires—this too, when done with faith, is a sharing in the cross of Christ, and therefore in its fruitfulness.

What does the Passion mean for those who are advanced in the Spiritual life? The Passion is an invitation to accompany Jesus not only in consolation but in desolation. Deep prayer always draws us more deeply into the mystery of Christ crucified.

What about those struggling to overcome sin? The Passion reveals both the seriousness of sin and God’s mercy—sins remedy. Our sins are not small things; they led to the crucifixion of the innocent Lamb. And yet Christ’s response is not vengeance, but love poured out to the end. Holy Week is the time not to hide our sins like Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden, but to humbly repent of them, bringing them to the crucified Lord who blood is our deliverance from sin.

What about those who like the Lord betrayed by Judas have been betrayed by a trusted friend or family member? The Passion reminds you that Jesus knows that pain, too. He knows what it is to be wounded not just by enemies, but by one close to him. If your heart has been pierced by betrayal, bring that wound to the Lord, who will help you to forgive and to know peace.

Maybe the Passion is a reminder to some of us, who acted like the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked Jesus, or like Peter denied Jesus before others. For us the Passion is humbling, but also cause for such great gratitude, that contempt and cowardice have been replaced with faith and Love. 

The Passion means something a little different to each of us, depending on where we are standing at this moment in our life. And yet in every case, it means this: that Jesus Christ loved us to the end. He entered suffering, betrayal, injustice, humiliation, and death itself in order to save us. And so, whatever our particular walk of life may be at the beginning of this Holy Week, we do not stand outside this story. We are somewhere in it. 

I invite you to read through the various Passion stories this week—and to consider what the Lord is saying to you at this moment in your life—in the concrete details of your life. How is the Lord calling you to follow Him more faithfully, with greater gratitude for his self-sacrifice, with greater faith, hope, and love for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

Palm Sunday 2024 - Lavishing Jesus with Holy Week Devotion

 St. Mark's Passion story began with an incident taking place in the house of Simon the Leper. An unnamed woman took a jar of ointment worth 300 hundred days wages and anointed Jesus' head and feet to show her love of him.  300 hundred days wages; that jar of oil would be worth about 30,000 dollars today.  She lavished Jesus with the best she had.  

There were some who became indignant.  “What a waste,” they said.  Many people in the world today consider the time we give to God, a waste. Why spend on God, what you can spend on yourself.  Why waste your time going to Church? Why waste your time going to confession? Why waste your time with penance, with sacrifice?  

Jesus responded to those indignant with Mary: “Leave her alone.  What she has done is beautiful, it is good.  What this woman has done will always be remembered.”  2000 years later we continue to tell her story, and in the heart of God, her act of love for Jesus will truly be remembered forever.

The good we do for the Lord, whether it's done in secret or in public: charity for the poor, prayers of adoration, attendance at Mass, words of encouragement to the brokenhearted, these things will be remembered by God forever. Even acts of forgiveness—when we forgive someone in our hearts, someone who hurt us, when we let go of resentment, when we let go of a grudge, that is a gift of immeasurable value. 

Today begins Holy Week, and it is a week filled with opportunities to give to God our best. We celebrate this week, how Our Lord gave his best, he gave his life, he gave his obedience and faithfulness to his Father, he gave the embrace of suffering we cannot fathom, he gave forgiveness and mercy to all of humanity of all ages. 

What we do this week will be remembered forever.  You will never regret giving God more, this week.  Praying more, fasting more, sacrificing more.  This could be the most powerful life changing week of your life—the week when you fell deeply in love with Jesus, when you encountered the depth of his love in all that he suffered for you.  

He gave all, he sacrificed all, he gave the best he had, for us.  May we do the same for Him, in our prayer, in our Holy Week fasting and penances. May we be poured out like that precious jar of ointment, like the blood poured out on the cross as an oblation to the Father, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Palm Sunday 2023 - Stubborn Donkey Hearts

 Great kings, conquerors, warriors, and emperors always entered their capital cities on mighty steeds—like stallions. God is the greatest of kings, the King of King. He is the great conqueror, the conqueror of death itself. He is the greatest of warriors: he defeated the devil. He is the emperor of the entire universe which he created out of nothing by his infinite power. And when this God, the true God, came to the spiritual capital of his world, Jerusalem, he rode not a stallion but a donkey.

To do the work he came to earth to do, to suffer and die in the world’s spiritual capital, Jesus chose the humblest animal—a donkey—to bear him. And to call a donkey humble is…rather kind. For donkeys are stupid, stubborn and exasperating—we insultingly call someone who is stubborn a “donkey” or one of its other synonyms. St. Francis of Assisi even referred to his own body as a “donkey”—an “ass” because he experienced his bodily passions as having a mind of their own, going off in different directions, refusing to submit to the demands of holiness.

And for the Lord to coax this stubborn, stupid animal to carry him through the Jerusalem gate amidst this exultant crowd is a bit of a miracle. It walked on the cloaks and palm branches of the chanting crowd, totally docile to the Lord’s will—cooperating with the Lord—requiring neither bridle nor bit.

The donkey, stubborn and stupid, cooperates with the Will of God. Certainly, here is a symbol of the Lord’s mission among man, to transform our stubborn, contrary, disobedient, inflexible refusal to follow the will of God—to transform human resistance and sin to docility and cooperation. 

And the Church is made up of such creatures—from Pontiff to Church pew, all of us donkeys: absent-minded donkeys that drift-off during mass, donkeys which sit behind bishop’s desks, donkeys trying to get other donkeys to work together to carry the load of a charitable endeavor, donkeys that refuse to admit that they are donkeys. And knowing that the Church is filled with a bunch of donkeys, don’t we all need to be a little bit more patient with each other. We need to give everyone the same leeway, the same patience, that we would want for ourselves, in every circumstance. I know I have acted like a donkey before and after priestly ordination, not to mention baptism. And I am grateful for the patience.

So in our first Gospel, we have this powerful image of the stubborn donkey submitting to God. But the Gospel, the long beautiful Passion Gospel, reveals something else about God’s treatment of his donkeys. He doesn’t enter into our lives simply in order to control us, simply to bend our stubborn wills to his. 

He actually loves us donkeys, so much so that he suffers and dies for us. The stupidest among us, the most spiteful and hateful among us, he loves us. The Pilates, the Herods, the pharisees and Sadducees who conspire to kill him, the members of the mob who give themselves over to insane bloodthirst and mindless group-think, those who spit upon him, and whip him, the executioner who was just following order to commit deicide, he loves us and dies for us all.  He didn’t just die for the Veronicas and the Simon of Cyrenes who comfort him in his sufferings or come to his aid, the models of charity. He didn’t just die for the women of jerusalem who wept for him, the compassionate. He didn't just die for the beloved apostle and the women who followed him all the way to the cross and stayed with him until the bitter end, the courageous. He didn't just die for the charitable, compassionate, and courageous. He died for the selfish, the coldhearted, and the coward. He died for all. He died for Peter who denied him and Judas who betrayed Him. He died that the mercy of God be extended to all. To every disobedient donkey. 

This might be hard to admit, but He died for every abortionist. He died for every child trafficker and school shooter. He died for every racist slave owner. He died for every heretic. He died for the most contemptible politician. Every drug pusher. Every narcissistic spouse and gaslighting coworker. Out of real love. Not because he had to, but out of freely given love.

He forgave and so must we.

Does his forgiveness extend to all? Yes. Of course. This is clear and biblical. It extends even to those in hell. And there is a hell. The existence of hell is a dogma of our faith. And understand that those in hell are not those who God for some mysterious reason chose not to forgive. Jesus died even for the souls in hell to ultimately reject him. Every soul in hell was forgiven by God, but they chose hell anyway, despite the warnings, despite the call to conversion, despite the call to repent and believe, despite the signs that God loves them and desires their company, despite the opportunities for grace that no doubt, our good God extended to them.

God’s love extends to all, to you and me. And so we must extend that love and forgiveness to each other. 

This week, we do well, to examine our hearts and consider those to whom we have been reluctant, or downright refusing, to forgive. Bring them to the cross of Christ this Good Friday. Your most bitter enemy. The person you believe is bringing the most harm to the Church. The person who hurt you most deeply. Bring them to the cross, and say with Jesus “Father forgive them, for they know what they do” and you will find peace at the cross. And Father forgive me, for I, too have acted in ignorance and donkey stubbornness.  Help me to love as you love. To forgive as you forgive. Steer my own obstinate donkey heart to witness to mercy for all, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Palm Sunday 2022 - The Messianic King who reigns from the Cross

 Many times throughout his ministry, Jesus refused public recognition for his miracles and holy works. For example, after healing the deaf man in Mark chapter 7, the Lord orders the onlookers not to tell anyone about the miracle, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it. Another example, after his first public exorcism in the synagogue of Capernaum, Mark tells us that the Lord “warned them sternly not to make it known.” And another example, in John’s Gospel, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the people wanted to crown him king right then and there, but he withdrew into solitude. 

Why did the Lord so often guard his Messianic identity and refuse public fanfare? Part of it had to do with the expectations of many of his fellow Jews. In those days, when you said the word Messiah, it conjured up the image of a political revolutionary who would overthrow Israel’s enemies through military force. Much of Israel was expecting a Messiah King to liberate the Jews from Roman domination. So the Lord distances himself from this political, earthly understanding of being Israel’s Messiah and refused efforts to make him King of Israel.

So how do we understand what happened on Palm Sunday? As we heard in our gospel at the beginning of mass today, the Lord allowed the people of Jerusalem to give him this kingly reception: waving palms, singing sacred hymns, laying down cloaks. Palms were the symbol of military victory. 

Well, there is certainly some irony to all of this. Most of these people thought that the triumphal entry marked the beginning of the end for Rome. They likely imagined that this Nazorean carpenter would soon be meeting with other revolutionaries, planning the violent overthrow of Israel’s oppressors, beginning perhaps with Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. But, the Lord enters the holy city in triumph, not to begin a military campaign, but to signal that the time had come for his campaign against sin and death

He is a king, but not the king they expected. He is the Messiah—the anointed one of God—but he has not come to carry out the violent overthrow of our political enemies, but to overthrow evil itself, by carrying our sins with him as he carried his cross, and allowing our sins to be crucified with him in his Passion and death.

This is why we proclaim both the gospel of the triumphal entry and the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday. You cannot have one without the other. The waving of palms is a misguided gesture if you believe Christianity is about establishing an earthly kingdom through any means necessary or that Jesus came to usher in some earthly utopia or some supreme form of temporal government. No. He has not come for that. 

The Messiah goes to the cross for you and me and for all people of all places of all times to pay the price for our sins, to redeem our fallenness, without which there is no hope of heaven for anyone ever, no hope of reconciliation with God, no hope of eternal life. 

Again, He is a Messiah and He is a King, but it is not on Palm Sunday that his identity as messiah is most manifest, his identity as king is most glorious. To those with eyes of faith, his procession through the streets of Jerusalem, bloodied and beaten, weak and on the verge of expiring, with the burden of our sins and the sins of the world on his shoulders, is more beautiful, and more glorious, than the palm Sunday entrance five days prior.

We sing Hosanna to Him because what he does on Good Friday. Hosanna, offered to a king, not as an earthly platitude or lip service, but as divine worship, in gratitude for our salvation.

He goes to the cross to make the humble, total immolation of himself for our salvation. And this week, we at least owe it to Him, to keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Him. These are the High Holy Days of our Christian Faith. These are the days where we are to pray with the greatest intensity, fast with the greatest intensity, to show our love, to show our respect, to show our gratitude, to our King reigns not from some earthly throne, but from the cross, to our Messiah who defeats evil not through military means, but through self-emptying humble obedience to God. 

He gave all, he sacrificed all, he gave the best he had, for us.  May we do the same for Him this week, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Palm Sunday 2019 - Sights, Sounds, Silences, Smells, and Sentiments of Holy Week

Today, Palm Sunday, begins Holy Week.  This week is filled with many vivid moments—sights and sounds and silences, smells and sentiments. Today, we hear crowds singing praises to Jesus as he enters Jerusalem as Messiah, and how those praises all too quickly turn into jeering and mocking and calling for crucifixion. 

On Monday, you might even smell the fragrance of aromatic oil anointing the feet of Jesus and hear the spite in the betrayer’s voice, that to anoint Jesus is a waste.

On Tuesday, you might detect how the conviction in St. Peter’s voice to “follow the Lord” anywhere is sadly replaced with fear and denial. The whispers of conspirators and the sound of silver coins are heard on Wednesday.  And On Thursday, perhaps you’ll come to hear the quiet lapping of water, when the Master washes the feet of his disciples and the sound of breaking bread and pouring wine at the Last supper.

Throughout the week, IF you listen, you’ll hear the sounds of crying, whipping, hammering, the cries of crucifixion, prayers offered to the Father, the weeping of a sorrowful mother and the deafening silence of the tomb.

The sounds of Holy Week are piercing and thunderous. Jesus cries out in a loud voice as he gives up His spirit. The curtain of the sanctuary is ripped in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, boulders split, tombs opened.

Since this  week is filled with so much sound, we are called to do a lot of listening.  Listening to the narratives of Jesus’ final days and hours and moments this week. In this week called “Holy”, grow quiet and Listen!

Turn off the televisions, the iphones, and computers. Log off, and open the book of books. Read and enter into the most important drama. If you can, join us for daily Mass to hear the drama unfold.
It was the practice of many homes to turn off all the radios and televisions, especially on Good Friday, as a way of saying this is not a day for entertainment, but a day of turning my heart to what matters most: sincere repentance and reflection upon the savior’s redemptive self-sacrifice.

If you’ve never attended the liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday or the Easter Vigil, consider attending this year.  The Church’s morning prayer will be prayed during the Triduum at 10am. In such a noisy world, with so many distractions we need these moments to listen to the Word.

If all we listen to are the sounds of the world: the bitterness, the resentment, the violence, and political argument, our lives will soon only echo the values of the world.  We listen to God’s Word—the sound of outpoured love, so that our lives may echo and resound with his beating Sacred Heart.

This week, I encourage you to make time to read through the passion narratives again.  Perhaps pick the part of the passion that resonates with you most. Perhaps, return to that moment, of Simon carrying the heavy cross at Jesus' side, or the hope of the good thief, pleading with Jesus to remember Him, as he comes into His kingdom.  A day shouldn’t go by during this Holiest Week of the Church year, without spending quality time in prayerful reflection upon Jesus’ Passion.

Where will you incline your ear this week?  To the sounds of the world, or, like St. John at the Last Supper, to the savior’s breast,  to the beating heart of the Word made flesh?
 
During the first Holy Week, two thousand years ago, Jesus achieved victory over sin and evil.  During this Holy Week, he wants to extend that victory ever more deeply into our hearts. May we bring our hearts to him in our participation in liturgy, or personal prayer and meditation on Scripture, in fasting, and good works this Holy Week, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Palm Sunday 2018 - The Mystery of God's Love

Joy and Sorrow. Excitement and Numbing Frustration. Praises and Lamentations.

Holy Week, and Palm Sunday in particular, is filled with many contrasting emotions.

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, he is met with such exuberance. Riding on a donkey like King David entering the Holy City, they thought him to be the royal Messiah who would once and for all bring victory over the enemies of Israel. The itinerant preacher, the miracle working son of the carpenter is greeted like a prize fighter, a military hero, a conquering king.

But then Hosannas are replaced with calls for his crucifixion.

Why? What happened? How were shouts of joy transformed into demands for death?

God’s love happened! But God's love was quite different from how it was expected, as it often is!

The Jews expected the Messiah to bring about their deliverance by the sword. But Jesus came not simply to bring political advancement for a particular people, but for the salvation of all people, of all nations, of all times.

Hosanna’s turned to calls for crucifixion when Jesus revealed that he was not the hero fallen humanity wanted, he was the hero fallen humanity needed. He is the bitter medicine we refuse to take, the uncomfortable truth we need to humble ourselves in order to believe.

The liturgy of Palm Sunday, “teaches us that the Lord has not saved us by his triumphal entry or by means of powerful miracles (Pope Francis).” Salvation comes at a price, and that price is the cross.

To quote William Penn: No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

Salvation is found not in crushing one’s enemies through military might, but by the power of forgiveness and self-emptying on a cross. Salvation comes not from one more politician promising utopia or the military conquest of a warlord; it comes from self-emptying, from humility, from the mercy of God.

A few years ago Pope Francis explains how Jesus conquers through the cross, and we too must follow him in embracing the cross. Francis says, “God’s way of acting may seem so far removed from our own, that he was annihilated for our sake, while it seems difficult for us to even forget ourselves a little. He comes to save us; we are called to choose his way: the way of service, of giving, of forgetfulness of ourselves. Let us walk this path, pausing in these days to gaze upon the Crucifix; it is the “royal seat of God”.  to learn about the humble love which saves and gives life, so that we may give up all selfishness, and the seeking of power and fame. By humbling himself, Jesus invites us to walk on his path. Let us turn our faces to him, let us ask for the grace to understand at least something of the mystery of his obliteration for our sake; and then, in silence, let us contemplate the mystery of this Week” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.