Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - Homily
April 05, 2020 7:00 am · Sergio Muñoz Fita
Palm Sunday Homily My Dear St. Anne Family,
My Palm Sunday homily is usually one of the shortest of the year. Today more than ever, the story of the Passion must occupy the center of the Liturgy of the Word.
I want to invite you all in these days to join Christ in his mystery of death and resurrection. Day by day, read a little piece of his Passion and enter there. Enter not only the scene, but the Heart of Jesus who, at every step, loves, suffers, redeems and gives himself for us.
I also want to remind you of the Lord's words to St. Faustina Kowalska: "...There is more merit to one hour of Meditation on My Sorrowful Passion than there is to a whole year of flagellation that draws blood, the contemplation of My painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings Me great joy..." (Diary, 369). Take advantage of such a source of so much merit and spiritual gain.
This Easter will be special for everyone, unique in many ways because of the distance from the Lord in the Eucharist. Tomorrow, the Gospel of the Holy Mass will be that of the Lord's anointing in Bethany. Tomorrow through Flocknote, I also want to make available to you a meditation that I prepared for women who did the Spiritual Exercises organized by Catholics in Action in California last year. This meditation was written with women in mind, but I hope everyone can take advantage of it.
Mary of Bethany could not be physically next to Jesus at Calvary, but nevertheless, truly she was with Him and consoled Christ in his pain during his Passion. This Holy Week, you cannot physically be with the Lord in communion either, but, like Mary of Bethany, you can be truly united to Jesus and be a great consolation to Him, accompanying Him every step of the way.
St. Paul has told us that Jesus "emptied himself" in the Passion. In the Gospel, from the cross, the Lord has shouted in a powerful voice: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
In these days when all of us feel a little, or perhaps very, abandoned, we find comfort in the Passion of Jesus. Let us know that his Heart also felt what we are feeling, but multiplied far above what we can imagine. At the same time, along with Mary, let us keep hope burning, because for Jesus the cross was not the end, and for us these dark days will not have the last word either.
Lord, we walk with you. We want to follow you and be by your side. Help us to suffer like you, to live like you and to die with you. Help us to love to the extreme as you love us. Because only by dying with you can we one day also be resurrected with you.
Mary, help all the families of St. Anne in these days, and all those who love you. Help us to be, with your son Jesus, the grain of wheat that, dying, bears much fruit. With you, hand in hand, because without you we can do nothing, we begin this Easter journey. Let it really be the beginning of a new life.
