HOMILY
Palm Sunday – March 29, 2026
Perhaps as a consequence of age, having recently celebrated my seventieth birthday, I have been reflecting a great of late upon my own journey of faith – a journey that eventually brought me to ordained ministry within the Church, first as a deacon, then as priest and eventually as bishop. These reflections inevitably take me back to a very consequential time during my days in college and specifically in campus ministry. There was a scripture passage that I had never much considered up to that time in my life. It seemed to be referenced everywhere – or at least wherever God wanted me to look as I discerned his will for my life. The passage: John 3:16.
Most of you know that passage well. For me, it became life changing as I confronted its message. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
Brothers and sisters, it is that very love of God, so selflessly revealed in the cross of Christ, which lies at the heart of the Word of God proclaimed this day.
As we stand on the threshold of Holy Week and prepare to celebrate the great mysteries of our redemption through Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, the Church invites us to peel away the facades behind which we live our lives and to present ourselves to the Lord as we truly are – all of us – struggling souls in need of God’s love and mercy. To bring such honesty to this moment is hardly a sign of weakness but, rather, a grace-filled awareness of the brokenness of our world and wounds that we carry in life.
Brothers and sisters, how very much we need this Holy Week! Our world and our lives can’t seem to catch a break. Once again, we come to these sacred days with our world engulfed by war and suffering – pain that is real, even if it is far removed from our shores. Right here in our own land, so many of our brothers and sisters are faced with uncertainty about their future as they seek to simply care for their families. And we too have our own stories to tell of the crosses that we carry – crosses made from grief and loss, illness, addiction, loneliness and sin.
No doubt, our spirits resonate with Jesus in today’s gospel. As he prayed in the Garden, we too have cried to God, “Let this cup pass from me,” haven’t we? And when the cup of our suffering hasn’t passed us by, the best of best of us have wondered where God is in the midst of it all.
Father Ron Rolheiser, a contemporary spiritual writer, puts the crosses that invade our lives into a perspective that we often fail to appreciate. Listen to his words, “Jesus never promised us rescue, exemptions, immunity from cancer or escape from death. Rather, he promised that in the end, there will be redemption, vindication, immunity from suffering and eternal life. But that’s in the end; in the early and intermediate chapters of our lives, there will be the same kind of humiliation, pain and death that everyone else suffers.”
God didn’t spare Jesus, as we learn from today’s gospel, yet in the end, through his suffering, death and resurrection, we are reminded that nothing is impossible for God. That belief in the power of God is where resurrection begins to enter our lives, and peace takes hold of our wounded spirits! God doesn’t promise us a perfect world free from suffering, no matter how faithful we are. But he does promise forgiveness, redemption and life because of Jesus’ cross.
In his letter to the Philippians proclaimed a few moments ago, Saint Paul asserts that although he was God, Jesus emptied himself and took the form of a slave – a servant. He sought, according to his Father’s plan, to embrace the brokenness and suffering of our world to save us from ourselves and all that can well up from within us to destroy our peace. In so doing, Jesus gave us the true and only way forward in life.
For all that we bring to this celebration of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, may we not forget to enter these sacred days praying for the same spirit of humility that characterized Jesus’ life and his embrace of the cross that gives us hope as we carry our own. For when we are finally humble enough to admit that we cannot save ourselves but need to trust in a power beyond us, it is then that a space will opened in our hearts to be filled by the love of Jesus – a love that alone has the power to carry us to a place of life and peace.
Therein, brothers and sisters, is the true blessing and gift of Holy Week.