(Palm Sunday 2016 (C): This
homily was given on March 20, 2016 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr.
Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 50:4-7;
Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Palm Sunday 2016]
You could say that Jesus
Christ “made time for us” during the first Holy Week 2,000 years ago. He did that in order to save us from our
sins. He made time for us in order to
make heaven possible for every human person who
has lived, for every human person who
is living, and for every human person who
will live on planet earth until the end of the world.
Because Jesus did what he
did during that first Holy Week—because he made time for us and endured all
those sufferings we just heard about in St. Luke’s account of the passion—we
have hope: a hope that extends beyond time!
We have the hope of an eternity full of joy and happiness and peace.
Which brings us to the key
question for this Holy Week: Will WE “make
time” for him? Will we make time—some
time—some quality time—for Jesus Christ
during the next 7 days?
Or will it be “business as
usual?” Will we allow other things—other unnecessary, distracting things—to
keep us from reflecting on and getting in touch with the sacrificial love of
our Lord and Savior?
Now I know that for some
people there will be an added challenge this year in trying to stay
spiritually-focused from now until Easter Sunday: March Madness! Because Easter is so early this year, Holy
Week comes right in the middle of the very popular NCAA basketball tournament.
That could prove to be a
very big distraction for some Christians—especially on Holy Thursday and Good
Friday.
Now please don’t
misunderstand—I’m not saying that if you’re a basketball fan you shouldn’t
watch any tournament games from now until Easter. (I will probably watch a few of them
myself!) But I am challenging you to
keep things in perspective, and to keep your priorities in order.
That, by the way, will be a
challenge for everyone—even the non-basketball fans among us, since we all have
distractions of one kind or another to deal with in our lives.
And so my message to you
today in this brief homily is simple: Be sure that you make at least as much
time for Jesus Christ during the next 7 days as you do for basketball games—and
other unnecessary amusements!
Let me now go over very
quickly the opportunities you will have to “make time for the Lord” here at St.
Pius during the next 7 days:
On Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday of this week we will have morning Mass, as usual, at 7am. We will have Eucharistic Adoration all day on
Tuesday. We will have Stations of the
Cross at 6:05 on Tuesday, after Benediction.
We will have Morning Prayer Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the regular
Mass times. And, most important, we will
have the Liturgies of the Triduum on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings:
the Mass of the Lord’s Supper will be at 7pm on Thursday, followed by Adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament in the church hall until 11pm. On Friday we will have the celebration of the
Lord’s Passion at 7pm, and Stations of the Cross twice: once outside at noon (weather
permitting), and then at 3pm here in church.
And finally, we will have the first Mass of Easter—the Easter Vigil
Liturgy—at 7:30pm on Holy Saturday night.
Masses on Easter Sunday will be at the normal Sunday times: 7, 8:30 and
10:30am.
My prayer at this Mass is
that on Easter Sunday morning each of us will be able to look back at this week
and say, “Yes, Lord, I did it. Yes, Lord, I put
you first. Yes, Lord, I avoided the
distractions. Yes, Lord, I made some quality time for you during the last 7
days of my life, and it was, without a doubt, time very well spent.”