(Palm Sunday 2019 (C): This homily was given on April 14,
2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-24; Philippians
2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Palm Sunday 2019]
The very first Holy Week was a period of time when changes took place in many different
people: some of those changes were good, and some of them were not-so-good.
One of the most disturbing changes in the not-so-good
category took place in the hearts and souls of CERTAIN RESIDENTS OF JERUSALEM. Think about it: Some of the same men and
women who were hailing Jesus as the Messiah on Palm Sunday were screaming for
his blood on Good Friday!
The changing tide of public opinion: one day you’re the
greatest person on earth, the next day you’re “public enemy number one”!
(That’s why we should always try to please God, and not
human beings.)
And how about the change in JUDAS ISCARIOT? That was another
terrible tragedy of Holy Week! This man
went from being a close, intimate friend of the divine Son of God, to the worst
traitor in the history of the world!
PETER also changed
for the worse during these few short days, when he denied three times that he
even knew our Lord—although, thankfully, he eventually changed back through
repentance.
Actually ALL
THE APOSTLES changed for the worse, since, as St. Mark tells us, they
all abandoned Jesus as soon as our Lord was arrested in the garden of
Gethsemane.
But, thanks be to God, many other people changed for the
better during the first Holy Week! The “GOOD
THIEF,” for example (who is only mentioned in Luke’s version of the passion),
changed radically as he hung next to Jesus on Good Friday. He made a 180 degree turnaround in his heart,
and so he joined our Lord that day in Paradise!
(All of which shows that deathbed conversions can and do
happen! Yes—they might be rare, but they
certainly are possible.)
The ROMAN
CENTURION who stood at the foot of the cross changed for the better: he became a
believer—a man of faith—after he saw the way that Jesus died.
JOSEPH
OF ARIMATHEA changed in a positive way by becoming an openly-committed disciple of Jesus when
he came forth to claim our Lord’s body for burial, having been a secret
disciple of Jesus before that.
Even our BLESSED
MOTHER underwent a kind of change from Palm Sunday to Good Friday. She went from being “the rejoicing Mother” of
the Messiah as she watched her Son enter Jerusalem in triumph, to “the
sorrowful Mother” of the Savior as she stood at the foot of his cross—in the
process becoming a role model for us as we struggle to deal with our daily
crosses.
I share these thoughts with you today in this brief homily
to encourage us all to make some time for the Lord during this Holy Week—because if we do that we also have the opportunity
to change for the better! This Holy Week
is like the first one in that sense: it provides an opportunity for us to
change our lives in a positive way! But
for that to happen, we need to enter into it by our active participation.
Let me conclude now by sharing with you this week’s
schedule of events here at St. Pius.
When you go home, I highly encourage you to put at least some of these
events on your calendars:
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will have morning Mass
as usual at 7am; on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we will have Morning Prayer
at the normal Mass times. The Easter
Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday evening at 7pm,
followed by adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the church hall until 11pm (a
time for us to remember the Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane). On Friday we will have Stations of the Cross
twice: once outside at noon; then, at 3pm, here in church. The celebration of the Lord’s Passion will
take place on Friday evening at 7; and the first Mass of Easter—the glorious
celebration of the Easter Vigil—will be held at 7:30pm on Saturday night.
Please note: there will be no 5pm Mass next Saturday! The normal time for our vigil Mass is CHANGED
(as hopefully we will be—for the
better!—when this Holy Week is over).
