Palm Sunday Homily Mar. 23/24, 2024 Dcn. Bill Kenney
Mark 14:1—15:47
The Passion narrative is God’s Word written and Will fulfilled for our salvation.
The re-telling and remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ should give us pause to the wonder and awe, sorrow and grief of these complex, fast-moving scenes. In our Reading, we re-live Jesus’ great sacrifice and redemptive love for us. St. Mark’s intense Gospel account is also rich in symbolism and typology. As we are taken up in the words, they lead us into a mystery while also providing greater understanding, reinforcing our faith and relationship with Jesus. The Passion narrative is God’s Word written and Will fulfilled for our salvation.
The many characters in the Passion narrative portray aspects of human nature: emotion, judgment, and sin that we might relate to as being similar or conversely, totally different from the way you and I might think and act.
I invite you to reflect on these characters with some careful reading or Lectio Divina and let the Holy Spirit move you to a greater understanding of their roles and the purpose of what’s going on. For example, I have chosen two that I was particularly moved to reflect upon.
First, the unnamed woman of Bethany with the valuable jar of perfumed oil. She broke it and poured it out on Jesus. The price of nearly a year’s wages! Her act was indeed one of great love and in anticipation of his burial and bodily anointing. She and her devotion will always be remembered and proclaimed in the Gospel. This scene is a type of anointing the true King and also a foreshadowing of Jesus’ body broken and his blood poured out for us at the Last Supper and at every Mass. He will be remembered for all-time for what He had done. Jesus said, “…do this in memory of me” as we receive the priceless gift of the Eucharist, given in great love for us.
Secondly, at the betrayal and arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, two seemingly random verses are found to be so important they were added in the Gospel. I’m speaking of the lad who ran off naked after evading capture. I thought, that’s an odd factoid to throw in there. Why is this so significant? Then I thought, who else do we recall running naked through a Garden? - running away from God, to be hidden from his shame and his abandonment?
Perhaps this points to the doctrine that Jesus suffered and died on the Cross gathering and taking upon himself ALL the sins of the world even those from God’s earliest creation. [ ]
Again, I invite you to reflect upon the many other characters of this Passion story, such, as Pontius Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, St. Peter, Judas, the Roman centurion, and others. They all have either an apparent or underlying significance to the message and outcome of this story. They also have one thing in common: they are all doing God’s work to achieve, as Jesus said, “…not my will but yours be done.” Like these characters, we too are called to remember and live our Christian role- one of perseverance in faith in times of doubt and hardships; one of charity and service for needy neighbor; one of hope in the resurrection; all these for the sake of our eternal salvation, and for the glory of God.
[ Lastly, we have Pontius Pilate. He gets some justifiably bad publicity as a ruthless Roman thug. He’s probably mercilessly ordered hundreds of crucifixions. He toys with the evil and envious chief priests and the crowd to question releasing their “King” to them or not. He knew their hearts and was not keen on torturing and killing a victim of cancel culture. He was amazed at Jesus. Out of cowardice and fear, he was afraid of a riot. In a flash of cunning, he releases Barabbas upon their request and professionally, not so much personally, orders Jesus’ execution. He distances himself (washes his hands in other Gospel accounts) from their verdict and bows to the evil promptings of the crowd. To a degree, Pilate was seeking a just resolution at the trial. Afterall, Jesus was not inciting a revolution against Rome, as the Zealots and others wanted. Little did he know that he was powerless to the all-controlling wisdom and love of the Father: Jesus must die on the cross for our redemption and salvation.]