{"id":1571,"date":"2015-03-29T13:18:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T17:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2015-03-29T13:18:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T17:18:22","slug":"palm-sunday-of-the-passion-of-the-lord-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/palm-sunday-of-the-passion-of-the-lord-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year B<\/a>
\nGospel for Blessing of the Palms \u2013 Mark 11:1-10
\nIsaiah 50:4-7
\nPhilippians 2:6-11
\nMark 14:1-15:47
\nMarch 29, 2015<\/p>\n

Why did it have to happen this way?<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 final week started out with a grand entrance to Jerusalem.\u00a0 He sends His disciples ahead to make preparations for the Passover and they find everything just as He describes.<\/p>\n

As He enters Jerusalem, He is given a royal welcome with cloaks draped and palms waving, a glorious welcome.<\/p>\n

But there are those who plot against Jesus\u2026..<\/p>\n

Even though Jesus has told His disciples about His coming passion, the people do not realize what it is about to happen.\u00a0 When the woman anoints Jesus, people criticize her for wasting the expensive oil but Jesus praises her for anointing Him with His death to come.<\/p>\n

Then we hear how Judas, one of Jesus\u2019 disciples, will betray Him, from royal welcome to betrayal.\u00a0 Jesus actually tells the Apostles that He knows one of them will betray Him.\u00a0 They are distressed.<\/p>\n

He tells them they will have their faith shaken<\/em>.\u00a0 When we are in distress we turn to Jesus in faith for help, not to be told our faith will be shaken.<\/p>\n

Peter responds by saying his faith will never be shaken.\u00a0 Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him three times.\u00a0 Peter says no way but Jesus is right.<\/p>\n

When is our faith shaken?<\/p>\n

After celebrating the Passover, Jesus goes off to pray and takes Peter, James, and John with Him.\u00a0 As He goes to pray, He tells them to keep watch.\u00a0 Do we keep vigilant for the Lord?\u00a0 On Thursday, we will celebrate the Last Supper.\u00a0 After that Mass, we will have quiet adoration.\u00a0 Will you come and stay afterwards for a few minutes to \u201ckeep watch\u201d?<\/p>\n

Jesus himself is greatly distressed.\u00a0 He knows what is about to happen and so He prays, \u201cTake this cup away from me.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Is not the same thing we pray when we face distress?\u00a0 But Jesus\u2019 prayer does not end there.\u00a0 He continues, \u201cbut not what I will but what you will.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Jesus hands it over to God.\u00a0 We might often turn to God in our distress but do we hand it all over to His Will?<\/p>\n

Then comes the\u00a0betrayal?\u00a0 A kiss, normally a sign of love, becomes an act of betrayal and Jesus is arrested.<\/p>\n

He has done nothing wrong so those who plot to kill Him have to get people to offer false testimony but they get caught in their lies because their testimony does not agree.<\/p>\n

Even so, Jesus is taken away for trial.\u00a0 Not understanding what is going on, the disciples flee.\u00a0 Peter remains near enough to see what is going on.\u00a0 When confronted he denies knowing Jesus.\u00a0 When he realizes his denial, he is broken and weeps.<\/p>\n

Pilate allows Jesus to be crucified just to satisfy the crowd.\u00a0 Jesus is mocked, beaten, scourged, and crucified.<\/p>\n

It makes no sense.\u00a0 The crowds cry out \u201cHe saved others; he cannot save himself<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 They have no idea that what they see as proof that He is not the messiah (his Crucifixion) is the very act by which He saves us.<\/p>\n

It is in Jesus\u2019 death that the centurion realizes that Jesus truly was the Son of God.\u00a0 His death reveals the unlimited nature of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

When I began, I said the week started well with a royal welcome.\u00a0 Our reading ends with Jesus\u2019 death but there is more to come but for that we have to wait for next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year B Gospel for Blessing of the Palms \u2013 Mark 11:1-10 Isaiah 50:4-7 Philippians 2:6-11 Mark 14:1-15:47 March 29, 2015 Why did it have to happen this way? Jesus\u2019 final week started out with a grand entrance to Jerusalem.\u00a0 He sends His disciples ahead to make preparations …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26,82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-pl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}