{"id":2843,"date":"2019-04-14T12:42:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T16:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2019-04-14T12:42:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T16:42:39","slug":"palm-sunday-of-the-passion-of-the-lord-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/palm-sunday-of-the-passion-of-the-lord-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year C<\/a>
First Gospel \u2013 Luke 19:28-40
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 (2a)
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56
April 14, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we mark the beginning of Holy\nWeek.  We began our Mass today by hearing\nthe gospel story of Jesus\u2019 entry in Jerusalem as He began the first Holy Week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He received a royal welcome with cloaks\nlaid out on the road and the crowds proclaiming, \u201cBlessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord<\/em>.\u201d  They eagerly welcomed him into Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things changed during the course of the\nweek.  By the end of the Passion Gospel\nthat we just listened to Jesus, had been crucified and laid in the tomb.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people went from proclaiming, \u201cBlessed is the king who comes in the name of\nthe Lord<\/em>\u201d to shouting, \u201cCrucify\nhim!  Crucify him!<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin, not everyone was eager to\nwelcome Jesus into Jerusalem.  There were\nsome of the Pharisees who told Jesus He should rebuke his disciples for\nwelcoming Jesus as a king.  They did not\nbelieve Jesus was a king and led the persecution against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand what changed during Jesus\u2019\nfinal week, we should take a look at the readings we heard today in between the\ntwo gospels.  In Isaiah we hear the\nSuffering Servant say, \u201cI gave my back to\nthose who beat me<\/em>.\u201d  In the psalm we\nsee similar prophecies.  The Passion of\nJesus fulfills many prophecies like these. \nThe hour has come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To give his life for us, Jesus had to\nfirst, as Paul writes in Philippians, empty himself, humbling himself, \u201cbecoming obedient to the point of death,\neven death on a cross.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilate and the Romans often get blamed for\ncrucifying Jesus.  Yet, in Luke\u2019s\nPassion, we hear Pilate say he found Jesus not guilty three<\/em><\/strong> times.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is Peter that denies Jesus three<\/em><\/strong>\ntimes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many times have we sinned?  How many times have we denied Jesus?  This is what Jesus died for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to be like the \u201cgood criminal\u201d who\nsaid to the criminal who ridiculed Jesus, \u201cWe\nhave been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our\ncrimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.<\/em>\u201d  The good criminal says to Jesus, \u201cremember me when you come into your kingdom<\/em>\u201d\nto which Jesus responds, \u201cAmen, I say to\nyou, today you will be with me in Paradise.<\/em>\u201d  The good criminal is good because he\nrepents.  Because he repents, Jesus\nforgives him and welcomes him into his kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus dies for our sins.  This was the reason for his Crucifixion.  He was not crucified because of the crowds\ncalling out, \u201cCrucify him!<\/em>\u201d  He was crucified because it was the Father\u2019s\nWill.  It was not easy for him.  In the garden, Jesus prayed, \u201cFather, if you are willing, take this cup\naway from me; still, not my will but yours be done<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not always easy to do God\u2019s\nwill.  God will give us the grace we need.  When we fall short, He will forgive us if we\ngive our lives to him, praying as Jesus did, \u201cFather, into your hands I commend my spirit.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year CFirst Gospel \u2013 Luke 19:28-40Isaiah 50:4-7Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 (2a)Philippians 2:6-11Luke 22:14-23:56April 14, 2019 Today we mark the beginning of Holy Week.  We began our Mass today by hearing the gospel story of Jesus\u2019 entry in Jerusalem as He began the first Holy Week. He …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year C – 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":[26,82,260],"tags":[586,584,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-JR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843"}],"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=2843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2844,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}