Homily for Palm Sunday

Homily for Palm Sunday

April 14, 2019

Luke 22: 14—23:56
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

“This is your hour, the time for the power of darkness” (Luke 22: 53).  Jesus speaks those words to the temple guard and the elders who’ve come to arrest him.

One way of looking at the passion of our Lord is as a great cosmic struggle between “the  power of darkness,” Satan and his allies, and God our Creator, who called forth light out of darkness and who sent his Son into the world to bring the light back.

St. Luke concludes his account of the temptations of Jesus, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time” (4:13).  Now he’s back; it is his hour, not to tempt Jesus but to try to crush him and crush his Father’s plan for our redemption.

Satan has his allies:  the Jewish leaders who hate Jesus; Judas, who sells out his master for 30 pieces of silver (cf. 22:3-6); Pontius Pilate, who knowingly and cowardly condemns an innocent man (23:4); Herod, interested in Jesus only as entertainment and not as the Word of God (23:8-11); the crowd of onlookers at Jesus execution, and one of the criminals crucified with him, who mock him (23:35-37,39)—perhaps a final temptation that Jesus should despair and renounce the Father who appears to have abandoned him.

by Paolo Veronese

All the powers of darkness align against Jesus and have their brief, apparent victory:  “It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land” (23:44).  But Jesus prays to his Father, surrenders to what the Father requires—that he proclaim the truth and not run away.  He offers a final act of service to the human race—“I am among you as one who serves” (22:27).  He freely makes himself the Passover lamb whose blood staves off the angel of death, Satan, as he tries to conquer the world.  Jesus perseveres to the point of commending his soul to his Father as he dies (23:46).

This great cosmic battle between darkness and light, between evil and good, between Satan and Christ, forms one of the classic themes of literature.  To speak just of the last several generations, we’ve anxiously followed the Fellowship of the Ring in their battles with the Dark Lord Sauron; the Jedi knights combating Darth Vader and the Empire; and Harry Potter and his pals striving to outwit Voldemort.  But the battle’s very real, and it involves us—which is why its literary forms are so powerful.

I suppose the Devil knows he’s already lost the war:  Christ has risen, Christ lives, Christ offers redemption to all of us.  But Satan’s not a quitter, and he’s too proud to submit.  Vengefully, he continues the battle, trying to destroy goodness—and people—as much as he can.  He has his allies in every age—the monstrous villains of history like Mao, Stalin, and Hitler within our living memory; as well as lesser ones:  warlords, Mafiosi, drug dealers, abortionists, human traffickers, child molesters, etc.

Satan wants you and me too.  So the war for our souls goes on.  Christ has shed his blood to cleanse our sins, and it’s our choice to let that blood wash over us and then to stand with him thru the culture wars and our personal temptations, as the faithful women from Galilee stayed with Jesus at Calvary (23:49) and eventually discovered his empty tomb and became the 1st to announce the resurrection (24:1-10).  Like Jesus, each of us will someday be asked to commend our souls to God in a final act of free and generous surrender.

All the forces of darkness and hatred arrayed against us could discourage us—which would immensely please the Prince of Darkness.  But when we observe Jesus during his passion, we see his constant compassion.  He encourages Peter even as he acknowledges that Peter will fail in a moment of weakness (22:31-34).  He appeals to Judas at the moment of betrayal:  “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (22:48).  As he’s being arrested, he heals the high priest’s servant (22:51).  He consoles the mourning daughters of Jerusalem on his way to Calvary (23:27-31).  He forgives his executioners (23:34)—presumably not only the soldiers obeying their orders, who probably include some of the same men who’d tortured him hours earlier, but also those responsible for his condemnation.  He promises salvation to the criminal who asks for it (23:43).  Jesus is totally focused on those who need healing, comfort, and redemption, and not on himself even in those most awful moments of his life:  “I am among you as one who serves.”

In his opposition to Sauron and his minions, Gandalf is a Christ figure, but he’s not the light of the world.  Luke Skywalker fights “the dark side” and the evil Empire but is not the light of the world.  By offering himself in a Christ-like sacrifice, Harry Potter defeats Voldemort, but he’s not the light of the world.

Christ the Light of the World

on grounds of USCCB, Washington

Jesus Christ is the light of the world.  He has conquered the darkness.  In him God said, “Let there be light, and there was light” (cf. Gen 1:3).  His compassion offers us God’s mercy.  His blood washes us clean.  His light burns away our sins.  We come today to feast at table with him in this foretaste of the kingdom of heaven.  We come to his altar to offer to the Father the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and to offer ourselves at the same time.  We come to this Eucharist full of faith that thru it this day we commune with him Paradise (cf. 23:43).