Homily at the Blessing of
Palms
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s
Passion
Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ,
May
the Lord give you peace! Centuries ago, as Jesus prepared to enter into the
city of Jerusalem in triumph, the people came out to meet him. Who can say
precisely why they gathered around him? Some, no doubt, wanted simply to see
him. Others surely wanted to hear what he would say. Still others perhaps came
out only to see what the commotion was about.
Today
we, too, have come to gather around “Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in
Galilee,” but why have we come (Matthew 21:11)? What are the motives of our
hearts? As with that first procession with palms, some have surely come out of
mere curiosity; others because parents have insisted they come; and others yet
simply to fulfill an obligation. But some have no doubt come because they truly
want to meet Jesus the Christ.
My
friends, in his Apostolic Exhortation EvangeliiGaudium, Pope Francis has given us an urgent invitation. He writes:
I invite all Christians,
everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus
Christ, or at least to an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of
you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation
is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by
the Lord” (3).
Carrying,
then, the palms of his victory in our hands, let us clear the road of our
hearts before him to encounter him anew.
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