Palm Sunday 2008

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Palm Sunday 2008
Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
March 16, 2008

Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken; he went out and began to weep bitterly.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

I mentioned last Sunday the short sentence from the account of the death of Lazarus and his resurrection. “And Jesus wept.” Jesus wept even though he knew Lazarus had died in his friendship. These were people who loved Jesus and He loved them and was moved to tears. Jesus, who is God Himself, is so filled with compassion that He wept at the scene.

In today’s Gospel we see a very different kind of weeping…the weeping of Peter. He wept bitterly because he’d betrayed Jesus. Thirty pieces of silver can be compared to how He is betrayed today in household after household. Instead of thirty pieces of silver think of thirty minutes. Yes, I know that whenever the television is turned on parents are always saying to the children to come in, it is EWTN. Right? No, just as in this Gospel today, the beautiful Passion of Christ comes into living rooms today with “Give us Barabbas!” Imagine television without criminals or murderers and you see a very truncated version of television.

This week we have to imitate Our Lord’s humility, who rode into Jerusalem in the most humble way that a King could, on a donkey. You and I must humble ourselves and avoid the distractions that surround us. What happens if seven days from now you have been fasting from politics? Will you discover that politics have now gone away or died? No, it will be there even if you set it aside for seven days, and all of the things that seem to call our attention are insignificant. I have seen more than one senior citizen out on the lawn picking Dandelions. Dandelions and other weeds in Texas are cold weather weeds, so when the warm weather comes, which is going to come in oh…fifteen minutes, then they go away. But people have taken their post out on the lawn; it is like a grail to remove these weeds and Dandelions. If as a Confessor I would assign that as a penance there would be calls of extremism. But people can adopt this posture and not be able to walk for days after and somehow it is ok. I don’t think the Communist Chinese would allow their people to do this. Over there they would probably be eating the weeds they pick because they are so poor in China in many ways.

This week you and I are going to be tempted to continue on with this week as any other week, doing the same things, listening to the same things, or watching the same things. These are distractions and you and I must focus on Holy Week; it is HIS week. It is the week of Our Lord, which leads up to His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

Last Sunday we had Martha and Mary, who were two other friends of Jesus. Do you remember the part of the Gospel last Sunday where Jesus was on His way to Bethany and had not yet arrived at the tomb when Martha went out to meet him but Mary sat at home? I know where she sat and I know what she did. I was thinking about that part of the Gospel from last Sunday where it says Mary sat at home. Why would she do that? Why would it be mentioned and why not just cut that out? I believe that Mary sat at home in the same place she sat on the floor next to the feet of Jesus when He visited their home. Do you remember the story, where Martha is in the kitchen banging pots and pans, ordering Jesus to order her sister to help?

Martha, Martha you are upset about many things; Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be denied her.

If Mary could not be in the physical presence of Jesus then her heart would be joined with His Sacred Heart and I believe that this is just what Mary was doing while she sat at home. The only thing that moved her was the prospect of the physical presence of Christ.

Now, thirty pieces of silver….St. Peter, an Apostle, Judas, an Apostle, both of who were chosen personally by God both denied Him in their own way. One denied Christ unto death and wept bitterly and took his own life. This was Judas. The other wept bitterly and with confidence sought the forgiveness of Christ. This was Peter. This week when you are tempted to go back to the same treasonous behavior, welcoming Barabbas or the modern day versions of Barabbas, the criminals, the evildoers of whatever kind into your living room…don’t do it!

The Apostles were given the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity at the Last Supper and then invited to make the first Holy Hour at Gethsemane where they began to fall asleep even though Jesus told them to stay awake and pray so that they may not be put to the test. During such a beautiful chanting of the Passion, isn’t it amazing how firm our purpose is and then a moment later we too are falling asleep. It shows you the score of how weak we are and yet Jesus tells us to stay awake and pray that we may not be put to the test, lest we weep over our sins like St. Peter when he denied Christ three times and even swearing an oath.

Did you notice where Mary was seated at the end of today’s Gospel? She and the other Mary had positioned themselves directly across from the tomb of Christ, looking at a rock sealing the tomb of Jesus. Why would they sit there? Nothing they could do there! No, they knew that on the other side of that rock, wrapped in linen just like the linen on this Altar, was the Body of Christ and they were in vigil there at the tomb, which is where you and I should be this week. Whatever you have to do, clear the deck. Whatever you have to do to focus on Christ as St. Mary Magdalene did, do it. It is not your week, my week, or someone else’s week, it is Holy Week and it is His week, and if you and I don’t have the internal strength to do this we need to pray for it so that we will not come to Easter and weep bitterly because we have betrayed Christ every day this week again and again by turning it into just another one of the 52 weeks in the rotation.



Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken; he went out and began to weep bitterly.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen