Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on Palm Sunday (Year B) on March 28, 2021, at St. Austin Catholic Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Mark 11:1-10; Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; and Mark 14:1 – 15:47.

357 days ago, we celebrated a most unusual Palm Sunday. We allowed a grand total of 9 people in the church – staff and liturgical ministers only. We did not distribute or bless palms. We livestreamed the Mass from my smartphone, attached to cheap microphones, mounted in a tripod, precariously placed on some rickety tables in the front center aisle. 

We still may not be having a “normal” Palm Sunday celebration, but at least we have some palms and some people here this year. It’s always hard to mimic the enthusiasm of the crowds in Jerusalem on that original Palm Sunday, but at least this year, may we be truly grateful for what we have! 

Dear brothers and sisters, like the crowds who acclaimed Jesus in Jerusalem, let us move forward in peace.

We’re in the last few days of Lent, a season that is supposed prepare us for the paschal feasts ahead. But is that really how most of us think about Lent?

A lot of us think of the deprivations and penances of Lent as a dress rehearsal for recalling Jesus’ agony, passion, and crucifixion. By reflecting on our sinfulness, so the reasoning goes in this mindset, we are more prepared to enter into the brutality of what Jesus endured in the last 24 hours of his life.

The Gospel of Mark seems to end with suffering and defeat. Jesus dies alone, lamenting the opening words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” while some women not previously mentioned watch from a distance. 

In 2021, Lent may have felt unnecessary for a lot of us. We’ve had so much deprivation in the past twelve months, and many of us have had to face our temptations in stark ways during a year of isolation.

During the reading of the Passion on both Palm Sunday and Good Friday, there’s a tendency to pretend that we don’t know the rest of the story. But the Passion has meaning only in the context of the entire paschal mystery. Christ humbled himself even to the point of death, and because of this, the Father greatly exalted him. Lent isn’t supposed to prepare us only for Christ’s agony, passion, and death; Lent prepares us also for living in the new creation.

How can we use Lent to prepare for the Last Supper and every subsequent Eucharist? Our hunger pangs can make us aware of the hundreds of millions of people in the world who go hungry every day. Our almsgiving should make a difference for those in need, and our extra prayer allows the Holy Spirit to inspire us to advocate for them. Our hunger for the Eucharist should connect to our hunger for righteousness!

How can we use Lent as a pulling back of the catapult to lob us into being reborn in Christ? We can reach out to the lost and the broken. We can reconcile with people from whom we’ve drifted away. Christ’s victory over death strengthens our resolve to make the world more merciful, more just, and more equitable.

The pandemic isn’t over yet – not by a long shot. Yes, soon many of us will have our vaccinations. But in this season of beautiful weather, as we slowly begin to venture out, we will discover a world in need of healing. Everyone’s mental health has taken a beating. Some of us have become more aware of the disparities in health and economic outcomes for people of different races, in different industries, and in different ZIP codes. If we’ve treated Lent as a meditative time to only look inward, we’ve missed the point. Let’s make the most of the remaining time we have this Lent before beginning the Paschal Triduum on Thursday evening.

Jesus cried out the beginning lament of Psalm 22 from the cross, but surely he knew the entirety of the psalm, including the following verses:

The poor will eat their fill; those who seek the LORD will offer praise.… 
The generation to come will be told of the Lord,
that they may proclaim… the deliverance you have brought.

It seems as if we have been in a perpetual Lent since March of 2020. Let us take this holiest of weeks to ask what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown, so that we may use the totality of our lives to proclaim the totality of the Paschal mystery to the generations yet to come.