Palm Sunday
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
April 13, 2025
Enthusiasm vs. Hope
In one short historic week, the mood of the crowds changed dramatically. As this Palm Sunday liturgy opened, we re-lived that moment in time when the Christ entered his own city of Jerusalem in triumph to cries of “Hosanna in the highest!” Palm branches were waved and cloaks spread in his path as for a conquering king . . . the crowd is wildly enthusiastic.
By week’s end, everything is different. The cheers of Palm Sunday are replaced by jeers of Good Friday. The conquering king is suddenly a criminal to be crucified. No matter that the charges against this man were unfounded. No matter that he cured the sick, raised the dead, and spoke like no other. He had to go. No longer could this divisive Galilean be tolerated.
Yet in the midst of the jeering mob were people who thought differently. Even as their Lord and Messiah was condemned, weighted down with the Cross, and led to the Skull Place, their hearts throbbed with hope . . . . Indeed, they hoped against hope. After all, did not the Lord himself say that he would be crucified only to rise on the third day?
What changed the mood of the crowds in the course of a week? The answer is nothing. The crowds simply traded in one enthusiasm for another. Enthusiasm shifts like the desert sands driven by the wind. Hope is different. Hope takes in what faith teaches and makes it the anchor of one’s life. Those who had hope knew that Jesus entered Jerusalem, not for fleeting accolades but to give his life for the salvation of the world. We meet these hopeful souls along the Way of the Cross. His mother Mary. The women of Jerusalem. The good thief. The ever-discreet Nicodemus. Joseph of Arimathea. These were men and women whose hope has shone through the ages. Its glow reaches us again today, as we enter upon Holy Week.
Jubilee of Hope
Pope Francis has set aside 2025 as a Jubilee Year dedicated to hope. Even as he struggles with his own mortality, he calls us to be pilgrims of hope. Hope is not wishful thinking or vague optimism. Hope gives us the trust in God we need to face ourselves, the trust we need to seek and find the healing and mercy of Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the trust we need to be courageous witnesses to Christ and to his Gospel. Thus do we follow the Savior all the way to Calvery, still singing our Hosannas!
On this Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem yet again for our sake. Let him also enter into the depth of our hearts. When he enters into our interior selves, may we spread before him not cloaks and palm branches but rather complete trust born of hope. Just as Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world, so also may we allow him to enter those regions of our souls yet untouched by God’s grace. In courageous hope, we stake the whole of our lives on the One who loved us so much that ‘he emptied himself, took the form of a slave, and embraced the Cross’, the very mystery that is the heart and soul of the Church’s Eucharistic liturgy. Say to the One by whose wounds we are healed, “Jesus, I trust in Thee!”
Then as now the crowds are fickle in their enthusiasms. Let us not be swept away by any earthly enthusiasm but anchored in supernatural hope. Let us walk the way of the Cross in resolute hope, the only way that leads to Resurrection and eternal life. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”