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Two-Minute Homily by Fr Peter Dillon for Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) 2024.
“Traditionally during Holy week, we focus on the sufferings of Jesus. Rather, it is holy because of the inexplicable and immeasurable love that prompted that suffering.”

• Two-Minute Homily Transcript

  Two-Minute Homily Transcript

  Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane

  
  Traditionally during Holy week, we focus on the sufferings of Jesus. However, it is not suffering, not even the suffering of Jesus that makes this week holy. Rather, it is holy because of the inexplicable and immeasurable love that prompted that suffering. Genuine love often empowers, even transforms us. We know that love of family can engender unselfishness, the love of country can inspire heroism. And this week we see that, driven by love for all, Jesus willingly accepted the consequences of his messianic role.

  Today’s readings, like the events of this week, begin with excitement that is electric and acclaim that is unabashed, but they end in numbing devastation and a sense of emptiness. It’s too easy to say that people were fickle then, one moment supporting Jesus, the next rejecting him. It was probably a case of frustrated expectations. They cheered him as the son of David, and when he failed to act like a conquering king, they turned their backs on him and looked for another.

  Now, this type of behaviour is not difficult to understand, because we too, unfortunately, give up on people when they don’t meet our expectations. This week is holy because of love, but it’s love misunderstood. Jesus is a hero, but not in the traditional pattern of heroism. He looks more like a victim. He’s not triumphant, and we understand triumph. Instead, he appears as a failure. Now, judging by one set of standards, not unlike the standards of many of the people of his day, he has not met our expectations either.

  But according to another standard, the standard of unconditional love, he has far surpassed all our expectations. The conditions of our world may make us think that this is a terrible week, not a holy week. However, we can change this, if only in some small way. We can make it holy if we practice some of the unconditional love that Jesus displayed. We can make it holy if we begin to realise the depth of God’s magnanimous love. We can make it holy if we appreciate that what we have as family, as country and freedom and faith is not a right but a gift. From a God who held nothing back to let us know how serious he was.