As Holy Week begins, please reflect on the fine homily preached by Fr. Martin Linebach at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville on Palm Sunday morning this year.
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – 2021
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Pain is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads.
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.
Today we begin Holy Week – a day of fleeting triumph when Jesus enters the great city of Jerusalem. Next Sunday is another day of triumph – of lasting triumph. In between is a strange mixture of joy and pain – of sorrow and fear known to all of us human beings. We may talk as much as we like about joy – contentment and peace – but only a fool believes that Christians have the recipe for a trouble-free- golden future. We don’t. Human experience – yours and mine – tells us that human life is complex – confusing – even tragic.
At this very moment – you may be sitting close to someone who is carrying a great burden of suffering or tragedy. Most sit in silence.
Young as well as old – who are crippled by disease or broken bodies. There are those who suffer from frightening depressions – or from dark emotional struggles while their families stand by helplessly. There are those who feel unloved and unwanted and unworthy.
Each Sunday – people enter the doors of our Cathedral – or they are at home praying with us via livestream. That means – because we have the burden of crosses to bear – there are some among us who cannot face life without drink or other artificial props. There are some among us who carry around within themselves the burden of a terrible past mistake – a mistake which may have diminished them – or set them out in isolation from family or friends.
Each Sunday – there are among us persons caught up in the agony of mistaken marriages – or people technically living in sin because they can find no other way to live. There are others faced with moral dilemmas because the world informs them that this is normal.
There are among us some who are victims of persistent temptations or compulsive urges – that nothing seems to help them become victorious over activities that bruise the body or the soul. There are those crippled with guilt they cannot release.
We are here today because —
There is nothing that can change God’s love for us. He accepts us as we are but loves us too much to have us stay there. We are the ones who sometimes have difficulty in accepting ourselves! Palm Sunday begins to help us take into our hearts by gazing at what He did for us on the Holy Cross … Because of God’s undying care for us … He chose to assume responsibility for each one of us rather than assign blame to any one of us.
Holy Week begins as it ends – in triumph and authenticity – to remind us that suffering is a pilgrimage with a victorious end – not a winding road that leads nowhere. The end of the way of the cross is a fresh love for the Lord. One that is not fake – because fake stuff fades away – but one that is beautiful – true – and eternal.
Little wonder today – every knee should bend –
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord – to the glory of God the Father.
Pain is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.
+Amen
A video of the homily can be found below. It will begin at the 49:11 mark:
