Palm Sunday—2002 Homily

Well here we are, its Palm Sunday already and we hardly feel the new year has begun, each year it comes on us quicker. And where are our Lenten resolutions now?

Perhaps we made some resolutions, perhaps we took on some extra penance, some extra spiritual duty, where is it now? Full marks if you have kept it up. But if you haven't don't be despondent. Our Lord knows that we are well intentioned but that so often we are unable to live up to them.

We now begin, with the solemn entry of Christ into Jerusalem, the week we call Holy Week. It is the greatest week in the Church's year. It is the liturgical high point. We have heard today the story in the words of St Matthew of Christ's suffering and death, we now follow this last journey in our liturgy. We follow him into the upper room, we wash feet, we celebrate the last supper, we watch with him in Gethsemane. We are there at the arrest, the trial and the scourging, and we ascend the hill of Calvary and are there at his death.

We then solemnly wait, and with a burst of light, and song celebrate his glorious resurrection. And at this high point of the year we baptise and confirm adults, initiating them into the new life of Christ. We begin our Easter celebrations which take us for fifty days on to the great feast of Pentecost.

It is an important week we have ahead of us, a week in which we can be especially united to Christ, a week which can renew in us all that it means to be a Christian, a week of renewal in faith and in hope.

So, if you failed in your Lenten resolutions, or perhaps if you didn't get round to even making a Lenten resolution; don't worry. There is one week left. The most important week. Think of it as a mini-Lent. Realise that our Lord will be pleased with whatever you offer him. And during this week in which he gave everything he had to give to us, even to the shedding of his blood, the least we can do is make some small sacrifice.

It may be only for a week, but do something.

An old couple lived on a farm on the prairie, they worked very hard all day long. But is was their special pleasure to sit on the veranda each evening for an hour or two to quietly wind down. They would have a glass of something, she might do a bit of knitting, he might dose in the chair. They looked forward to that quiet hour or so all day.

One evening there was an absolutely stunning sunset, the kind you only get on the prairie where with no hills you get the full view of the sky. It was a breath-taking sunset. And the old lady when she looked up from her knitting was filled with awe, she reached over to her husband to wake him from his doze telling him about the wonderful sunset. He opened half an eye and said: Oh, so what, it's just another sunset.

Please don't say: Oh, so what, it's just another Holy Week.