Homily for Palm Sunday, March 29th, 2026

Perhaps what impresses us the most in this Passion Narrative by St. Matthew is the fact that Jesus does not defend himself.  

The script that the Father had chosen for him calls for him to be made sport of, to be betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, struck, beaten, crowned with thorns, flogged and nailed to a cross. 

This shocking fact offers us a splendid opportunity to assess the level of our trust in God our Father. 

I am not referring to our duty to protect ourselves and our loved ones from very serious threats to life and property. 

I am referring to unfairness due to having been ignored, slighted, overlooked, unrecognized in our accomplishments. I am talking about people spreading rumors about us, speaking of us in unflattering fashion, embarrassing us by pointing out our mistakes, and so on. 

To help us assess our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father to defend us and our reputation if he sees fit to do so, let me place people at different moral levels.  

At the lowest moral level, we find those who are so weak that they cannot own up to any mistake of theirs. They have a list of ready excuses and a list of scapegoats. 

At a slightly higher level, we find those who are unwilling to take responsibility for their errors and make amends.  

At the next level there are those who naturally minimize their mistakes and direct attention to the mistakes of others. 

But we have also those who are magnanimous and try hard to understand why people act the way they do; they turn a blind eye to other people’s faults. 

At a much higher level we encounter the few who refuse to defend themselves, trusting blindly in the Father to defend them, if he thinks necessary to do so, or they let things stay as they are, waiting for them to settle down and for the truth to come up. Like Jesus, these saintly people shoulder even the mistakes of others. 

We have a week, this Holy Week, to reflect on our natural reaction to injustices leveled against us. 

Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who treated him in such a cruel and unfair way. 

Jesus shouldered all the sins and all the mistakes of all people across the world, across the millennia and was crushed by them until the Father raised him from death and gave him eternal glory in the resurrection. 

Now, the moral level at which we find ourselves is not important; what is important is our resolve to grow in our trust in God our Father so that, by the end of our life on earth, we may deserve a share in the glory that the Father bestowed on his Son Jesus. 

Amen.