Palm Sunday, Year C Lk 22,14-23

The liturgy of Holy Week is so rich and beautiful that the priest can disturb its beauty with his sermon. Passions on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, as well as other symbolism of Easter ceremonies, can fill the soul with a perceptive believer so much that, humanly speaking, it already contains, there is no place for further thoughts of even the most beautiful sermon. And that is why in many parishes, especially outside the borders of our homeland, priests do not preach at this time. However, it requires precise internal preparation for understanding Easter ceremonies.

In Holy Week, the Church celebrates the most basic mysteries of our salvation, with which the Lord Jesus, in the last days of his earthly life, starting with his solemn entry into Jerusalem through the suffering and crucifixion of Good Friday, to the solemn resurrection at the Easter Vigil, he fulfilled his Messianic mission. Today, together with the Hebrew children, we also met the Lord and enthusiastically cried: „Hosanna to the Son of David!“ It is translated into Slovak either as „ long live king,“ or „ very much you, Lord, we ask for help.“

At the turn of the fifties and sixties of the last century, filmmakers filmed a documentary about a village on the Czech border, in the Sudetenland. It was after the removal of German residents to Germany and the arrival of new residents from all over the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Among the new settlers were many criminals and adventurers, who began looting churches and agricultural estates in the mentioned region. The movie was supposed to be called „Programmed destruction“. Dried trees, neglected fields, ravaged buildings, and a church torn down on the hill evoked the whole terrible post-war atmosphere. Then one of the cameramen remarked: „This is the land that God has left!“ His colleague, the illuminator, replied: „O no. This is the land that has left God!“ He thus quoted the words of the Lord Jesus: „ I wanted to call you, and you didn’t want to, you left me…“

We know that among the apostles, it was not only Judas who was unfaithful to him. Peter also denied him three times. When he was sitting outside in the courtyard, a maid came to him and said: „You too were with Jesus of Galilee!“ But he denied in front of everyone: „ I don’t know what you are saying.“ When he went out to the gate, another saw him and said to those who were there: „This one was with Jesus of Nazareth!“ He denied with an oath: „I don’t know that person.“ After a while, those standing there approached and said to Peter: “Certainly, you are also one of them, because even your speech betrays you!“ That’s when he started cursing and swearing: „I don’t know that person.“ And then the rooster sang. (Mt 26,69 75) – When considering this triple denial, we find that Peter denied Jesus, did not confess to the other apostles, and even denied his national identity, his native language.

Unfortunately, this was repeated in the lives of many Christians during communist totalitarianism, and it is still happening today. We renounce Jesus, the Church, nationality, language, and slowly renounce our spiritual, Christian roots and principles, belonging to our nation, to the Cyril-Method heritage. On Good Friday, those he healed also massively left Jesus with bread and fish and gave him their Divine love. Guided by the fear of the powerful of this world, they were manipulated by the psychosis of the crowd, which had already done so much evil in human history.

Many places in Latin America are inhabited by people who have many customs associated with Palm Sunday. In a particular city, they have the habit of choosing a kind of Easter king on Palm Sunday and solemnly leading him to the coronation in front of the town hall. According to one account, Manuelito, a poor, religious church singer, was once elected king. Everyone liked him because of his cheerful and modest nature. Enthusiastic cries were heard in the solemn procession – glory to Manuelito, our king!  Manuelito, you said. If I were king, I would also make my solemn speech. With his ringing voice, he spoke to the gathered people like this: „My dear natives. You chose me as king. Today is Palm Sunday, many of you have been to Holy Mass in the church and listened to our pastor’s sermon. He preached to us about how much Jesus loves us and is waiting for our answer. With our ardent Christian life, renunciation of sinful life, swearing, drinking and marital infidelity, we are obliged to accept Christ’s love, which led him to Golgotha, where for us, he died on the cross for our salvation. Therefore, let’s change our life and our town will flourish again, pleasing God. I surrender my crown that you have placed on my head and your kingdom to the Eternal King, dear Jesus.“ At that moment, as Manuelito finished his speech, people began to shout lewd words at him, throw stones at him, and tear the royal crown from his head. Immediately, they elected someone else as king, who had barrels of beer and tequila brought to them.

Brothers and sisters, the masses will be passionate about good and evil within minutes. And so the same crowds that shouted to Jesus on Palm Sunday, „Hosanna,“ are already shouting on Good Friday, „Let us go Barabbas! Away with Jesus! Away with him! Crucify him, crucify him!“ Beloved brothers and sisters, let us defend our Lord and King Jesus Christ. Even if we were unfaithful in something, we still have time to turn to him and ask for his forgiveness. In the sacrament of penance, he will cleanse our hearts, fill them with new faith, hope, and love. In the Eucharist, he will enter them and make them his throne, and we will become the inhabitants of his Divine Kingdom.