Palm Sunday Homily
By Deacon Dick Kostner
It’s been said that when we leave this life that there will be displayed to us a film of our life here on earth before God enters eternal judgment on us. After listening to Fr. Victor’s homily on Ash Wednesday I came to the realization that we are able to view a trailer on a yearly basis of what that film will reveal before our final judgment is entered. Our story will begin on a happy note, a Palm Sunday view of our life. High points in our life, our birth into the Kingdom of God when we were baptized and adopted into the Holy Family. A time of happiness, a time where we feel the oneness of family love, peace, and brotherhood. A time when palms are waived because of our presence and our contributions of goodness we have delivered to those we have helped move to a higher level of existence.
Then the movie will continue. We will then witness times in our life when we were afraid and unsure of our mission in life because it has carried within us failures that are a part of human existence. Times when we were unsuccessful in accomplishing goals we had set up for our life plan and times when we were tempted to follow evil and destructive paths within our lives. Times when we listened to mentors who were not truthful in their instruction, and things just kept getting worse, and we started crying for help and instruction and went off to a place by ourselves to pray for divine intervention.
The story continues with some good times that keep us going. Times when we gathered with friends and family to share a meal and tell stories about our happy times looking for a return to Palm Sunday celebrations and support from our family and friends. Here we again pray together for wisdom and deliverance from the fear of death of the happy times of Palm Sunday. The story continues. We enter a time when our friends appear to abandon us. We feel alone and helpless. Even our heavenly Father seems to not hear our prayers for help and yes we are asked to have faith even when death cannot be avoided and we cry out, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit,” and the darkness of death settles in and we feel the abandonment of body. But we realize that it is not over, for our spirit is still present and we realize that we still have an existence even in the darkness of the death experience. Our bodies have been reduced to ashes but there still exists within those ashes the spirit of life, friendship, and love.
We wait patiently to once again see the light of a new day, a new Palm Sunday where we will see our friends, and Holy Family. A time when Palms will once again be waived at us in joy and friendship. And then it happens. We hear something. Something big is being moved and we see the first rays of Easter Sunday light peaking through, as the rock of darkness is rolled away and the Sun of God shines at us and waves at us to come out of darkness and join Him for our birthday celebration of everlasting life. And yes we are promised that our body ashes will be reconstituted and join our spirit in completeness at the end of time. It is Holy Week that reveals our destiny. It is the Way of the Cross.
Let us pray, reflecting upon these words:
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
All that is not of God must die
All that is crushed will be restored
All that is lost will be made new
God may we repent of ways that do not serve you
And admit to the tensions that tell us where we need to change
Christ is coming walking towards the cross
God may we see him clearly
Pouring out love
Pouring out mercy
Pouring out peace
May we kneel before him in humble adoration
May we take up our cross and follow
And walk with Christ into the ways of life.
And our mind tells us:
REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL, AMEN!
Wishing all of you a blessed Holy Week and a joy-filled Easter Sunday!
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