Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

Mark 14:32- 15:47

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            All of us would do well to be wary of compliments.  Believe me, I enjoy being complimented as much as the next guy, but I have learned that compliments often amount to little more than flattery.  That is, I have been the recipient of many compliments that in actuality had little to do with me—people offered kind words about me only in order to butter me up, so they could get from me what they wanted.  Genuine compliments are an act of self-oblation, an expression of love for the person who has done well and deserves to be commended.  Flattery, on the other hand, is an act of manipulation, an attempt to extract goods and services from someone without resort to the explicit threat of force.

            Based on what happened later, we must conclude that our first Gospel today was an exercise in flattery.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem and the multitudes spread garments and branches before Him as signs of their affection.  Then they sing His praises, exclaiming, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Now if these were true compliments we would expect that these people would stick with Jesus and exclaim the same compliments on Good Friday as they did on Palm Sunday.  But they do not.

            The expressions of affection that we witness on Palm Sunday turn into words of hatred come Good Friday.  In the span of five days, the multitudes go from proclaiming Jesus their king to asking, begging, the Roman governor to put Him to death.  Thus, their compliments were not genuine at all and are exposed for what they really are:  flattery.  So we must wonder:  What did the people want?  What were the people trying to extract from Jesus with their kind words?

            We must remember that Jerusalem at the time was occupied territory, occupied by the Roman army and part of the Roman Empire.  Many Jews awaited an earthly savior along the lines of their father David who had ruled a Jewish empire that encompassed many nations and thousands of square miles of territory.  To their minds, the messiah would come to lead a rebellion that would throw off the Roman yoke of oppression and usher in a new era of Jewish hegemony in the Middle East.  The multitudes flattered Jesus, imaging that their insincere compliments might push Him in the direction of a revolutionary, the direction they wanted Him to go so He could lead their revolution.

            When we understand this context, it then comes as no surprise that so many in the crowds that welcomed Him on Sunday would demand His death on Friday.  For those who expected a revolutionary savior, the crucifixion of Jesus is their payback for Him not giving them what they wanted.  Our Lord’s Passion is the fury of a child who has not gotten his way, and this fury reveals for us the true nature of flattery.

            Flattery, we see, is used by violent people who for the moment do not want to be violent.  They ascribe to the notion that one can get more bees with honey than with vinegar, but as they present the honey, they merely hide the vinegar behind their backs.  We see this often with children who can be the sweetest angels as they kiss you and caress your hair as they prepare to ask you for a piece of candy.  And as you must refuse them because dinner will be served in a moment, they suddenly are transformed into the most terrifying devils, revealing that the kisses they offered had all been for them.  The violent temper tantrum is the price the parent pays for refusing to succumb to the wiles of flattery, as the child shows his true colors.

            Hearing both the Gospel of the Palms and the Passion of our Lord on the same day thus teaches us several lessons.  First, we will not succeed in any attempt to flatter Jesus Christ.  Whatever expressions of affection, penitence, or thanksgiving we offer up must certainly be heartfelt, must certainly be acts of self-oblation, if we hope to gain the ear of our Lord, if we wish our prayers to be answered.  We see that flattery did not move Him to give the people what they wanted, and he is more than able to endure the fury of His spoiled children when they become upset because He will not give them their way.  Remember that flattery is the first resort of those who eventually will throw temper tantrums, and then commit yourself to developing the contrite and humble spirit we must have if we ever hope to stand before the throne of grace.  We cannot manipulate our way into heaven; so flattery of every sort must be banished from our life of prayer and praise to God.

            Second, if we desire to be faithful disciples of Jesus, we must respond to flattery in the same way He did—by not responding to it at all.  Jesus was not swayed by the flattery of the crowds any more than He was swayed from His purpose by their fury.  As human beings living in a world afflicted by sin, we must expect that people will try to flatter us.  Disguising their manipulating intent as compliments, our neighbors, friends and relatives will flatter us to get from us what they want.  Remember in these moments that God does not desire us to manipulate each other, but to love one another.  We are called not to exhort concessions from each other alternatively through kind words and temper tantrums, but to make sacrifices for each other akin to the sacrifice Jesus made for the Church.  We will be of far greater service to our fellow man if, like Jesus, we give him what he needs, not what he thinks he can get from us through flattery.

            Finally, the third lesson we glean from these Gospels we heard today is that we better be prepared for the negative and violent reaction we will receive when we disappoint the flatterer.  The insults, the blows, the scourges, the crown of thorns, the spitting, the whipping and finally the crucifixion were the price Jesus paid to demonstrate how much He loves those who would manipulate Him.  And yet He would not, for all this violence, allow Himself to be manipulated.  To follow Jesus, we must be prepared to take a similar amount of abuse to avoid giving into those who are spiritually immature and so desperately need to see an example of what it means truly to love someone.  That is, love is not giving people everything they desire.  Love means pointing people to Jesus, even if doing so means we end up hanging from a cross just like His.

            So let these palms be a reminder to you not to try to flatter God.  God is not swayed by flattery, and we should not be either.  Rather, God is swayed by love, the love He showed us, the love we are to show, and the genuine, mature love we ought to expect others to show us.