CELEBRATION OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
1. Jesus
enters Jerusalem. The crowd of disciples accompanies him in festive mood, their
garments are stretched out before him, there is talk of the miracles he has
accomplished, and loud praises are heard: “Blessed is the King who comes in the
name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Lk 19:38).
Crowds,
celebrating, praise, blessing, peace: joy fills the air. Jesus has awakened
great hopes, especially in the hearts of the simple, the humble, the poor, the
forgotten, those who do not matter in the eyes of the world. He understands
human sufferings, he has shown the face of God’s mercy, and he has bent down to
heal body and soul.
This is
Jesus. This is his heart which looks to all of us, to our sicknesses, to our
sins. The love of Jesus is great. And thus he enters Jerusalem, with this love,
and looks at us. It is a beautiful scene, full of light - the light of the love
of Jesus, the love of his heart - of joy, of celebration.
At the
beginning of Mass, we too repeated it. We waved our palms, our olive branches.
We too welcomed Jesus; we too expressed our joy at accompanying him, at knowing
him to be close, present in us and among us as a friend, a brother, and also as
a King: that is, a shining beacon for our lives. Jesus is God, but he lowered
himself to walk with us. He is our friend, our brother. He illumines our path
here. And in this way we have welcomed him today. And here the first word that
I wish to say to you: joy! Do not be men and women of sadness: a
Christian can never be sad! Never give way to discouragement! Ours is not a joy
born of having many possessions, but from having encountered a Person: Jesus,
in our midst; it is born from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at
difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and
obstacles that seem insurmountable, and there are so many of them! And in this
moment the enemy, the devil, comes, often disguised as an angel, and slyly
speaks his word to us. Do not listen to him! Let us follow Jesus! We accompany,
we follow Jesus, but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on
his shoulders. This is our joy, this is the hope that we must bring to this
world. Please do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Do not let hope be
stolen! The hope that Jesus gives us.
2. The
second word. Why does Jesus enter Jerusalem? Or better: how does Jesus enter
Jerusalem? The crowds acclaim him as King. And he does not deny it, he does not
tell them to be silent (cf. Lk 19:39-40). But what kind of a King is Jesus?
Let us take a look at him: he is riding on a donkey, he is not accompanied by a
court, he is not surrounded by an army as a symbol of power. He is received by
humble people, simple folk who have the sense to see something more in Jesus;
they have that sense of the faith which says: here is the Saviour. Jesus does
not enter the Holy City to receive the honours reserved to earthly kings, to
the powerful, to rulers; he enters to be scourged, insulted and abused, as
Isaiah foretold in the First Reading (cf. Is 50:6). He enters to receive
a crown of thorns, a staff, a purple robe: his kingship becomes an object of
derision. He enters to climb Calvary, carrying his burden of wood. And this
brings us to the second word: Cross. Jesus enters Jerusalem in order to
die on the Cross. And it is precisely here that his kingship shines forth in
godly fashion: his royal throne is the wood of the Cross! It reminds me of what
Benedict XVI said to the Cardinals: you are princes, but of a king crucified. That
is the throne of Jesus. Jesus takes it upon himself… Why the Cross? Because
Jesus takes upon himself the evil, the filth, the sin of the world, including
the sin of all of us, and he cleanses it, he cleanses it with his blood, with
the mercy and the love of God. Let us look around: how many wounds are
inflicted upon humanity by evil! Wars, violence, economic conflicts that hit
the weakest, greed for money that you can’t take with you and have to leave.
When we were small, our grandmother used to say: a shroud has no pocket. Love
of power, corruption, divisions, crimes against human life and against
creation! And – as each one of us knows and is aware - our personal sins: our
failures in love and respect towards God, towards our neighbour and towards the
whole of creation. Jesus on the Cross feels the whole weight of the evil, and
with the force of God’s love he conquers it, he defeats it with his
resurrection. This is the good that Jesus does for us on the throne of the
Cross. Christ’s Cross embraced with love never leads to sadness, but to joy, to
the joy of having been saved and of doing a little of what he did on the day of
his death.
3. Today in
this Square, there are many young people: for twenty-eight years Palm Sunday
has been World Youth Day! This is our third word: youth! Dear young
people, I saw you in the procession as you were coming in; I think of you
celebrating around Jesus, waving your olive branches. I think of you crying out
his name and expressing your joy at being with him! You have an important part
in the celebration of faith! You bring us the joy of faith and you tell us that
we must live the faith with a young heart, always: a young heart, even at the
age of seventy or eighty. Dear young people! With Christ, the heart never grows
old! Yet all of us, all of you know very well that the King whom we follow and
who accompanies us is very special: he is a King who loves even to the Cross
and who teaches us to serve and to love. And you are not ashamed of his Cross!
On the contrary, you embrace it, because you have understood that it is in
giving ourselves, in giving ourselves, in emerging from ourselves that we have
true joy and that, with his love, God conquered evil. You carry the pilgrim
Cross through all the Continents, along the highways of the world! You carry it
in response to Jesus’ call: “Go, make disciples of all nations” (Mt
28:19), which is the theme of World Youth Day this year. You carry it so as to tell everyone that on the Cross Jesus
knocked down the wall of enmity that divides people and nations, and he brought
reconciliation and peace. Dear friends, I too am setting out on a journey with
you, starting today, in the footsteps of Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI. We are already close to the next stage of this great pilgrimage of the
Cross. I look forward joyfully to next July in Rio de Janeiro! I will see you
in that great city in Brazil! Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in
your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the
whole world. Young people must say to the world: to follow Christ is good; to
go with Christ is good; the message of Christ is good; emerging from ourselves,
to the ends of the earth and of existence, to take Jesus there, is good! Three
points, then: joy, Cross, young people.
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