Palm Sunday 2023 Homily

Franklin Fong, OFM

April 2, 2023

The main theme for today’s lectionary is about the passage through the darkness of suffering and death to the light of joy and life. The dramatic story of Jesus’s life reveals the strengths and weaknesses of people life ourselves who are touched by the painful mystery of human suffering in the presence of a caring God.    

Despite the many different ways of the darkness of his life, Jesus stills chose to be the servant of God. Jesus remains faithful to his Father, true to himself, and finds a way though the darkness of it all.

Notice that when he rides into Jerusalem he asks his disciples to bring him work animals, that is an ass and a colt. This would be a donkey. One would expect that a triumphant entry would be on a beautiful stallion horse, with a soldiers around him. But instead he comes in riding a donkey.  

The consistent message to his disciples and to the people of his time is that he is there to serve the people of God, and not to be their rulers. The disciples are to accompany others on their journeys of faith, and to assist everyone to have a relationship with God.  

The second message of the gospel reading from Matthew is that yes there will be eight different ways that people will relate to you as a disciples of Jesus.  

One way will be with joy and celebration that you have arrived, as we read in the opening scenes of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  

A second way is that some may deny ever having known you or met you.  

A third way might be that someone might even betray you for personal gain.  

A fourth way might be that they are simply put to sleep by being in your presence.  

A fifth way might be with the use of violence in your presence.  

A sixth way might be tur you over to the authorities to be imprisoned and tortured.   

A seventh way might be that persons might convict you of blasphemy or worse.  

And finally an eight way might be that they would actually participate in executing you in public.  

Simply thru the time which has passed since the gospel of Mathew was written, we are aware that all of these 8 ways have been recorded in history. Even as of today, with the war in the Ukraine, we hear that violence is still used as one of the responses to life in the world.

As a man, Jesus finds darkness and negativity in his life, but he trusts in the darkness and his trust transforms it into light. This trust indicates thought he is looking for something greater than his individual life, he knows that this something can only be discovered within the life process. He allows his life to become open to the creative power within him. Jesus experiences the Father’s unconditional love and responds with unconditional love in the face of life’s paradox and absurdity. To love unconditionally is to love the concrete which includes both the good and the unliked. Real faith then is a deliberate choice of reality in its concrete manifestation, whether it be to our liking or not !

Loving one another is usually quite easy to accept when it comes to parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, neighbors etc. But when it comes to the stranger, or even those who have emotionally hurt you, it is not as easy. But yet, Jesus did not put any qualifications on this.  

This is like how we feel about feeding the poor. In the beginning, if we see the poor as deserving this food, we do it. But sometimes we believe they are not deserving of our help. This part in terms of judging another was never said by Jesus. In fact we were told to not judge one another but to be a witness to God’s love in your world. So the lesson is a hard one for us as we age.  

For Jesus, even after he had experienced all eight of these different ways from people, he still chooses to give up his life for them and all the strangers to be born.  

And so it continues in our faith journeys today.  

Can we find it in our hearts to forgive those who did the bombings in the Ukraine or mass murders in our schools? Forgiveness does not mean that they are not responsible for the injury they have caused!  

But can we forgive the perpetrators of these violent acts? 

This is the lesson for Passion Sunday. Just as Jesus forgave all those who hurt him, so much so that he stays on course in his willingness to give his life for others – even the ones who were hurting him.  

And so, as enter Holy Week,

• how do we see ourselves in our ability to generously love one another, and to let God do the judging?  

• Do we trust in God’s purpose and vision for our world?  

• Are we willing to work toward God’s vision for faith, hope and love in this world? 

• How can we as individuals and a community help bring about healing in times of emotional, psychological as well as physical violence in the our life today? 

So brothers and sisters of the Chinese Catholic Community

that is the Good News for this Palm Sunday.

Amen, Amen

(中文翻譯.原文以英文為準.)

四旬期甲年聖枝主日 (04/03/2023)
鄺神父主日講道中譯本

讀經一: 依撒意亞先知書 50: 4-7
讀經二: 聖保祿宗徒致斐理伯人書 2: 6-11
馬竇福音 26: 14-27, 66

今天聖枝主日講道的主題是關於通過穿越苦難和死亡的黑暗，到達喜樂和生命之光。耶穌的戲劇性生平故事揭示了人類生命中的強項和短板，在慈愛天主面前，我們為人類常備受各種痛苦而有所感觸。

儘管祂生命有許多不同形式的黑暗，但耶穌仍然自願地選擇了成為天父的忠僕。耶穌忠心於他的父親，忠於祂自己，並闖開了一條途徑衝破一切的黑暗。

大家有否留意到，當祂光榮進入耶路撒冷時，祂要求門徒給祂帶來入城的代步工具是小驢和小馬。當時找來的是一頭小驢。人們會自然地期望一個凱旋式的榮進將是騎著一匹漂亮的高頭大碼的名種馬，周圍有士兵護送。但相反，祂袛是騎著頭小驢進來了。

向祂的門徒和祂那個時代的人們傳達的第一條重要信息是：祂就在那裡為天父的子民服務，而不是成為他們的統治者。作為門徒是需要在他人的信仰旅途中陪伴他們，並幫助每個人與天主建立其關係。

從馬竇福音中讀到的第二條信息是：是的，作為耶穌的門徒，人們可能以以下八種不同的方式看待你或與你交往：

• 第一種方式可能是喜樂與具慶祝性的，正如我們讀到在耶穌當時剛進入耶路撒冷時的景象。

• 第二種方式可能是有些人也許會否認認識或見過你。

• 第三種方式可能是有人甚至也許為了個人利益而背叛你。

• 第四種方式可能是在你面前他們假裝入睡或真的睡著了。

• 第五種方式可能是當著你的面使用暴力。

• 第六種方式可能是將你交給當局進行監禁和折磨。

• 第七種方式可能是人們可能會判定你犯有褻瀆罪或更糟的罪。

• 最後，第八種方式可能是他們會現身參與以公開，當眾形式來處決你。

自從馬竇福音成書以來，就在過去的時間裡，我們是意識到所有這八種方式都曾已記載入歷史書冊中。即使今天，隨著烏克蘭戰爭的進行，我們聽到暴力仍然被用作對人類生活在這世界上的一種回應。

作為一個人，耶穌在祂的生活中發現了黑暗和消極的一面，但祂深信祂可將黑暗轉化為光明。這種深信表明祂認為祂正在尋找某些東西比祂個人的生命更為重要，祂知道這種東西只能在經歷自己生命過程中被發掘出來。祂讓自己內在的創造力在祂的生命中開放。耶穌深深體驗到天父無條件的愛，並以無條件的愛回應其生命中的悖論和荒謬。無條件地愛就是愛具體的事物，包括美好的和並不喜歡的。那麼，真真正正的信仰是對具體現實的慎重選擇的表現形式，不管符合我們的喜歡與否！

當涉及到父母、祖父母、兄弟姐妹、朋友、鄰居等，愛你的近人一般是比較容易的。但是當涉及到陌生人，甚至是那些已經在情緖上傷害過你的人，就沒那麼容易了。但是，耶穌並沒有對此提出任何界限，分辨心。愛你的近人是要求愛所有的人。

這就像我們分施食物給窮人的感受一樣。從開始，如果我們把窮人看作應得這食物捐助的，我們就能做到了該有的感受。但有時我們認為他們根本不值得我們去幫助。耶穌從未說過關於判斷另一個人的這一部分。事實上，我們被告知不要互相批判，而是要在我們的在世時見證天主的愛。所以我們隨著年齡的增長，這個課題真是很困難。

對耶穌來說，即使經歷了人對祂施用這八種不同的對待方式之後，祂仍然選擇為他們和所有還未出生的陌生人捨棄自己的生命。

因此，耶穌為全人類的選擇在我們今天的信仰旅途中繼續存活，與時並進。

我們能否發自內心地原諒那些轟炸烏克蘭的人或在我們校園內犯下謀殺案的槍手們？寬恕並不意味著他們不需負責他們造成的傷害！

但我們能原諒這些暴力行為的肇事者嗎？

這是受難主日的教導。正如耶穌完全寬恕了所有傷害祂的人一樣，這樣，祂甘心情願地為人類奉獻了自己的生命——即使是那些傷害過祂的人。

因此，隨著進入聖週：

• 我們該如何看待自己的能力慷慨地實現彼此相愛，並讓天主作其判斷？

• 我們該如何相信天主要求我們在生命中顯揚祂的旨意和願景嗎？

• 我們是否願意在這個世界上努力實現天主的信、望和愛的願景嗎？

• 作為個人和團體一員，我們該如何才能幫助我們實現今天在生活中的情緒、心理和肢體暴力受到傷害後的治愈，康復工作？

所以華人天主教會的兄弟姐妹們, 這是這個聖枝主日的好消息。

亞孟，亞孟 !