Palm Sunday
Homily – Year A
“From Hosanna to Crucify Him: The
Battle Within the Human Heart”
My brothers and sisters,
Today we begin in celebration.
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
Palms raised. Voices lifted. Hope alive.
But in just moments…
The same crowd will cry out:
“Crucify Him.”
And if we are honest…
That is not just their story.
That is our story.
The Danger of Shallow Faith
The people welcomed Jesus as a king…
But not the King He actually was.
They wanted:
- A political
savior
- A worldly
victory
- A Messiah who
would fix their problems
But Jesus came to do something far deeper:
And when He didn’t meet their expectations…
They turned on Him.
And if we’re honest…
We can feel that same tension in our own hearts.
And that’s where Palm Sunday becomes uncomfortable…
Because it stops being about them—
And starts becoming about us.
In the Passion, we don’t just see what happened to Jesus.
We see a reflection of the human heart.
We see:
- Judas… when we
trade God for something lesser
- Peter… when we
deny Him out of fear
- The crowd… when
we follow the noise instead of truth
- Pilate… when we
know what’s right but lack the courage to act
And if we sit with that honestly…
We begin to realize something difficult:
We are not just observers of the Passion.
We are participants in it.
Because every time we choose sin…
Every time we turn away…
We are not just making a mistake—
We are stepping into that same story.
And yet… here is where the Gospel takes a turn we don’t expect.
Jesus is not a victim.
He is not caught off guard.
He is choosing this.
Is embraced.
Which means the Cross is not just something done to Him…
It is something done for us.
And that forces us to confront a deeper truth…
If this was done for us—
Then it reveals not just who Christ is…
But what kind of King we actually need.
The crowd wanted power.
Jesus gave them sacrificial love.
They wanted dominance.
He gave humility.
They wanted victory.
He gave redemption.
Because the greatest enemy was never Rome.
It was sin.
And the victory He came to win…
Was not temporary.
It was eternal.
And now, that same King stands before us today…
Not just to be admired—
But to be followed.
This Holy Week Is a Choice
Palm Sunday is not just something we remember.
It is something we must respond to.
Because this week will ask something of us.
Not just presence…
But participation.
Not just words…
But surrender.
And so the question becomes unavoidable…
Not “What did the crowd do?”
But:
What will I do?
Will I walk with Him?
Will I stay in the Garden when it’s uncomfortable?
Will I stand at the Cross when it costs me something?
Or will I do what the crowd did—
And disappear when things get hard?
Because it is easy to wave palms.
But it is much harder to carry a cross.
My brothers and sisters,
Today we cry:
“Hosanna.”
But by the end of this week…
Let us prove with our lives—
That we will never be the ones who cry:
“Crucify Him.”
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