Palm Sunday 2026
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
March 29, 2026
I. The Extravagance of God’s Love
A. In his book, Introduction to Christianity,
the future Pope Benedict XVI exults in the extravagance of God’s love,
the love whereby he freely created the world and bestowed on us the gift of life.
He goes on to say that God’s excessive love is foundation of salvation history.
And he describes salvation history as
“nothing other than the truly breathtaking fact that God,
in an incredible outpouring of himself,
expends not only a universe but his own self,
in order to lead [us], a speck of dust, to salvation ….”
“Excess… [he wrote] is the real mark of the history of salvation” (p. 197).
B. God’s love exceeds anything we ever knew or could imagine,
and it is revealed afresh this morning in this sacred liturgy
as we re-enact Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem,
there to be tried, condemned, and crucified for us and for our salvation –
This is God’s ultimate self-expenditure on our behalf:
‘To ransom us slaves, God gave away his Son’ (cf. Exultet).
II. The Sovereignty of God’s Extravagant Love
A. Jesus enters his own city, Jerusalem.
He is not astride a horse, like the world’s conquering heroes,
but on a humble beast of burden, a donkey, just as the prophet foretold.
He is attired, not in military splendor, but in a simple tunic
for which soldiers are soon to cast lots.
‘The throng [as the Psalmist would say] is wild with joy’ (Ps 42:4),
but the Lord’s head is not turned by earthly adulation.
He knows what awaits him.
B. It is for this destiny that the Son of God became man in the Virgin’s womb;
to suffer, die, and rise from the dead to save us from our sins.
This is the triumph towards which Jesus resolutely journeys,
for he came to do the will of the Father
and the Father’s will is that none should perish in their sins (cf. Jn 6:38-40).
To be sure, a calculating mind cannot understand this.
Recall how Judas complained about the extravagant love of a repentant woman
who poured aromatic nard on Jesus’ feet and washed them with her tears.
The money, Judas said, could have been better spent on charity.
But Jesus did understand the woman’s extraordinary gesture
because his love is limitless, he, the lover and guardian of our souls (cf. Jn 12:3).
Now, today, Jesus enters Jerusalem as the King of Love.
He is exercising the sovereignty of God’s excessive love.
He is inwardly free to give himself totally to his Father and to us.
Nothing and no one constrains him.
III. The Palm of Victory
A. The people strew palm branches, olive branches, and cloaks in his path.
These are the marks of a conquering hero.
They are signs of victory before the battle is won.
Some, I daresay most, do not understand the nature of the battle to be fought.
To some in the crowd, he is a mere worker of wonders, a panacea for infirmity.
Others may be hoping he will throw off the yoke of the Roman Empire.
Only those who have fallen deeply in love with Jesus understand.
The beloved disciple John understands. His Mother, Mary, understands.
Jesus came to do battle with sin and death by pouring out his life on the Cross.
B. Today the Church puts palm branches in our hands.
Let us receive them for what they truly are:
signs and emblems of the victory that Christ won for us.
Let us receive these palm branches as a pledge of our desire
to pledge to share in God’s extravagance love,
the self-expenditure of the God who loves us so much as to enter
into the darkest regions of human existence to rescue us from sin and death.
As St. Andrew of Crete wrote:
“Let us run to accompany [Jesus] as he hastens towards his passion,
and imitate those who met him then,
not by covering his path with garments, olive branches, or palms,
but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him,
by being humble and trying to live as he would wish.
Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming,
and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us”
(cf. Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings, Palm Sunday).
IV. An Extravagant Week Called Holy
A. Palm Sunday liturgy inaugurates Holy Week, that “Great Week”
when the Church solemnly reenacts all that God in his love has done to save us.
I invite you to spend the week ahead immersed in God’s extravagant love!
Tomorrow evening is the Chrism Mass here at the Cathedral,
at which your priests renew the promises they made at Ordination
and the oils used in the Church’s sacramental life are blessed.
On Holy Thursday, let us join Christ and the Apostles at table
as he institutes the Eucharist, the heart of the Church’s life, the sacred mystery in which we participate in the Lord’s Death and Resurrection for our salvation.
On Good Friday, let us stand
beneath the Cross with the Virgin Mary and John the beloved disciple
as the crucified Lord of Glory pours out his life to redeem us from our sins.
And on Holy Saturday, we will keep Vigil with the Church
on that night of nights when the Risen Lord emerges from the tomb,
and some 2,000 people will be added to the Church in this Archdiocese.
Finally, on Easter Sunday let us rejoice in the splendor of the Resurrection,
as bathed in the light of God’s love,
we pledge anew to live our baptismal promises.
B. For now, in the words of Psalm 118,
we must entrust ourselves to the God who comes to save us:
“O Lord, grant us salvation! O Lord grant success!
Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes…
Go forth in procession with branches even to the altar.
You are my God. I thank you. My God, I praise you!
Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever!”