Archbishop of Sydney

World Youth Day Youth Leaders Mass - Palm Sunday

St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Mt 21:1-11; Is 50:4-7; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14-27:66

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
16/3/2008

Today is now officially called Passion Sunday by the Church, because we are commencing Holy Week when we commemorate the passion and death of Our Lord and, of course, on the first day of next week we shall commemorate Jesus’ resurrection.

I must confess that I prefer the older name of Palm Sunday, which is still used regularly, because I am used to it, it anticipates in a small way the ultimate triumph and is in such a contrast with the unhappy events of Thursday and Friday.

True believers celebrate Holy Week well, with prayer and devotion, with our Lenten penances and by attending at least on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

For some reason Holy Thursday when we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist often does not attract large congregations. The vigil on Holy Saturday is the most beautiful of all the Church’s ceremonies, despite its length, and there are regularly good congregations for this. I invite you to become part of these diverse celebrations.

I hope and pray that during this Holy Week we shall all be like the men and women waving palm branches (at least metaphorically) who welcomed Our Lord’s arrival. Our praise too should be loud or at least audible, and our hearts should be open to Christ; open, high and wide, like the ancient doors and gates to the city of Jerusalem. Especially at Holy Week, Christ should not pass us by like a ship in the night.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah prayed every morning that he would wake to listen like a disciple. In fact he was more than that as he had a disciple’s tongue, so that he would know how to reply to those who were tired and dispirited. He claimed that the Lord had opened his ear to receive the message. We might say today that he was on the right band or wavelength.  Are we open to Christ’s message? Are we tuned in accurately, or are we more than content that there is static on the line; or, and this is worse, quite determined not to turn up the volume so that the Lord’s message comes through loudly and clearly?

Holy Week in particular is a time for listening and for pondering, meditating on the interplay of good and evil, the human and divine in Jesus’ passion and resurrection.

As we begin this week of contemplating Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection we must never forget that He is also the only Son of God, the Second person of the Blessed and eternal Trinity, as well as the man of suffering. We are confronted not only with the mystery of suffering, but with the even greater mystery of God suffering.

Many of you are officially appointed local leaders for your communities to prepare for World Youth Day.

This is a moment of unique opportunity. Matthew Hayden in the testimony he had pre-recorded for our concert in the gardens spoke eloquently of the difficulties he faces in his life and work by sticking to Christian principles and worshipping regularly.  You all know, better than I do, how you can feel isolated and embattled. We are all used to battling against the tide.

What is unusual is that during the World Youth Day the tide will be with us, bringing tens of thousands closer to Christ. That number will be higher if you are able to work effectively with charm, perseverance and being open to God’s grace to persuade your peers to attend.

It is as though we are surfing and need to generate enough speed to catch the large waves, which will take us to shore. It is a unique and exciting moment and I pray that many of you will seize this opportunity.

Holy Week is also a time to reaffirm our commitment to Christ; or if we are not already committed, to make a decision. To those of you who are committed I make this request. Every now and again the Church and Christ are attacked on talk back radio and I anticipate more of this in the run up to World Youth Day. We need young people to answer these attacks, calmly, accurately, charitably.

The devil should not have all the best lines and you youngsters should not be bluffed into silence so leaving us oldies to do all the talking.

Now we should go back to the mystery we are celebrating and defending. Paul’s letter to the Philippians explains this mystery of the human and divine in the person of Jesus in his own provocative way. “Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave,” humbling himself to accept death on a cross.

It was after that suffering and death, that God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names and above all other creatures in the heaven.

Resurrection and triumph are also realities. Christ has conquered sin and death, but he did not achieve this by the small triumph of his entry into Jerusalem. But it was a triumph, a happy occasion and Jesus did not deny his followers this brief moment of rejoicing, nor did he rebuke their enthusiasm. Matthew even claimed in a moment of pious exaggeration that the whole city of Jerusalem was in turmoil over the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

But this happy moment did not win our redemption. The agony in the garden, the scourging and crowning with thorns, the way of the cross and the crucifixion lay before him as the necessary preludes to the resurrection.

Many in the crowd would have been oblivious of what was going on under the surface and probably even Jesus’ closest followers would have been hoping against hope that he might be reprieved; that the authorities would be deterred from persecuting him by the size and enthusiasm of the crowd.

Our Lord knew otherwise. He knew he was going to his death and he was doing his duty.

On Friday I returned to my old school of St. Patrick’s College in Ballarat to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day three days early. At the Old Boys’ Dinner a contemporary asked what I was doing about the smaller percentage of young people regularly attending Mass.

I made a number of suggestions, told them about our concert and Mass and quoted the late Archbishop D’Arcy who had pointed out that no one (or very few) ever told young people they (like us) had a duty, not only to be good, but to pray and worship regularly.

Jesus came to Jerusalem to do his duty. He did not like it and both during the agony in the garden at Gethsemane and on the cross he showed how difficult it was for him to go on.  But he did go on; he did do his duty.

If it was good enough for him, it must be good enough for us also to do our duty.

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