Homily Short, Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026

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Enter into Holy Week like never before. This reflection invites you to experience the Passion of Christ as a present reality through the sacred liturgy, reminding us that Jesus chooses to dwell within us and transform us into instruments of His grace.

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So in this Holy Week, I want to invite you to really enter into these events as if they were happening here and now. Because in the sacred liturgy, in a mystical sense, those events are brought into the present. There is a sense of timelessness. It’s almost like walking into a time warp when we enter into Holy Mass. It becomes a real-time participation in those saving mysteries that we celebrate.

As we enter into the Holy City with Jesus, I want to offer you an image from the Gospel. I was moved to hear the account from a unique perspective—as if I were the donkey upon which Jesus was riding into Jerusalem. That perspective gave me the same view Jesus had as He entered the city. It allowed me to take in everything happening around Him and truly meditate on the moment in a deeper way.

Usually, kings enter cities triumphantly on powerful stallions. But that’s not what Jesus chose. He chose to ride on a humble donkey. And in a similar way, He still uses the same approach today. He chooses ordinary, imperfect people—like you and me—to bring His presence into a hurting and broken world.

The difference now is that through the Eucharist, Jesus is not just carried by us—He is within us.

He is not riding on us; He is living in us. Through the Eucharist, He transforms us from stubborn, imperfect people into who God created us to be—sons and daughters made in His likeness.

God chooses to use humble instruments like us to bring about His kingdom and participate in His saving work. And He does this not because we are perfect, but so that we can be transformed through the process.

He patiently allows us to make mistakes, yet still works through us to accomplish His perfect will. Even when it costs Him everything, He continues to call us forward so that we may truly be ready—inside and out—to share in His victory.

He desires for us to rise to the dignity that is ours as His children and to become the saints He has created us to be for all eternity.