Know Him! Homily for Palm Sunday

when he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was shaken and asked, "Who is this?"
And the crowds replied,
"This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee."

The crowd’s response, from the Gospel according to Matthew, read at the start of the procession with palms, intends to tell us who Jesus is. The crowd’s response, however, merely gives us a geographical indicator, that He grew up in Nazareth, in Galilee and that He is a prophet. If we reflect on it, we realise how imprecise this response is!

Prophet, we know that He is not. We also know that Our Lord’s residence in Nazareth in Galilee was the reason why many refused to recognize Him as the Messiah (Jn 7: 41-42).

The crowd’s response does not tell us enough. And so, we must ask again, “Who is this”?

In his Introduction to Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI suggests that we Christians need to ask this question to be:

in accordance with the interior law of love, which wants to know more and more him to whom it has given its Yes, so as to be able to love him more. (Introduction to Christianity, Benedict XVI, Communio Books, 2000, p.80)

Asking this question is important, because the Catholic identity MUST rest on a personal encounter with Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is only when we know Him personally, and intimately, that ours is a living faith, resting in our engagement with a living God.

A deeper, more profound, response to the question of Our Lord’s identity is offered to us today in the reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

he was in the form of God

Ancient Christian commentators on the Bible draw our attention to the fact that it is not said of Our Lord that He was of the “likeness” of God – this would be a description of Adam, and ourselves, who were made in the likeness of God (Gen 1:27). The Son is of the form of God. He shared, from before time began, and continues to do so, in the very essence of God (Jn 1: 1-2). Let us be clear, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, that it is wrong to think, as so many are wont to do, of Jesus as simply a good man, an excellent man even. Nor is Our Lord one among many prophets and preachers, offering one way among many others. No! He was of the very form of God! He is, therefore, unique, and His way is the Truth, and above all, Life!

Despite being one with God, present before all time, He took:

the form of a slave,
    coming in human likeness

Recognizing this fact about the person we greet with palms allows us to also understand something about ourselves – children of Adam. This, my dear brothers and sisters, is who we are; slaves, because unlike Him who existed from the beginning and was never made, we were made, from mud – as we were reminded at the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday – and owe our very existence to Him, who made us (Jn 1: 3). Even if he had not died for us on the cross, to rescue us from sin, He would have still been our king.

St. Paul then develops this fact further:

though he was in the form of God,
    [He] did not regard equality with God
    something to be grasped.

The crucial feature of Our Lord is His humility. In these lines, my dear brothers and sisters, we grasp the heart of who Our Lord is and His difference. We see here, the difference between the Son of God, and Adam. Adam, despite being a creation of the Most High, i.e. a slave, sought in his arrogance, to “be like God” (Gen 3: 5). This is the mistake that has also been committed throughout time by the descendants of Adam (Gen 11: 4), right until our time, where we seek to set ourselves up as gods, and rival God.

It was to remedy this fault in our nature that:

he emptied himself,

    taking the form of a slave,

Humility, that is recognizing our reality as slaves before God, is the primary lesson Our Lord teaches us, by taking the leap from heaven into our human form and nature.

And;

found human in appearance,
    he humbled himself,
    becoming obedient to the point of death,
    even death on a cross.

In obedience, the Son emptied Himself, not just at His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when He took on our human form and nature. At the Last Supper, He went further, stripping Himself and washed the feet of His disciples (Jn 13: 3-8), offering us an example to follow. He deepened this example when, after the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (Mt26: 36-42), He consented to die the cruel and agonizing death of the criminal on the Cross, demonstrating to us the real meaning of love, which is distinct from the cuddles and cuteness that Hollywood and the media feed us.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (Jn 15: 13)

This is the nature of Him who we greet with palms, my dear brothers and sisters, this is who He is. And these facts, and this knowledge of Him, has, MUST have, implications for the way we live, as I have just described, and for the way we worship.

… at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,    
    and every tongue confess that
    Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

If we are worshiping God and King, our maker and our Lord, can we treat Him at the Holy Mass as if He were merely a friend? Can we be casual with the way in which we approach the altar and communion?

He is, of course, our friend, He has said so with His own lips (Jn 15:15). But, do we not know from our social lives that when we are admitted into the company of those who are superior to us, we are always wary of presumption, conscious that we have been offered a privilege and must never abuse it, always treating this person with respect?

I recently encountered a reel on social media which pointed out that genuflection is the one thing that distinguishes us as Catholic. And yet, this bending of the knee has all but disappeared from the practice of our faith. Is it because of a lack of humility before Him who saved us? Or the lack of obedience to the traditions of our Holy Mother Church?

Knowing that God became man, gave up His life for us, does it not behoove us to treat the Mass, treat every Mass, not simply as a coming together of a community, but a solemn recollection, and representation, of the sorrowful sacrifice at Calvary?

When we receive communion, does it not make sense that we take care that we have confessed prior, so that this precious Body and Blood of Our Lord may not be placed in an unworthy receptacle? Furthermore, can we be casual in the way in which we receive and consume the precious Host?

This Palm Sunday, let us continue with this Mass, and return to our homes, in solemn appreciation of who our Lord is, and with this knowledge then keep repeating:

Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.

May God bless you all and grant you the grace of a reflective Holy Week.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the anticipated Sunday Mass at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 28 March 28, 2026.)

(Image reference: The Triumphant Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Alessandro Turchi, 1640, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.)