Choosing a kingdom

Homily for Palm Sunday 2010
28 March 2010
St. Lawrence Chapel

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We see the kingdom of Jesus Christ revealed most beautifully in the Gospel of Luke. The king rides not on a mighty horse, but on a mere colt. It is a kingdom that is pitiable in its lack of physical resources. It threatens the kingdoms of the world not with swords, but with justice, charity and truth. His is a kingship that does not impose itself on its subjects, and does not use the power of its wisdom to shame the ignorant, but always invites the subjects to recognize the goodness of the king, and to follow the king in faith. It is a kingship whose starting point is that the king is the servant of his subjects, not vice versa. The ultimate strength of this kingdom, and its ability to endure, comes from its ability to hand itself over to its enemies - to slanderers and thieves and murderers - in the far-fetched hope that in forgiving them, their hearts may be changed and that they may no longer be enemies, but friends.

Jesus tells his disciples that having learned about this kingdom, and having promoted it without any money or any swords, that now was the time for them to take stock of the resources they have, where their treasure truly lies and what weapons they have available for fighting. They were going to Jerusalem, where the threat to Jesus' kingdom would come, not from those who would arrest and kill Jesus, but in the hearts of his disciples. He prayed that Peter, who would deny this kingdom at the first opportunity, would find in his heart the resources to start anew, and the will to fight again for this kingdom, after Jesus had been laid in the tomb. Jesus prayed that his disciples would be able to win an interior fight that threatened this kingdom far more than the swords and clubs that would soon pierce his own body.

We disciples of Jesus during this passion week hear Jesus' call to grab our money bags and our swords, to take stock of our own willingness give our every treasure in service of the fight to belong to this kingdom that Jesus proposed, and we see most clearly, in the story of his passion.