Catholics called to conversion of heart as Lent ends and Easter nears
CHARLOTTE — A week of liturgies commemorating Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection began March 24 with Palm Sunday.
Outside St. Patrick Cathedral, parishioners enjoyed golden sunshine and spring breezes as they gathered at the Marian Grotto for the traditional Palm Sunday Gospel proclamation and procession that recalls Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only days before His crucifixion.
Father Christopher Roux, rector of the cathedral, urged the people gathered not just to relive the historical event, but to act in their own lives.
“As Our Lord entered Jerusalem, the people, in honor of the Messiah, laid their cloaks and palm branches on the ground as a symbol of the One who is coming in,” Father Roux said. “Today we carry branches, but let us, instead of leaving those branches at the feet of Our Lord, let us leave our hearts and our lives at His feet – thanking Him for that which He has done for us, and offering our lives in service of Him in this world, to bring Him into every corner that we enter into.”
Waving bright green palm fronds and singing joyfully, the congregation then processed into the cathedral as the Mass continued.
“Forty days we’ve waited to shout Hosanna in the highest,” said Marie Davis, who traveled from Greensboro with her husband to attend Palm Sunday Mass at the cathedral. “With this beautiful day comes the reality that we are in need of a savior, not just a king. That we are sinners and His passion and death open the doors to heaven for us.”
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For his homily on the day’s Gospel from Mark, Father Roux reflected on the different types of onlookers present at Jesus’ crucifixion.
“I had heard once that there were three types of people beneath the cross of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” he said. “The first type were those who were sympathetic. The second were those who were empathetic. The sympathetic and empathetic are those types who see something happening and feel sorrow, or see it and actually suffer with the one who is suffering. But then there’s the third type, the one who is antipathetic. The ones who hate…those who hated Christ, who hated suffering, who hated everything He stood for.”
He noted the words in the Gospel passage, when the crowd – which once had welcomed and cheered Jesus as He entered the holy city – now jeered and shouted, “Crucify Him!”
“You and I would say we would never be among those individuals, and yet how do we live our lives? Do we live our lives trying to root out sin, the sin that causes Christ to go to the cross in the first place?” he asked the congregation. “Or does Palm Sunday just give us (a palm) to tie into knots, and Holy Week means we can go to the beach or golfing?”
The past 40 days of Lent have offered us the opportunity to purify our hearts, minds and souls and to prepare for the celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection, and Father Roux called parishioners to rise to the occasion.
“This, the holiest of all weeks, let us not be antipathetic to what Christ goes through for us. Let us not even be sympathetic and only sorry that He did,” he said. “Let us be empathetic and put our hearts right there on the cross with Him and promise Him that our hearts will change. That we will seek holiness of life, so that His death may not be in vain for us. That one day, being holy, we may be with Him in heaven.”
— Spencer K.M. Brown. Photos by Troy Hull and provided.
Palm Sunday across the diocese
