12 April 2025 – Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Sunset Mass) (Year C)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

My dear brothers and sisters, we have just listened to one of the most traumatic, harrowing and sacred stories ever told – Jesus betrayed, Jesus denied, Jesus brutalised and Jesus crucified.

Let me ask you this: What kind of God allows this to happen? And why would you call this story the Good News?

Because here, in the broken body of Jesus, something is revealed that religion alone cannot teach us. We cannot fathom this – something raw, something real and utterly revolutionary, that God does not save us by escaping suffering but by entering in fully. And God saves not through domination, not from a distance but by presence, by showing up in the most forsaken places of our world and most forsaken places of our hearts. And this is not a new theme.

In the First Reading we see Isaiah depending on God. We are reminded of God’s saving work throughout. And this saving work is a journey, a path of struggle, of trust and of transformation.

My dear brothers and sisters, the Passion is not just a tale of pain. It is a confrontation with the kind of love that refuses to retaliate. A kind of truth that exposes power. The kind of mercy that even in death whispers ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.‘

Imagine that. That is the kind of love – No retaliation, exposing the power and so much mercy.

So today, it is not just about looking at Jesus. It is about seeing clearly who God is. And what that means for who we, all of us, must become.

And as we begin Holy Week, the church places this story right at the threshold. Not to repeat what we will hear again in a few days’ time but to prepare our hearts to walk with Jesus all the way to the end.

Because this week is not just about remembering events. It is about being drawn into a deeper mystery – The Mystery, the Paschal Mystery. Therefore the Passion is not the end of the story. It is a doorway, the doorway into God’s heart. The doorway into transformation. 

And Saint Paul’s words today reminds us of this heart of God. Perhaps it is alien to us. The words of Saint Paul today:

Though He was in the form of God, He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being obedient to death, even death on a cross.

And this is the scandal of our faith, the revolution of our faith. God kneels. And that is what the Reading tells us. And that is what we know of this God – He kneels before us.

God does not demands, He serves.
God does not dominate, He surrenders.
God does not hide from suffering, He enters into it completely.
And Jesus does not just die for us. He dies with us and as one of us.

Fr Richard Rohr says this:

Jesus did not come to change God’s mind about humanity. He came to change humanity’s mind about God.

He came to change our mind about God.

On the Cross, we see the clearest image of who God is. Not a God of vengeance or control but a God who loves us unto death, who refuses to use violence to achieve peace.

And this love, this love of God is not passive. It is powerful. It is the power that empties itself for the sake of others. It is the power that forgives even from the cross. It is the power that reveals a deeper truth – that we are all, all of us, are called to share in God’s very life.

Saint Athanasius once said:

God became human so that we might become divine.

And we can. That is our calling, my dear brothers and sisters. We were not just saved, we were invited to be transformed. That is the crux of it. It is not just salvation like that from sin. We are called, we are saved to be transformed, to grow into people who are like Christ – Humble, courageous, forgiving, and utterly grounded in love.

But how do we live this way in the real world? How do we live this way?

Last week if you were here for Mass, I gave you a stone, right? This week I want you to take the Cross (not giving you each a cross). This week, seriously, I invite you to dare to gaze at the Cross, not just as a religious object but as the mirror of our world.

Why? Because the Cross it not only in the past. It is here, it is today, it is among us. Look and see the Crucified Christ. As you gaze on this Cross this week,

I ask you to see in the Crucified Christ the exhausted domestic worker you barely acknowledged;

To see the Crucified Christ in the elderly woman in your housing block, sitting alone day after day, forgotten.

To see in that Rohingya child quietly cleaning tables while we sit at the table and scroll our phones.

I want us to see the Crucified Christ in the youth who is mocked and ridiculed because he is different.

In the poor and voiceless whose pain makes all of us uncomfortable.

We see the Crucified Christ in the cry of the earth, crying out under the weight of pollution, of greed and waste.

We see the Crucified Christ in every broken place inside our own hearts. 

These are not just sad situations. They are modern-day Calvaries. And the crucified Christ is there. He is out there, He is here (church), He is here (heart), still suffering, still waiting to be seen.

When we dare to look, really look, not with pity but with compassion, something begins to shift in us. Something begins to shift just like in the book of Numbers when the Israelites were healed by gazing at the bronze serpent (if you remember the reading), the very thing that wounded them. We too are healed by gazing at the brokenness we often try to avoid.

When we look upon the Crucified Christ in our time, those suffering among us, we are not just looking at their pain. We are looking at God who suffers with us, for us and through us. And then something happens in that gazing and I hope it happens to us. 

What happens? We become less numb, we become less judgmental, we become less afraid and we become more like Him.

Today we see many young people here. They are animating this Mass. The choir, the readers, ushers I believe, everyone. Something for you.

I heard that, was it a week or two ago, some of you went to the Mercy Home. Is that right? Mercy Home for all of you who don’t know is a home for those living with HIV and those suffering from AIDS.

I am glad you went. And I pray that that encounter made that shift in your life. I hope something shifted for you. And there are many of you I know, your parents tell me that you are also reaching out to people, that you are in the midst of experiencing or seeing/gazing this crucifixion, the Crucified Christ in others.

And for the rest, don’t wait for a program or for your leaders to move. It is not going to happen. Don’t be caught up with activities that revolve around yourself because you can make a difference and I have made this countless number of times. That is where you can make a difference. Each and every one of  you. 

I ask you in the next few days to reflect, look at the cross. See the people crucified, suffering in the Lord and Jesus will move you. Jesus will move you and your life will change. I guarantee you that.

And don’t be afraid even if you are alone, to step out in faith and do what the Lord calls you to do. That is how people make a difference in this world.

The Passion is not meant to crush us with guilt. It is meant to awaken us to love. Here is the hard truth:

If our religion does not lead us into solidarity with the crucified of today, I know countless number of times I have been talking about this. I hear that some people are quite fed-up with me referring to a group of marginalised people but that is our call! That is what it is! And that is what the Universal Church is calling and Pope Francis is also saying that.

So if our religion does not lead us into solidarity with the crucified of today, then we have made a golden idol of the Cross and forgotten that Christ who hung upon it.

So let us enter this Holy Week not as passive observers but as participants. Let us gaze at the Cross until we see the face of God and the face of every wounded beloved person in our society. Let us walk with Jesus not only to Calvary but through it towards Resurrection, towards healing and towards a new way of being human. Because the Resurrection does not come after the Cross. It comes through the Cross.

And when Easter draws near and when comes, may we not only say ‘He is Risen‘ but also say this:

Something in me has come alive now. Something in me has arisen.

And that is my prayer for all of us today.

Amen.

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