Palms on display in the monastery’s Linenfold Room for dinner of Palm Sunday
(pussy willows are often used in Eastern European countries as a substitute for palms)Abbot Michael Brunner offered this homily for the School’s Mass of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (April 13, 2025).

 Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, and the crowd hailing him as the Messiah, the promised son of David who will bring freedom to his people. But how quickly things can change. As we just heard in the Gospel, this triumph was not the end of the story. Later this week, as the Gospels tell us, the crowd turns on Jesus and demands his death. That is one of the problems with following or listening to a crowd, as the unbelieving philosopher Jean Paul Sartre and psychologists point out. It makes us inauthentic and do things we would not otherwise do. Some people will do anything to keep the adulation of the crowd, of lots of people. Some people will do anything to have fame, money, to be liked or loved. But by doing anything to keep what is unreal, to be popular is to betray one’s own self, to sell oneself cheaply, like Judas did. Jesus would not sell himself, would not do what the crowd wanted and lead a rebellion against the Romans. For that he paid a price. Those people who hailed Jesus on Palm Sunday were either cowed into silence or joined the hostile crowd whose expectations Jesus did not meet on their schedule. Popularity and fame are ephemeral. Certainly the good things of this world can escape us quickly, things that aren’t real. So the story of Holy Week is a downhill slide from today’s triumph right into the abyss of death, which is the destiny of every human being, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, famous or unknown. If you would follow Jesus Christ or if you just want to be good and do good you must know that whatever triumphs our life brings us, there is always the trial of the cross.
Main altar at Easter, Abbey ChurchIn the life of our world today, Palm Sunday is behind us. All people of faith carry a cross today. Whether it is Noah Yuval Hariri or Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Friedrich Nietzsche or Karl Marx, religion and believers are the objects of derision by popular elites, present and past. The essence of our faith is to look past the illusion of triumph today, to look beyond the passion and death coming at us, and to look upon the Resurrection, next Sunday’s celebration. The practice of our faith is look to and keep our eyes focused beyond this world on to the world that lasts forever. Life here is short, no matter how old you live to be. I am amazed by how very quickly I have arrived at my age of 75. According to actuarial tables, my expiration date was 9 years ago. How quickly the 28 years have passed since I became a monk. A big part of me is still back in high school, but here is the rest of me. If the next 28 years pass as quickly, I’ll be 103 in a short time. The average life expectancy is increasing. The maximum age limit is reputed to be 125. But each earthly year is still a short 365 days. And a few more years just adds up to some more days. As we think of Jesus’ triumph on this one day, as we go through the events of the seven days of Holy Week, we must remember that God has something infinitely better in store for us.

But to enjoy that we must not listen to the crowd. We must listen to our heart, our deepest aspirations. And there we will hear God and know the way to fully enter into the salvation that Jesus has won and prepared for us. If we are true to our own selves and our faith, and don’t give in to the pressures to do what secular, materialist society wants us to do and believe, we too will pay a price, though not likely as high as the price Jesus paid. It’s not too high a price to pay for the MOST real thing there is, the thing that will never change, will never escape you. God loves you. That’s what this week is about.

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