Sunday Homily, 29 March 2026 - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

An ambitious apostle took matters into his own hands, and chief priests bought the Saviour’s silence.  Other apostles slept off the Passover wine, or fled at the prospect of guilt by association, or both.  The arrest was made on no charge whatever, and trials were conducted by a corrupted council and a foreign despot, followed by cheers of a riotous crowd at the capital sentence pronounced on the innocent. 

There seems to have been no end to the wrongs done to the Lord.

In the last hours of Jesus’ life with us on earth, we made sure he was well seen off.  He was not farewelled but felled.  He did not receive a teary goodbye but a bloody one.

We know he had the power to avoid all these wrongs.  We know, that if he had just turned his eyes towards his Father, every blow would have been stopped and every jeer drowned out by angelic chorus.

It is hard to understand why he let all this go on.  Surely the self-sacrifice was enough.  What need was there to drag things out like this?

The Lord told us before that he would draw all things to himself when he was lifted up on the cross.  Certainly, we have been drawn to him.  But that is not all.  With us, in our wake, has come all our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and faults.

When we came to Jesus, we brought our whole selves.  We always bring all that we are and have become.  This is the person he came for.  He did not come for a nice version of me, if such a thing really exists, but for my real self.  He saved all of us; he saved all of all of us.

So, what looked to us like Stoic indifference and resigned acceptance to fate was, in fact, our salvation at work: the Lord drew every aspect of fallen humanity to himself to save us.

And so, in the last hours of his life with us on earth, all humanity made its way to Jesus: the lights and the shadows, the glories and the gore.  We have seen it in our own lives as well as his.  But it all belongs to Jesus now.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  He took away sins by putting all evil to death with himself.

So, now that sin has died with the Saviour, let there be all goodness in us.  Let no shadow of wrongdoing fall across our path to God.  Let not the least sin have its place in our life.  Just as Jesus is the perfect Son of God, so may we be God's perfect children to his greater glory.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP Parish Priest