In other words, this is the way we pay attention to certain events and heroes in our country’s history: We watch, we cheer, and sometimes we also cry. It’s all about showing our emotions about things we love.

But let us also say that parades can be signs of other things as well: They can be signs of power, for instance, ways of showing that justice should be served, that peoples rights and freedoms should be respected. So, in that sense, parades or public demonstrations can be dangerous occasions.

All of us can remember days when our heroes were shot: John Kennedy’s death in Dallas. He was a hero to many. Others will remember the day John Lennon of the Beatles was shot in New York City. He was also a hero to many. And who can forget the day that Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. He was a hero to Catholics and others as well. More recently we witnessed the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto, the leading opposition candidate in Pakistani politics. The common thing we can say of all these individuals is that they were heroes to some, enemies to others, but especially that they were willing to take the risk of being out in public where their friends could be in touch with them. They also spoke truth to power and paid for it.

Given all that, my friends, we celebrate today the life and death of one who is truly a hero to all of us: Jesus of Nazareth.

We call this day the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. What we remember best of this day, of course, is the blessing of the palms and the procession (parade!). It resembles the procession of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem and describes his friends who thought him a hero and demonstrated it by laying palm branches in his way. (No confetti in those days!)

The word we do not think of so often on this day, however, is Passion. We think of it more often on Good Friday, the day of the Lord’s death.

But I would like to think of passion in the way we think of it in daily life. We say for instance that some folks are passionately dedicated to football or some other sport. But we also say that some people are passionate about justice and peace, about abolishing the death penalty and so forth.

That is the way I think of Jesus: He was passionate about honesty in God’s temple. He walked in publicly and threw out those who were cheating the poor out of their small savings. He would not allow his followers to be violent. He spoke of peace when others would take up the sword. It was all of these matters that Jesus was passionate about. It was these that also brought him to his death. He spoke truth to power.

So, that is what is so striking about that little palm procession in Jerusalem that day: A man on a donkey rides into the face of power, religious and secular, and lets power know that someone is here to do battle with it.

There is a lovely little story about Dorothy Day, the fearless peace activist. She was asked one time how Pope Pius XII could have stopped Hitler. Dorothy replied: “Well, he could have ridden into Berlin on a donkey!”

Whether that would have made any difference, I do not know. But it tells you that some folks more than others have a passion for peace.

That brings us to the question of what we are willing to walk for. What are we so passionate about that we are willing to stand in public and demonstrate for it, even at the risk of our life?

So, my friends, that is what I think the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s passion is all about. It is not about waving palms and singing songs. It’s about honoring and adoring our hero Jesus Christ who has given us the example of what it takes to be declared a Christian. In short, it’s all about risks and the courage to take them.

The scriptures: Isaiah 50: 4-7, Philippians 2: 6-11, Matthew 26: 14-27:66