Palm Sunday The Lords Passion 3 29 2026 Deacon Louis Zemlick Jesus is God

At the entrance Gospel Matthew 21:1-11 Catechism Catholic Church CCC559 Jesus Messianic entrance into Jerusalem. Do You Believe ?

Isaiah 50:4-7  CCC141,713 Suffering Jesus foreshadowing.

Psalm 22:8-9,17-20,23-24 CCC112,304,2270 respect for ALL human life. also read Psalm 118

Philippians 2:6-11 CCC201,434,449,461,472,602,633,635,705,713,876,908,1224,1850,2641,2667,2812 Starts with Believe in ONE God with many professions on Faith and teaching ending in Prayer, this is the Greatest Faith of LOVE.

Gospel Matthew 26:14-27:66 CCC333Mary,363,441,443,500Mary,515536,545,585,586,591,596,597,600,609,610,612,613,633,764,1328,1329,1339,1365,1376 This is the Life of Jesus. Blessed Virgin Mary Is there from Beginning to end, and even Today.

DeaconLouisZemlick.com

Our Lady of Guadalupe Pray for Us Jesus Save Us

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everybody. This is Deacon Louise Emleck here in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. We're glad you're with us here today for this Palm Sunday, Day of the Lord's Passion. And it's very interesting that we do this, and it almost seems kind of uh ironic in a way, you know, but we do it the Sunday before. We read this whole story, and I'm going to preach on the gospel today. We're going to talk about that a little bit. The first gospel we read. And then the second gospel that we read is actually the Passion, which is Matthew 26. But we're going to read Matthew 21, 1 through 11. That's read in the back of the church. And whether you're Catholic or not, I encourage you to enter into Holy Week at the Catholic Church. I know a lot of my Protestant brothers and sisters, they will do a Monday, Thursday service, which we look at that as, of course, that is, you know, the Last Supper, right? And the Holy Eucharist is established then, the priesthood is established then. Very important, right? The priesthood is established then. And the Holy Eucharist is established then, which is in John 6. And I thought it was very interesting, you know, listening to a gentleman, Marcus Grody, who is a um uh does the Coming Home Network, which helps a lot of Protestant pastors and other pastors of other uh religions as well, come into the Catholic Church and find jobs and be able to feed their families and so on and so forth, and continue on in their ministries. Such a beautiful coming home network, and they're connected to EWTN. They're also on EWTN. I think his son has, and I know his son has kind of uh taken up that mantle, that uh baton, so to speak, moving forward with that uh within uh EWTN. But we're gonna go right into uh our readings today for this uh poem Sunday of the Lord's Passion. But uh like I said earlier, you're more than welcome to attend all the services. You know, just do the stand-up, sit down, kneel down, read the Passion with us. Uh come on Good Friday. We'll read the Passion again on Good Friday. Um but uh we read the Passion on Palm Sunday. You know, this is uh Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, you know, as they hold the palm branches and other branches too. Father Hezekiah Carnazzo mentioned that too in his um his uh teaching this last week of um you know how they would break off all different kinds of branches and bushes and things and and uh you know raise them in the air. And he made a real interesting connection. It was quite beautiful, I'm sure it was connected with some saint or something, but it was quite beautiful when he was talking about that. And there was another thing I wanted to mention too. I just remembered it. Um but um to take them to your priests and have them bless that stuff too, you know. Whether you've got pussy willows or or or uh uh maybe even a pine tree branch, you know, you can have that blessed. Um have that blessed as you would a palm, uh a palm branch. But he had mentioned of putting the palm branches, a palm branch or you know, your leftover palms, putting them under your bed. And I was like, wow, that's very interesting, you know. And uh, you know, I think it's a uh uh interesting, old, very old tradition of doing that. And that way, you know, you sleep with Christ. Christ is is watching over you, under you all the time while you're sleeping, guarding you and protecting you. It's quite beautiful, quite a beautiful idea. Let's go right into our readings today, and we have quite a long list. I'm gonna go into that too, and I'm just letting you know right now, we're not gonna read the entire passion. I did that last year, and I tell you, my brothers and sisters, it was a rush, rush, rush to get it done. And I do not like reading holy scripture like that. I do not like being in a big hurry. Um, I don't like pushing it. I don't like the short versions of readings, you know, the terrible um hatchet job that they do in Rome on editing the liturgy, uh, the liturgical books, you know, trying to save us time when they should be, you know, focusing on saving our souls. And the word of God has a lot to do with that. The sacraments as well. But the word of God is so powerful and uh not softening the language either, you know, call a sin a sin and call grace grace. But don't reinvent these words or get this weird stuff going on. But anyway, okay, so it is March 29th, 2026. Um and Father Hades Kais mentioned that this feast of this would be kind of like the feast of tabernacles forever, inviting us back into the garden. See, Jesus is restoring the garden in a certain sense, right? Uh with these palm branches, you know, and uh we're leading our king, we're leading our king into into uh to be put on his throne, right? And he's gonna rule over. But what happens is kind of a different story, right? What happens is can even though Jesus is God and he is our king, yes, but the world, my brothers and sisters, is the world. It is a fallen world. And um the ultimate kingship of Christ is going to come in the second coming, but Jesus has defeated death, and that was his main mission to defeat death and sin forever. And um, if you choose to follow Jesus, that can happen for you. So here's our list of saints for the day. So get my preaching in early here. Um, and I'll and I'll go along and let you know the stuff that's and I'll post this up too, and uh we'll do probably uh Easter will be probably the Sunday morning. Uh I think I like that one the best because Mary Magdalene comes to comes to the tomb while it's still dark. So amazing and exciting. But Holy Week all this week. Um so check your local churches and if you want to join the Catholic Church, come on in. Just come on in. You know, the only thing you can't do is receive Holy Communion. Don't receive, don't desecrate yourself or Jesus by receiving Holy Communion when you're not part of the Catholic Church, when you don't believe in the fullness of the faith, the fullness of the sacraments. Don't do that. Okay, don't do that. It's it's uh scripture tells us quite fl quite plainly that we're bringing condemnation upon ourselves, and we don't want anyone to do that. Okay, so listen to this list. Uh this goes back to uh 327 um last week, last Friday is Saint John of Egypt, uh 304, the year 304, uh 41, April I, freshen in the next week, Saint Siloch, 1180, uh two, April 2nd, Saint Francis of Paola, 1436, Saint John Payne, 1582, that's also 4 2, 4 2, Blessed Pedro Calagug, 1672 in the Philippines, and Saint Isidore of Seville, the year 560, also on 4 4, and also on 4.4 of 26, Saint Benedict the Black, Ethiopian saint, 15, the year 1526. So a lot of great saints, highlighted saints, I must say. There's many more than that, of course. Go to catholic.org. They have quite an extensive list. It's quite uh beautiful and amazing. So uh here we go as we prepare for Holy Week. Uh this is Palms, this is part of the Palm Sunday liturgy. This begins in the back of the church. And it's very interesting, my brothers and sisters, I was contemplating and thinking about this today. It's very much like Mass begins, right? We start with a procession in the back of the church. We don't read the gospel, the back of the church. In this instance, we do, but we're almost mirroring that in a certain sense. I'm gonna call Father Mitch Paco about this. We're we're we're we're almost mirroring this every time there's a mass because we process into the church, right? We go to the altar area, the Holy of Holies, we walk into there, we reverence the altar, and Mass begins. It is amazing. The Catholic Church, I'll tell you what, my brothers and sisters, I've been a Catholic my whole life, but I'm blown away every year, every week, people here listen to my program, and uh, oh, Deacon Louis, you're always saying that. Listen, it's amazing. It's a great grace. And I and the beautiful thing that I received the the uh anointing of the sick last week. And you know, I ask for you for pray for me and for my family and for my children and grandchildren, pray for all of us. You know, uh we all have tough things, we all have challenges that go on in our lives, but we we must uh we must continue on, we must fight the good fight and um be there for each other, be there for Jesus, be there for the Blessed Mother. Okay, here we go. We're a third of the way into the program. This is the gospel that is re is read by the deacon in the back of the church. Okay, the back of the church. And uh it's it's quite interesting. Um I I yeah, it's quite amazing. As I'm recalling back to last year. But um, here we go. A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord. The procession with psalms, with palms, excuse me. When Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethpage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me. And if anyone should say anything to you, reply the master has need of them. Then he will send them at once. This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled. Say to daughter Zion, Behold, your king comes to you meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus ordered them. They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewn them on the road. The crowds preceded him, and those following him kept crying out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken and asked, Who is this? And the crowds replied, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Then we sing a hymn, we enter into the church, and the liturgy begins with the first reading. The liturgy is is a kind of a Catholic word for the work of God, work of God. So this is our first reading at Mass. A reading from the book of Isaiah, chapter fifty, verses four through seven. The Lord God has given me a well trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary, a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opened my ear, that I may hear, and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard, my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help. Therefore I am not disgraced. I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Our psalm reading today is from Psalm twenty-two, verses eight and nine, seventeen through eighteen, nineteen through twenty, and twenty-three through twenty-four. I got some little spots I want to read on there's on the editing there, but um it's all pretty good. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? All those who scoff at me, they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads. He relied on the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him if he loves him. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Indeed indeed many dogs surround me. A pack of evil doers closes in upon me. They have pierced my hands and my feet, I can count all my bones. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? They divide my garments amongst them, and for my vesture they cast lots, but you, O Lord, be not far from me. O my help, hasten to aid me. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I will proclaim your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord praise him. All you D all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him. Revere him, all you descendants of Israel. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Our second reading is a reading from Philippians chapter two verses six through eleven. Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance. He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend on those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. And then we go into the gospel reading, which takes about 20 minutes, and as you can see, that's about maximizing our our uh our time. Uh so it's Matthew uh chapter twenty-six, verse fourteen through chapter twenty-seven, verse sixty-six, and so I I encourage you to read um to read this. Um I'm gonna read, I'm just gonna read the first two paragraphs of the Gospel of Matthew, reading the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord. One of the twelve who was one of the twelve who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you? They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? He said, Go into the city, and a certain man and tell him, The teacher says, My appointed time draws near. In your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples, the disciples, and did as Jesus ordered and prepared the Passover. And then there continues on from there. But I want to cover a couple other things. Um that's about 20 minutes to read that, but I want to uh talk about a couple of other things that we've that um, you know, some stuff that I talked about last week too, you know, about life and how important it is to be, you know, to be pro-life. You know, who doesn't want to be pro-life? Well, there's a lot of people who don't, unfortunately. But something um so I want you to pray about that, about what you can do. And I really encourage you to um, you know, you know, you keep the money locally, uh, but Catholic charities, Catholic charities at Kalamazoo, Catholic charities at Grand Rapids, um they they keep this money locally. You can write it on your check or or when you or mail if you mail it in or do it online. You can tell them, you know, that where you specifically want the money to go. You know, if you want it to go to a pregnancy care center, if you want it to go for young mothers or for gift cards, young mothers and fathers, helping them to get started, helping them to make ends meet. I really, really, really encourage that as something you can do or donate your time. But there is so much need, my brothers and sisters. And how can people know that they can have a baby when things are so tough, right? The government does not want them to have their children. And generally, these are poor people, these are people of color, and you know, we talk about how we're not racist and we're not bigoted and we're not all this, that, and the other thing. Well, unfortunately, the government's probably the most racist of all, right? Because they won't help, they won't help, they won't help. The only help that they really offer is we will destroy your child and we will destroy your family, and you'll never have a family, and you'll never have any hope in your life. That's what the government promises. That's what the secular world and the secular media, that's what they promise. It's not a promise at all. It's a curse, is what it is. So, my brothers and sisters, us as believers, as Christians, and I hope our Jewish brothers and sisters, Muslims, uh, Hindus, anyone who believes in God will have the strength and the courage to donate money to Catholic charities to help them, to help them make ends meet, especially now that the government is not interested in doing that either, right? And I think we're I think we're better off on our own, quite frankly, uh, without the government. But I wanted to touch on a few things from this last week just to talk about these things leading up to this day. And if you go back um if you go back, you know, three weeks into this Lenten season and how we started out, and we start out with this the woman at the well, right? That's what I remember so much as uh the the ones that are first and second week, not so much, but the third week with the woman at the well, which is one of my favorites. You know, here is Jesus talking to this woman in the middle of the day. And of course, she's you know, she's what would be considered a first-class sinner, right? And also God's you know, kind of this humor of, you know, she's been married five times, and the sixth person she's with is not her husband either, or is not her husband. Maybe could be. So we think about that, right? And we think about how Jesus comes to her, and the same thing happens, the same thing, and even the same thing happens with the prodigal son in a certain way, you know. But anyway, so we had the woman at the well, then we had the the blind man, the blind man at the steps at the temple, right? Can't get into the temple because he's blind. You know, the Jews won't let him in because look at he's blind. He's been blind from birth, you know, he's been cursed, right? And you know, it's kind of this insanity of almost like this, you know, the the uh the common thing that we think about with people, right? This is our judgment, a human judgment. But it's very big in the Hindu religion. You know, if you're if you're not doing well, if you're poor or if you're crippled, you know, you must have done something wrong, and therefore God is punishing you. Not true. Maybe it is true. We don't know. But God says in all of these instances, it's for Jesus says, who is God? Jesus says in these situations, it's to show the glory of God. Understand that? These situations are to show the glory of God leading up to Easter. But the main thing to teach us is that Jesus is God. My Mormon brothers and sisters, my evangelical brothers and sisters who have this thinking that maybe Jesus isn't God. Jesus is God, He is the fulfillment of all the prophecies. See? All of the prophecies. Because only God can create eyeballs and the blind man. Excuse me. You think about that. Only God. And how does she heal the blind man? How does she give the blind man eyeballs, creates eyeballs? He does it out of the dirt. Dirt and saliva. He creates eyeballs. Only God creates. Another thing only God does is only God raises someone from the dead, as he did last week with Lazarus. Now, is it a foreshadowing of our own resurrection? Absolutely. Is it a foreshadowing of Jesus' regulation uh resurrection? Sure. But in a more powerful way, it is Jesus showing them. And even the sisters, they didn't they didn't ask for Jesus to raise him. They didn't, if you look at this, look at the text. The blind man didn't ask to be seen. The woman didn't ask to be healed at the well, but they were. And Jesus comes back around at the end and says to them, Do you believe? And I think the most one of the most beautiful ones, well, they're all beautiful, right? The woman at the well, she says, Yes, sir, I do believe you are the one. You are the one. You are the you are the Messiah. You are the Messiah. The one who's come into the world. Now, I tell you, my brothers and sisters, it's never hit me like this uh in all the years. I've been a I've been a deacon for what, 13, 14 years now, 14 years, I think. Think about this. How God heals you, God offers you grace. We've talked about this, we talked about this in our Bible study too, because it's the same thing. God does something great for you. He heals you, helps your family. Uh and you and you know that God's hand is on it. And God circles back around and says, you know, it's kind of like the men being healed, and he says, Go show yourself to the priest, and only one comes back and thanks Jesus. This is who we are, my brothers and sisters. This isn't who we want to be. I know it's not who we want to be. And we can be different. So this Easter, this day, maybe this week, maybe it won't be Easter, maybe it'll be a month from now. But you need to thank God. You need to thank Jesus, even if it's just the breath you take today. Be thankful. Be grateful. Be grateful for your parents. Even though if your parents, you know, maybe they weren't perfect, maybe they're imperfect, maybe they're a pain in the neck, I don't know. How what happened to them, right? Always taking that into account with anyone, what happened to them? Or even asking them, are you okay? Yeah, let's go back to that. Are you okay? But in all these situations, Jesus comes back around and says, Do you believe? Yes, Lord, I believe. Or the blind man who says, Who is this person? God is Jesus, God, God, Jesus is talking to him, and he says, Tell me who this person is. So I can believe. And Jesus says, It is the one speaking with you now. I am he. I am he.

unknown 27:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Tell you, my brothers and sisters, it doesn't get any better than that. Just doesn't. So I encourage you to go to Mass. Whether you're a Catholic or not, go to Mass. Come celebrate Holy Week with us crazy Christians. Us crazy Catholic Christians. We have hundreds of people coming into the church this year, more than ever. Well, I don't know if more than ever, probably not more than ever, but more than in a long time, probably 30 or 40 years. God is making a beautiful work of the church. And these are young people, my brothers and sisters, not that that necessarily means this, that, or the other thing. But there's a lot of good older people, too. But there's a lot of people who have been wounded, wounded by sin, wounded by abortion, wounded by the secular society saying, you know, this is good and that's good. And a lot of it is just not good. It's not good for us. Now they come with Facebook and Instagram and all that, and they're finding that up now, too, you know, after 14 years of poisoning our minds and our children. So worship Jesus. Go to mass, go to church, be grateful, love your family, and uh definitely make it to church uh for Easter Sunday. Um yes, and we'll be with you too. We'll be making another podcast on that, too. So deaconlouisum.com, and we thank you. We love you. May Almighty God bless you in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you all. We love you. Pray your rosary, our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us and pray for peace in this world. Amen.