Once more we have listened to the story of the passion and death of Jesus. Many thoughts perhaps crowd our minds at a time like this. Let me suggest one simple idea on this Palm Sunday: God suffers with us.
Today we begin the celebration of Holy Week. For many of us, this is known as Palm Sunday. But if we came here to Church only because of the palms, we are terribly mistaken. Ironically there are no palms this year but this celebration was never really about the palms. Today is all about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is Passion Sunday. The Gospel is the story of the Passion of our Lord. As we show solidarity to Christ today, it is important that we ask God for the grace to remain steadfast to him at all moments of our lives.
Today’s passion narrative according to Mark bears some most important symbols. These include the palms, the donkey, and the crowd. The Palms represent the royalty of Christ and his peaceful reign. The donkey is a symbol of Christ’s humility. Though he is king, he chose to ride on a donkey, a humble animal. This is contrary to what we see today in our world. Our rulers and kings live in affluence, while their people live in poverty. So, Christ demonstrated his humility, through his solidarity with the poor and the weak.
In the Gospels, there were many attempts by the scribes and Pharisees to apprehend and even to kill Jesus. But he would always be able to elude them. The reason is simply because his “hour [had] not yet come”. Later on, he would just keep away from the crowd so that he would not expose himself to the authorities. But on this Sunday, we see Jesus not anymore hiding or avoiding the people. He audaciously exposed himself to the crowd and openly entered the city of Jerusalem. He knew that it is in Jerusalem that he will die. But he entered the city amid all the cheers of the people who waved their palm branches and shouted: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest.” It was an entry of a king to his own city. His hour has come. It is the hour when he had to offer himself as sacrifice on the cross. This is the will of the heavenly Father in order to ransom the people from sin and death.
As we begin Holy Week today, let us just reflect on one very important truth: Jesus died for us. He died for each and every one of us. Do we realize the great meaning of this truth? “He died for us.” Many of us have heard this phrase so many times that we do not anymore realize the great value of the sacrifice of Jesus for us.
The story of the suffering and death of Jesus that we heard in the Passion is basically a story of love – God’s love for us. How should we respond to it? We should always be grateful, “for God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.”
Gratitude to God is not simply saying “Thank You” to Him. Rather, genuine gratitude should lead us to radical conversion, totally rejecting sin, because we know that sin always offends God. And secondly, it should also move us to love and care for those whom God also loves: our needy brothers and sisters.
As we begin this Holy Week, may we make this truly holy as we express our gratitude to God by resolving to turn away from sin and to be pleasing in His sight by our acts of kindness and love towards one another.
-Dcn. Terry Murphy