Sunday, April 13, 2014

Palm Sunday A

 

Is 50:4-7

Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

Phil 2:6-11

Mt: 26:14 - 27:66

 

The Church celebrates this sixth Sunday in Lent as Palm Sunday. It is on Palm Sunday that we enter Holy Week, welcoming Jesus into our lives and asking Him to allow us a share in His suffering, death and resurrection. This is the time of the year when we stop to remember and relive the events which brought about our redemption and salvation.

 

The Holy Week liturgies present us with the actual events of the dying and rising of Jesus. These liturgies enable us to experience in our lives here and now what Jesus went through then. In other words, what we commemorate and relive during this week is not just Jesus’ dying and rising, but our own dying and rising in Him, which result in our healing, reconciliation, and redemption.

 

Proper participation in the Holy Week liturgies will deepen our relationship with God, increase our faith and strengthen our lives as disciples of Jesus.

 

During this week of the Passion - passionate suffering, passionate grace, passionate love and passionate forgiving - each of us is called to remember the Christ of Calvary and then to embrace and lighten the burden of the Christ Whose passion continues to be experienced in the hungry, the poor, the sick, the homeless, the aged, the lonely and the outcast.

 

Today’s liturgy combines two contrasting moments of glory and suffering - the welcome of Jesus into Jerusalem and the drama of His trial culminating in His crucifixion and death. Let us rejoice and sing as Jesus comes into our life today. Let us also weep and mourn as His death confronts us with our sin. The African-American song asks the question, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to a tree?" The answer is yes, a definite yes. Yes, we were there in the crowd on both days, shouting ‘Hosanna!’ and later ‘Crucify Him!’