Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday and we commemorate the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  We are about to take the last steps of our Lenten journey with Jesus.  We stand with the crowd at the Mount of Olives and we prepare to follow Jesus as he makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  We join the crowd as they spread their cloaks on the road and we shout with them, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest" (Luke 19:38).  And with these shouts of joy and praise, we begin Holy Week. 

The tone of celebration dies out quickly in our Palm Sunday liturgy as our shouts of joy and praise turn into heckling taunts, "Away with this man.  Crucify him!  Crucify him!"  

As the crowd turned on Jesus, dragging him toward the cross, he offered consolation to the people "who mourned and lamented him" and he forgave the very people who betrayed him, those who denied him, those who condemned him and those who crucified him.  We are part of this fickle crowd too.  We are among those who heckle and taunt and we are among those who receive consolation and forgiveness. 

Our challenge during Holy Week and throughout our lifelong journey with our Lord is to take on ourselves the "same attitude" of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).  St. Paul tells us how we can meet this challenge in our second reading, Philippians 2:6-11,"Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but (also) everyone for those of others."  In all of this, we must remember that Christ Jesus through his humility, his "coming in human likeness," his obedience to God his Father and his willingness to die on a cross, was ultimately exalted "in heaven and on earth and under the earth."  His suffering, death and resurrection give us the capacity to "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

My prayer for us is that we all experience a Blessed and Holy Week. 

Lord God,
as we enter this Holy Week,
Give us the same mind and attitude that was in Christ Jesus.
Empty us of our pride and selfishness;
draw us close to his cross,
so that as we celebrate his passion and resurrection,
our lives may become models of self-sacrificing love.
We ask this through Christ, our liberator from sin,
who lives with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.

AMEN.