April 9, we celebrate Palm Sunday – A walk with Jesus
We know the length of the first Palm Sunday procession: it’s something like two miles from the Mount of Olives to the city of Jerusalem. But we really don’t know the pace of that procession of Jesus, his disciples and the large crowd. Was it fast or slow? Solemn and stately, or rather disorganized? We can’t get into a time machine and go back to find out. But wonder of wonders,
this year we will not have any kind of procession, we will stand and swing our blessed palms in the air singing Hosanna and let Jesus: the one who bore all our ills and infirmities; the one who renews our spiritual youth through his powerful grace; the one who eagerly ran his race to win our salvation; the one who leads us in our faith.
Follow the leader
The spiritual procession of our Palm Sunday will be perfect for each of us as we enter into another Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, we follow Christ our Life where he leads us: to death to self. But Jesus never turned back: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Sometime, somewhere, in some circumstance, each follower of Jesus will need to say and mean these words, the words that mean death to self but life in Christ. This is God’s paschal mystery, God’s Easter plan for our salvation in the dying and rising of Jesus, in which we share through baptism.
Many people carried palm branches that first Palm Sunday; only Jesus carried the cross on Good Friday. But because he did, we find strength to follow his way of the cross through our self-sacrifice. Holy Week can be a great week for us if we enter more deeply into the dying and rising of Christ. The greatness of this week comes from what Christ has done for us in the past and does for us now. “We do not live-in ungrateful forgetfulness,” said St. Augustine, “but we celebrate in grateful memory.” Our “grateful memory” sets us on our “closer walk” with Jesus on Palm Sunday and during Holy Week.
Join us for Mass: Saturday, April 8 at 5PM; Sunday, April 9 at 8AM; 10AM; 12PM; or 5:30PM!!
