Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week. It is the biggest week of our church year, a time in which we remember the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. It is my third Palm Sunday as a priest and the liturgy always strikes me.
We begin the mass by blessing our palm branches. In the ancient world, palms signified victory. The Israelites saw the strength and simplicity of palms as a symbol of the just man or woman who was faithful to God’s law. For the Romans too, palms meant that they had conquered other nations. Palm trees were not native to Italy, so whenever Roman armies defeated foreign nations, they would bring back palm branches as a souvenir of their victory. As Christians too, our blessed palms symbolize Christ’s victory over sin and death. Adam and Eve’s sin marked disobedience towards God’s will. As a result, suffering, corruption, and death entered our world. By Christ’s humility, obedience, and sacrifice however, we are restored back into friendship with God. Life-long faith and obedience to Christ gains us victory over sin and death.
We likewise proclaim two gospels at this mass. At the beginning, we recall when people welcomed Jesus triumphantly into Jerusalem. They exult Jesus and shout, “Hossana in the Highest”. Then later in the Passion Narrative, that same crowd mocks Jesus and crys, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” What a change in attitude and emotions. In many ways you and I are like that crowd. At times, we praise God and say, “Hossana to our King”. These are the moments when we truly live our faith. We participate at Sunday mass, we act with kindness and mercy towards others, moments when we ask for the sacraments of Confession, Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage. Yet at other times, we shout out, “Crucify him! Crucify him”. I know we don’t literally say that, but whenever we sin and reject God’s plan, we are saying that in some degree. For some parents, it may be after they get their child baptized or the kids receive First Holy Communion they think, “Okay, we got what we wanted, no need to go to mass again” Or for our youth to think, “Yes I got confirmed! No more CCD and learning about my faith” Or to think, “I don’t care what someone else might think, I don’t care to broaden my worldview, life is about me”. In these moments of selfishness, pride, and sin, we essentially crucify God’s will. We reject it.
Although our actions and emotions may change, God’s love remains the same. On that Cross, Jesus shows how much he loves us. He offers us salvation if we truly repent and turn towards him. May we have a prayerful Holy Week, celebrating God’s victory over sin and death by offering ourselves in service to God and others.