Palm Sunday

Today, Palm Sunday, we enter into the holiest week in the Church’s calendar – Each of us has before us today and this week – the opportunity to “stay and keep watch with Jesus” – to experience His triumphant entry into Jerusalem – to the shouts of “hosanna” and “blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” … To experience His Last Supper when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples and instituted the Eucharist – giving them and us an example of what it means to serve one another and to lay down one’s life for a friend ...

We have the opportunity this week to experience His agony and arrest in the garden where He was betrayed and His disciples deserted Him … To experience His trial before the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod, where Peter denied Him three times and the crowds now shout “crucify Him” …

We have the opportunity this week to experience His scourging at the pillar – His painful journey carrying His cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha – the place of the skull – and His crucifixion between two thieves – where He demonstrated the depth of His compassion as He pleaded with His Father to “forgive them for they know not what they are doing” … and He showed us what it means to have faith when He said “Father into your Hands I commend my Spirit” …

The events of this week changed the course of history – the events of this week changed the world – and if we let them – the events of this week can change our hearts … if we let them, the events of this week can draw us closer to Jesus …
– so that we too can give back to God everything that He has given us – so that we too can die to our selves and say “Your will be done not mine” and so that we too can shout “if I live it is not I who live but Christ in me”
– so that we too might change the world – so that we too might share in Christ’s glorious resurrection and eternal life.

Please - please don’t let this opportunity pass you by - On Thursday we begin the Sacred Triduum, the three most sacred days of the year – Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Vigil of Easter – please make time to “stay with Jesus” – to keep watch and pray