Posted by The WORD in other words (2016) by Fr. Sonny de Rivera, SVD – Rome, Italy
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – C
It is common knowledge that we see and experience life with its twists and turns. The unexpected happens and the expected disappears into oblivion. Our Sunday liturgy today, the celebration of Palm Sunday, also demonstrates this well-known reality of life.
The liturgy, in its totality, presents Christ’s mission with constant twists and turns. At the outset, Christ is proclaimed as King, greeted incessantly with swaying palms and the jubilant hymn of Hosanna to the Son of David. Everything around Christ is glory, as he enters triumphantly through the gates of Jerusalem.
Then the jubilant hymns of joy and acclaim recede to the background, muted by the tumultuous and violent moods of the passion. Here the reading of the passion trumps the glory of the Palm Sunday celebration. This is a clear indication of “twists and turns”. Through all that follows, from Jesus’ triumphal entry, to his condemnation, to being shamed by the people’s wish to release Barabbas instead of him, to carrying the cross through the streets to Golgotha, to his crucifixion and his death, we have a clear presentation of Jesus’ journey from glory to shame, from shame to suffering and death.
However, these sequential events of glory, shame, suffering, and death do not end here, for as Jesus’ mission is described with its twists and turns, there comes the final turn,the final glorious twist that is Jesus’ resurrection.
The celebration of Palm Sunday prepares us to make the journey with Jesus in its entirety; his mission, presence, glory, sacrifice and resurrection. Pope Francis, in his very first celebration of Palm Sunday as Pope and the Bishop of Rome said:
“Embracing the Cross leads to joy. Do not be men and women of sadness: A Christian can never be sad! Ours is not a joy that comes from having many possessions, but from having encountered a Person. We accompany, we follow Jesus, but above all we know that he accompanies us and carries us on his shoulders.”
As we enter into the celebration of the Paschal Feast, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, we embrace the cross of his sacrifice, and we roll away the stone of his tomb. The cross that we embrace and the stone that we roll away, lead us to joy. This celebration gives us the ability to feel great hope as we proclaim:
Dying, you destroyed our death, Rising, you restored our Life, Lord Jesus, come in glory!
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