Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 

Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, is one of the most dramatic days in the life of Christianity.  In this one celebration the Church goes from pomp and brilliance with palm, to sorrow at the reading of the Passion.  This Sunday moves us from the Lenten Season into the twists and turns of the week of the Lord’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, to the Cross, and into the Resurrection.   

 

Most will attend services or Mass on Palm Sunday, and then return  a week later, on Easter Day for services or Mass.   However, each day of Passion Week  reveals the most somber and realistic days of the readings and liturgical ceremony.   Attending the full daily Triduum  helps one realize the great importance of the Redeemer’s acts that brought salvation to the world.

 

Jesus is greeted by the people of Jerusalem, at the gates, with palm branches, cloaks, and much fanfare.  He is welcomed into the Holy City as an earthly King would be.  Even at this great welcome, some are plotting  this Jesus’ demise.  This fact will be realized in a few more days on the hill of Calvary.  The Lord knows all to well of the events that will take place.   There will be the Paschal Meal, the prayer in the garden, the capture, trial, conviction,  and death on a Cross.  The human side of Jesus is terrified just as we would be terrified.  He attempts to be calm and peaceful until that garden scene after the Paschal Meal (the Last Supper).  He goes into the garden to pray.  He is so terrified that he asks his Heavenly Father to let this cup pass.  Then he says , "not my will, but Thy will be done."   As the guards come close to arrest Jesus, he becomes docile and conforms to the orders of the guards. 

 

How many times are we like the three Apostles in the garden with Jesus?  How many times are our lives so busy that we can not even make time to pray with him for an hour?  How often do we complain and grumble when it is time to be with the Lord on the Lord’s day?  How often do our actions speak for themselves and resemble Peter who said,  " I do not know this man, or I am not a follower of his? " 

 

This Holy Week is a perfect time to attend all of the liturgical ceremonies to become fully aware of how we say we follow this Jesus.  How can we follow him, if we do not know about him?  Are we like some who place palm branches and clocks in his path, and then deny that we know, or follow him? 

 

I ask that each of us take the time to find out what the Lord went through to save us and redeem us.  There is no greater love than one who lays down their life for a friend.  What a friend we have in Jesus.  Hosanna, Hosanna to the Son of David. 

 

 

 

+Lawrence J. Harms, D. D.

Presiding Archbishop

ACCUS