May the Lord give you grace and peace in the Holy Spirit as we celebrate the Palm Sunday we enter the Passion Sunday. It is 10th April 2022.
We reflect on Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11 and Luke 22:14 – 23:56.
It was Palm Sunday. Due to a sore throat, 5-year-old Sammy stayed home with a babysitter. When the family returned from the Church carrying several palms, Sammy inquired what they meant. His father replied: “people held them over the head of Jesus as He walked by.” Immediately, the little boy retorted, how come! Just one Sunday, I did not go, and He showed up.
“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
Our life is indeed a procession towards the other, the good, the truth and ultimately to God. We begin a procession with Jesus as we enter the Holy Week. It is the week we all need to keep it not just holy and untouchable but loving and reachable to others.
The incredible love of God unfolds so intensely during this week starting from today. However undeserving we might be, God values us as we are God’s children.
This is the week we need to receive God’s love through the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
We read the third hymn of the suffering servant. The people who praised him are the very ones who pronounced the judgement on him. The responsorial Psalm presents the painful voice of the servant: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The earliest Christian hymn celebrates the triumph of Jesus through His selfless sacrifice. It is the humiliation in death that brought him the victory for the entire humanity. The humility of Christ is hailed by the Father when Jesus was ready to let go of who He is.
The narration of the Passion of Jesus Christ triggers invites us to reflect on something that is related to our own life. we read the passion narrative yet, there is a change in what we hear in relation to our life. He went through such humiliation and suffered and died for us.
May we accept the cross, burdens, sickness, failures, humiliation, and ill-treatments for the love of God. Let us try not to be a scandal, a cross, a pain and a disappointment to someone.
God has made us all proud and happy by the sacrifice of Jesus by recognizing each one as God’s special and unique child.
A teacher gave a peculiar exercise to the students in the class. She told them that they have to go out and look for a flower that was least noticed by people and study its various characteristic, beauty, and its presence. The students came back with thrilling and life-changing experiences that they had never done in the previous research and report. They all one by one explained in detail what it was meant for the flower left alone and unnoticed. In reply to their finding, the teacher enlightened them to apply the wisdom and findings to the human person who was not noticed by them and how it would make a life-changing experience when they would value the characters, beauty, and presence. The unnoticed human person will be cheerful and happy.
It is the week, we all need to come closer to one another in reconciliation, love and in genuine affection. Yes, we need to come closer to the Cross of our Lord and that does not give us an excuse to be far from one another.
Jesus is our peace. Peace resides between power and glory. Jesus enters Jerusalem as King of Peace. Peace is unreachable when we refuse to reconcile. Let us make every possible effort to receive His peace and blessings by reconciling to God. Our Christian duty does not end by coming on Palm Sunday, but we are invited to accept the cross that is entrusted to us. As the Father showed compassion and forgiveness to humanity at large, may we show the same to one another in order to enjoy peace.