“Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” (cf. Mt 21:1-11)
Today is called Palm Sunday, and also Passion Sunday. The celebration begins with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Then, in the Gospel we read of the Passion and death of Jesus. How quickly things can change!
On his way to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus asks for a donkey and a colt. The disciples laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them to enter Jerusalem. People had begun to see in Jesus the long-awaited Messiah, and they spread their cloaks and branches from the trees along the road acclaiming: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.”
During the following days, Jesus continues his teachings in the city. Judas has already planned to hand Jesus over to the authorities who have been working to discover something against the Law in what Jesus says or does. Finally, they invent an accusation, accept Judas’ deal, and incite the crowds to go along with their plan to put Jesus to death. During the coming Triduum leading to Easter and the Resurrection, we will hear about this process…
All through Lent, we have received calls to conversion, to a deepening of our relationships with God, with ourselves and with others – to become ever more fully alive.
Our Lenten tools of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving are precious aids for discernment in moments of darkness, loneliness, blindness, thirst, or desire of power, and even in experiences of enlightenment, of transfiguration.
During these last days before Easter we continue to journey to Jerusalem, to the three days during which we reflect on Jesus’ last days among us, before his crucifixion.
And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked
“Who is this?”
And the crowds replied “This is Jesus the prophet,
from Nazareth in Galilee.”
(cf. Mt 21:1-11)