Reflection for Palm Sunday - 28 March 2021

       I love Palm Sunday.  It is a wonderful liturgical celebration as we near the end of our Lenten journey and as we enter Holy Week.  Last year, I remember Palm Sunday during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, when we streamed our Palm Sunday liturgy over the internet, when streaming our masses was still something very new to us.  

        I remember how during the Advent season, as we got ready for Christ’s birth on Christmas, we heard a lot of Scripture readings in our masses that connected Christ’s coming into the world as a baby to Christ’s second coming in the end times.  Today, we can make connections between Palm Sunday and other events in Christ’s life.  At the beginning of our Palm Sunday liturgy, we hear the Gospel reading of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey as he was warmly welcomed by the crowds.  We might think of how Jesus was in Mary’s womb as she made the journey to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey.  We might think of the donkey that carried Mary and baby Jesus into their flight into Egypt, as Joseph guided his newly formed family to safety.  When Jesus was born in the humble stable in Bethlehem, Mary perhaps used a linen cloth to swaddle him in the simple wooden manger. This connects to the linen cloth that Veronica used to wipe Jesus’ face on his journey to the cross.  This also connects to the linen cloth that Joseph of Arimathea used to wrap Jesus’ body, to get him ready for burial and to lovingly place his body in the tomb.  

          It is important to connect the entire trajectory of Christ’s life, to see his coming into the world as God made flesh to his message, ministry, passion, death and resurrection, to the salvation we receive through him.  Palm Sunday and the upcoming liturgies of Holy Week are all a part of that same message and that same trajectory.  

         We hope that you will join us for the liturgies during Holy Week.  With great gratitude and thanksgiving in our hearts, we are going to have these liturgies in person. But we will continue to stream them on the internet on our Facebook page as well.  In addition, we are going to gradually have more liturgies in the church building, while still offering the outdoor drive-in option for some liturgies each weekend for those who need that option in order to stay safe.  With great joy, we begin our commemoration of Holy Week.  We welcome you to this most holy of weeks.