Lent is a very profound time of prayer and preparation in our lives of faith. It is a time that calls out to us, a time that can affect our lives in a very real way. We finish the seasons of Advent and Christmas, then a month or so of ordinary time, before we start our journey with Jesus in the desert during the holy season of Lent. The Church calls us to some serious work during Lent: to repent from our sins and to convert our hearts, to pray, to fast, and to perform works of charity. Lent starts in the midst of February or at the beginning of March, months that are usually cold and dreary in the middle of winter. At the beginning and ending of our Masses here at our parish of Holy Savior during Lent, we did not begin with a meaningful hymn or joyful praise song, but rather, we began our Masses with silence on our knees. The silence of our Lenten journey with the Lord is the silence of the world as Jesus endures his passion and makes his way to the cross.
We know that Palm Sunday is a special day, with these palm fronds that we carrying into Mass. Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, signifies that we are moving away for the silence and the starkness of Lent onto something else. At the beginning of mass today we hear shouts of joy from the crowd: “”Hosanna…; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest!” We can imagine why the crowds are filled with joy and exuberance. They thought that Jesus was the Messiah, the one who would bring their nation back to glory and bring them salvation. They had heard his amazing sermons and teachings. They had seen him feed a huge crowd with only a few loaves of bread and several fish. They had seen him heal so many people of their illnesses and afflictions. They had seen him raise the dead and drive out demons. They had seen his kindness to the poor and the forgotten, to the leper and those considered unclean. But, then later in this same Mass, the shouts of Hosanna fade away and Jesus is condemned with other kinds of shouts and insults: “Let him be crucified! Let him be crucified!”
It is important to note that our liturgical celebration today does not end with Christ’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. That is not the final word. Today’s liturgy, then, teaches us that Jesus does not save us through his triumphal entry into the city or by his miracles. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians that Jesus emptied himself and humbled himself. In his emptying and in his humility, Jesus demonstrates the boundless love that God has for us, a love that the Son accepted in his destiny to bring us salvation through his passion and death on the cross. Jesus did not seek power and glory as the Son of God. He had solidarity with the oppressed, the marginalized and the forgotten. He had solidarity with the sinner, yet he was without sin. On Holy Thursday, as a part of our Holy Week commemoration, we will see Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, a task that the lowest household servant was usually assigned. The abyss of emptiness and humility will be evident in Jesus’ last moments on the cross: “From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:45-46). In quoting Psalm 22, Jesus affirms God's presence amid his people. Jesus prays this psalm in awareness of the Father's presence with him. Jesus’ cry is not a cry for help, but rather a prayer for all peoples in the midst of his emptiness, humility, and struggle. This is Jesus who walks with us in our struggles. We are to unite our sufferings to his sufferings, for Jesus understands our pain, our brokenness, our feelings of abandonment and loneliness.
We commemorate Palm Sunday today: “Passion Sunday.” We are left with the image of Jesus who stretches out his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross so that all may be invited into his loving, saving embrace. Darkness enveloped the land on that afternoon that Jesus died on the cross, but even in the moments of great darkness, God is present with us. Jesus invites us to journey with him during these days of Holy Week that begins today, Palm Sunday. Let us accept that invitation.
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