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Palm Sunday: The Will To The Hill Of Salvation

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Palm Sunday: The Will To The Hill Of Salvation

Isaiah 50:4-7;
Psalm 22;
Philippians 2:6-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66

Dearly beloved in Christ, The Great Week is here.The greatest time in the Church’s liturgical year; the greatest story ever told. Palm Sunday starts off the greatest week in our Catholic year.  The triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, the Holy City, this is the start of a tremendous drama on the stage of human history. The entire initiative of what happened in the first Holy week lies with God.

Today, Christ rides into Jerusalem.  The King takes possession of His realm. We have the hindsight of faith, and this is our enormous advantage in understanding the significance of His entry into the Holy City. Many of the Jews who cheered Our Lord were probably aware of the significance of the donkey.  It was a fulfilment of one of the Messianic prophecies.  The King of Israel would come to meet His people riding on a beast of burden.  

We know what was to happen later that week.  But did they, who laid their garments at the Saviour’s feet, did they know just how royally that King was going to be treated? Hosanna to the Son of David! Thus the children of Israel welcomed Christ the King. That King would indeed be hailed, in all His glory!  His royal sceptre?  A reed.  His diadem?  A crown of thorns.  That King would be spat upon, beaten about the face, mocked and jeered at.  Some King!  Despised and rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.  We can see the tragic irony of Our Lord’s so-called “triumphal entry” into the Holy City.  

Those who cheered Him on His way doubtless saw only the surface of things.  He Himself, of course, knew what awaited Him. Without doubt, that foreknowledge sharpened the bitterness of His sufferings. To know in advance that those who flatter and applaud us are those who will later turn against us, such knowledge merely increases the agony of betrayal, the bitter cup of abandonment, and the desolation of Gethsemane.
The story of Our Lord’s Passion, today’s gospel, is so familiar and so dear to us.  Should we not respond to this tremendous drama, the greatest story ever told, not only with our lips but in our hearts?  Not only in our hearts, but in our lives?   This Holy Week, putting behind us what is past, making sincere acts of contrition and firm acts of amendment, let us resolve that Our Saviour’s Passion will bear real and lasting fruit in our lives, this Holy Week, and in the future.  If we have not already made our confession, there is still plenty of time left before Easter day.  Let us decide today, Palm Sunday, that we will keep a good Holy Week.  That we will keep a spirit of prayer and penance throughout the week.  That we will faithfully attend the sacred ceremonies, and the noble liturgical functions of Holy Week

As we start this Holy week, let’s just honestly face up to a few plain facts, a few home truths. Let us do all that we can to ensure that Our Lord’s entry into the Holy City, the place where we all find ourselves during the coming week, that His entry was not in vain, that our Hosannas then and today do not add to the bitterness of His sufferings, but are truly the loyal welcome that devoted subjects owe to their Prince, their Sovereign, their Lord.

LET US PRAY

Lord Jesus, King and centre of all hearts, ride into our lives today as You rode into Jerusalem.  Take possession of Your own.  Claim us as Your rightful due.  Save us from any further shameful betrayals to which the Enemy may try to tempt us, and then do with us as You will. Teach us how to follow in Your footsteps to the Cross, that we may also follow You in Your rising from the tomb, to that heavenly kingdom, where now You live and reign, forever and ever.  Amen.

Fr. Joseph Osho

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