Palm Sunday reflections

It is Palm Sunday today. It is also the beginning of the Holy Week. Holy Week will lead to Maundy Thursday which is Jesus’s last supper and then, Good Friday which is the day Jesus was crucified. Then, it is Easter Vigil on Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday is the day when Jesus enter Jerusalem. On that day, the people welcomed Him by waving palms. But by Friday, they condemned Him and shouted ‘Crucify Him!’. This is the part I like about being a Catholic. We experience these every year with some things (I won’t call it ritual) we do physically.

On Palm Sunday, the church folks will each take a palm leaf which will be blessed with Holy Water. Then, we have a little procession in the church ground. (definitely church ground or else kena water canon liao, wei, LOL) Palm Sunday means many things to different people.

Palm Sunday to me is a reminder to stay faithful and not easily swayed. Whether it is faith for our Lord Jesus Christ, our spouse, our children, siblings or even our rulers. I do not want to be like the fickle minded folks who chanted their welcome and the next few days, changed their minds. Strong faith can lead to many things, often sweet rewards. But it is not easy to stay firm in faith.

As Christians, how often do we falter? How often we forget John 3:16 – Believe? (do take a look at this animation on Jesus crucifixion)

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit Shalom Youth group presented a skit at our mass this morning. It was very touching as they had made everything so real. From the sound of the hammer hitting the nail to the cries of the women at Calvary. Bravo to the team who must have trained very hard for this. Their short skit has touched many parishioners.

We have a cross of Jesus in our church but today, when the real skit was played out in front of my eyes, I felt a lot closer to the sufferings our Lord Jesus had gone through for the world. For if I don’t hear the ferocity of the crowds condemning Jesus to the part where the guy who played the role of Jesus got kicked and whipped by the burly Roman soldiers to the cries of Mary, mother of Jesus and Veronica and all the other women and eventually Jesus’s death on the cross, I probably won’t be able to connect with what I read from the Bible. From the Bible :

16″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.[g] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”[h]

(copy from biblegateway)

I wish to requote something I found somewhere quoted by someone, sometime ago 😛 :

I just saw in church the other day a poster of Jesus crucified on the cross with the words,

“I was betrayed. I lost my life. What have you lost?”

I wanted to post about Palm Sunday when I got home from church this morning but my previous post took priority because I feel it is something that I have to say, and make my stand. For I believe that if I am given the voice, I have to say it.

My Palm Sunday reflection in 2006 here.