The Gospel: Jesus entered Jerusalem, surrounded by crowds of people cheering and shouting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” They could do so because they were witnesses both to the “mighty deeds they had seen” accomplished by him, and to the heavenly peace that the messiah had brought to earth.
The heavenly messiah is among us today. Palm Sunday means more than looking at and celebrating a past event. It is that, but is more than that. Those same events are taking place now in the world, in my heart.
Palm Sunday also means adding our voices of praise to those of Jesus’ early followers, those who greeted him as he entered Jerusalem as king on that first Palm Sunday, the first act of his passion and resurrection, of his coronation ceremony as king.
We are called to participate in these same dramatic events during the coming week, to join our own lives with our particular crosses to the events of our Redeemer and Savior, retold during the coming week.
I shall pray today that the Lord open my heart to receive him, and that he reveal to others, particularly to the victims of the Ukraine war, how to share through the cross in his triumph at Easter.