April 14 // Palm Sunday

At the Procession with the Palms: Luke 19:28-40
eading I: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Reading II: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56 or 23:1-49

On Palm Sunday, we have two Gospel proclamations. The first tells us of Jesus’ final entrance into Jerusalem. He arrived in the holy city as a king, as the promised Messiah. (See 2 Kings 9:13 and Zechariah 9:9). Both his supporters and his enemies would have recognized the meaning of the donkey he rode on and the cloaks spread on the road.

The second Gospel is, of course, the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and execution--of his Passion. Jesus did not ride on a donkey to the place of crucifixion. He walked, and walked with difficulty, because he had been badly beaten. Among the people who followed him were grieving women.

Jesus said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time people will say to the mountains, “Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’” A serious warning.

I wonder how many times across the centuries did people think that Jesus’ prophecy was about to come true. When I read Luke’s account of Jesus’ Passion this week, his words to the women who followed him to the cross really did sound like the situation in which the world finds itself today.

When I see babies and young children, I wonder what the world will be like when they are adults. What will the climate be like? Will there be peace on earth or more wars? How many people will be forced to migrate if their homelands are no longer habitable? I thought of an article I read about people on a chain of islands in the South Pacific who are slowly losing their lands to rising waters. And I thought of a picture I saw of a dead baby in the Middle East, a victim of tear gas.

Jesus died to save humanity. He was the ultimate Passover Lamb. But do we really care? And are we truly ready to be his faithful followers, in all that we say and do?

~Sheryl Zabel