Palm Sunday

Will You BE THERE?

Palm Sunday initiates our observance of Holy Week. The liturgies of these holy days are filled with rich symbols and images that help us to remember. At the beginning of Lent this year, I invited all the RCIA candidates to find a cross and to keep it handy throughout Lent. This week we have the opportunity to accompany Jesus in his journey to the cross. We are invited to spend the week in a kind of retreat—a time to focus on how present we are to the events of Holy Week.

We carry palms, we raise them high. We reenact the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem as a prophet from Nazareth. We recognize the humility of an entrance on a donkey. We read the passion and participate as the crowd gathered. Do we identify with the words we speak? In what way? Are we like the apostles unable to stay awake and pray with Jesus in the garden? In what ways do we “fall asleep?”

When do we “wash the feet” of others? When do we “walk the way of the cross?” When have we felt lifeless, spiritless and deadened as if we were in a grave, a tomb? This week we retreat, as much as we are able, from regular activity to spend time in prayer and reflection. We can spend time thinking about all the people today who are experiencing their own way of the cross, suffering the most desperate situations—torture, total desperation, helplessness, bullying, physical abuse, and humiliation. We have the opportunity to BE THERE.