Palms on Sunday! Why?

 Father Pothin's Reflection for Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017

Palms on Sunday – why?  Because on this day, throughout the world and across the centuries, people of every age, with palms on their streets and hands, acclaim him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

It is a moving experience each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus, towards the Temple, accompanying him.  This Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord Jesus makes his way towards the culmination of his earthly existence.  He goes up to Jerusalem in order to fulfill the Scriptures and to be nailed to the wood of the Cross, the throne from which he will reign forever, drawing to himself humanity of every age and offering to all the gift of redemption.

But what are we really doing when we join this procession as part of the crowd which went up with Jesus to Jerusalem and hailed him as King of Israel?  Is this anything more than a ritual, a custom? Does it have anything to do with the reality of our life and our world?

–Father Pothin