13/04/2003 – Palm Sunday - Year B 

This Sunday introduces us, Christians, to the most significant week. It’s Holy Week that ends with the solemn Easter Triduum! During this week we try to live every minute close to Jesus, in His heart, for we are and we want to be living members of His Body! Therefore we start by today’s celebration by living the joy that He and His own had entering Jerusalem.

It has been always a great joy in the sight of the Holy City and climbing the roads and the staircase that bring one to the esplande of the Temple. Jesus wanted to live this moment exactly as described by the prophets. The prophet Zaccharia speak of a humble king that comes riding a colt ! Jesus send two of His disciples to bring Him a colt on which no one has ever sat, hence good for a sacred use! He mounts it with solemnity, like a king, and the disciples spread their garments and waved leafy branches! Then they cried out from the Psalm: Blessed is He who comes…Recognizing Jesus as the Messiah who enters in His city and temple destined for His Glory!

Today, we too take in our hand the olive or palm branches and we lift them up singing our Hosanna! We too are among those disciples that joyfully walk on the road of the mount of olives, descending to the valley of Kedron and ascending to enter into the temple. Today, we too give joy to Jesus! And He makes us happy! Witnessing to the Lord makes grown within us the joy of our hearts and the power of our lives!

Today we need both joy and power to begin the way that Jesus is about to tread and bring to an end on Calvary. The Readings during Mass, after the singing Hosanna, put us in the mystery of the sufferings of Jesus. His suffering is a mystery, that is, it forms part of the loving will of the God of life!

Isaiah presents to us the Servant of Jahweh ready to do the will of God for He knows that God will assist Him in the sufferings done by men, to whom He is given, discouraged men whom He wants to console and help with His Word. The Psalm, then, continues with the description of the sufferings and shows Jesus’ confidence towards the Father and His will to reach all with the good news.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Phillipians, helps us to contemplate Jesus as the obedient servant, humble enough as to give back His divine and royal dignity! God is aware of His Son’s love and exhalts Him by giving Him a name so high as to be worthy of adoration and praise by all creatures and every tongue! In such a manner the apostle translate the passion and resurrection and help us to look at them with the same look of God!

The passion reading according to Mark begins with an act of love by a woman who breaks an alabaster vase to anoint the head of Jesus. That woman represent the Church. She is opposed and contradicted exactly at the same time when she wants to love her Lord in a direct and beautiful way, when she "looses" time for Him, when she puts energy to announce His Word, when she stops to praise Him and listen to Him!

I want to be a part of this Church. I want to give all my love to Jesus. Im pretty sure that the poor wont complain, on the contrary! The poor are the ones who are happy to see me and the Church committed to love Jesus! This is the only love that gives the strength to follow the Lord as from the garden up to Calvary.

As we continue to read the Gospel, let us hope that the love for Jesus grows in us. Let us hope that even faith grows in us, that faith that made the centurion say: "truly, this man was the Son of God!"

Let us remain in this love and faith during the whole week!

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