A NOTE FROM THE PASTOR

April 13, 2025

If someone were to ask you, “what is the holiest day in the Church year”, what would your answer be? Most, I dare say, would answer “Christmas”…and they’d be wrong! Now, don’t get me wrong – I like Christmas as much as the next person, and as a Secular Franciscan I have “adopted” a particular viewpoint that would put Christmas “on par” with Easter, with its Incarnational (that is, bodily) Theology. However, when looked at liturgically, it is second to Easter, the most sacred day of the Church Year. We begin our “final approach” into Easter (as well as our Holy Week services) with today’s celebration of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (interchangeably referred to as either “Palm Sunday” or “Passion Sunday” (due to our reading of the Passion Narrative today)).

Today is unique in that two gospel passages are read, one depicting Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and one speaking to us of Jesus’ Passion and Death. Both read at today’s liturgy serve as “bookends” to our Holy Week services. The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem (intoned at the beginning of Mass) speaks of the kingship of Christ, for it is a celebration befitting royalty, with people lining the streets offering shouts of praise and acclamation to Jesus. They recognize Jesus as Messiah at this moment, and pledge  their loyalty to Him with shouts of “hosanna” (a word which means “save us” or “help”, an appropriate cry made to Jesus). The interesting thing is that the same crowd who is crying “hosanna” is most likely the same crowd who, in a few short days, will be calling for blood with cries of “crucify him”.

This is where the second gospel (read at the usual time) comes in. It is the telling of the Passion and Death of Jesus, about how He was betrayed and handed over to be killed just a few hours after celebrating the Last Supper (a Passover meal) with His disciples. This depiction of the last hours of Jesus’ earthly life serve as a reminder to us of how much Jesus gave Himself for us, offering His life so as to save ours. The telling of this Passion narrative shows to us that Jesus, He without sin, became sin for us and won for us newness of life. Jesus did all of this without rebelling, without turning back, not shielding Himself from the torture and torment that He knew awaited Him. This is true love, the self-emptying love by which Jesus shows us how we are to act.

May this Passion/Palm Sunday be a fitting time for us to unite ourselves with Jesus. Let us make the long walk to Calvary with Him so that we might have a share in His Passion, Death and, ultimately, Resurrection. May we have the courage to not turn back, to not shy away from all that Jesus suffered, so that we might have a share in new and everlasting life!

Wishing You All A Blessed Holy Week,

Fr. Paul