With the celebration of Palm Sunday begins the great and holy week of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord. Not only is this week an important moment in the liturgical year, it is also the fountain from which springs all the other celebrations. All Christian celebrations refer back to the mystery of Easter, from which flows our salvation and the world�s. Ever since Ash Wednesday, the Word of the Lord has taken us by hand and accompanied us so that we would be ready to welcome the Holy Triduum. Over the next few days, the Word of God will intensify its presence among us and help us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Yes, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who accepts even death in order to save us. When we look into his eyes, broken with pain but still full of mercy and affection, we will see them look back at us the same way they looked at Peter even after he had betrayed him. Deep in our hearts, we will feel a knot of both pain and tenderness. In the next week, may each one of us welcome the gift of tears that was given to the first of the apostles the evening of the betrayal so that we too might return to the Lord�s side and begin to follow him again, with a new heart.
These holy days open with the memory of Jesus� entry into Jerusalem. The journey that had begun in Galilee is about to end. We read in the Gospel of Mark (11:1-10) that the last leg brings Jesus to Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives. Jesus sends two of his disciples to find him an animal on which to ride. He wants to enter Jerusalem as he had never done before. Until then he had kept himself hidden. But at that moment he wanted to enter the holy city and the Temple and clearly reveal his mission as the true shepherd of Israel, even if this decision � and Jesus knew it well � would lead to his death. It was the decisive moment for his mission and for his life. He does not enter the city in a chariot like the captain of a liberating army, but on a colt. The prophet Zechariah writes, �Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.� (9:9)
And so Jesus enters as a king, the savior sent by God to free his people. The people seem to understand this and come running to celebrate his entrance. They spread their cloaks on the road and wave green olive branches singing, �Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!� It is the same joyful song that we sing together with the angels as we enter into the memorial of the Lord�s supper. It is the joy that comes over the disciples and the crowd each time the Lord comes among us. It is the same joy that filled the woman in Bethany as she lied prostrate at Jesus feet. Is this joys excessive? Some people might think so. The Pharisees, annoyed by the celebration, ask Jesus to make the disciples be quiet. But Jesus blesses the joy of those who welcome him, �I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.�
Jesus enters the cities of our world while human life is tragically marked by conflict and violence of every kind. We need a liberator. Jesus is the only one who can free men and women from war, violence, injustice, and slavery. His face is not the face of a powerful or strong man, but the face of a meek man, humble of heart who did not come to save himself but to save others. He made the salvation of others his life�s goal. A few days after his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus will become the crucified one, the defeated. It is the paradox of Palm Sunday, which has us live Jesus� triumph and passion at the same time.
With the narration of the Gospel of the Passion read after the Gospel of the entrance into Jerusalem, the Liturgy shows us Jesus� face as it becomes the face of a crucified man. Jesus is a king, but the only crown that will be put on his head in the next few hours is the crown of thorns, the only scepter a reed, and the only uniform a mocking purple cloak. The olive branches that are a sign of celebration this Sunday will in a few days, witness Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane sweat blood in the anguish of his coming death. But Jesus does not flee; he takes up his cross and carries it to Golgotha, where he is crucified. Everything seems to be over for him. He can no longer speak or heal. But the death that in the eyes of many seemed to be a defeat was in fact a victory. That death was the logical conclusion of a life spent for the Lord, the Gospel, the disciples, and the poor.
Indeed, only God could have lived and died like that, forgetting himself in order to totally give himself to his friends. A pagan soldier recognized this. The evangelist Marks writes, �The centurion saw that in this way he breathed his last and he said, �Truly this man was God�s Son!� And God, the good Father, raised his Son. He did not allow death to win. Still today, the victory of God�s love over death continues to guide the little group of disciples that gather under today many crosses and wrap the many crucified bodies with the shrouds of mercy and love. Evil and death are not the last word. Jesus� disciples continue to love the poor, the defeated, the sick, the elderly, the suffering, and those who have nothing to give in return, because love overcomes evil and death.
