They
brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks across its back, and he sat on it. (Mark
11:7)Reflection.
..His coming is a revelation, a radical, total revelation of God's
holiness."Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of
your glory...". Precisely this Week which humanly speaking is filled to the brim with
suffering, humiliation, despoliation, in a word, with the kenosis of God this Week
contains the revelation of God's holiness, the culmination of world history. "Holy,
Holy, Holy.... Hosanna in the highest"....
To embrace the Cross on this day, to pass it from hand to hand, is a very eloquent
gesture. It is like saying: Lord, we do not want to stay with you only at the time of the
"Hosannas", but with your help we want to accompany you on the way of the Cross
as did Mary, your mother and ours, and the Apostle John. Yes, O Lord, because "You
have the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68), and we have believed that precisely your
Cross is the word of life, of eternal life!
Lenten Fact
According to the account of a fifth-century Spanish pilgrim to the Holy
Land, Passion Sunday Mass was celebrated in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. After this the people were invited to meet again in the afternoon at the
Mount of Olives, in the Church of Eleona (the grotto of the Our Father). They then
proceeded to the Church of the Ascension for a service consisting of hymns and
antiphons, readings and prayers, where at five o'clock in the afternoon the Gospel
of the palms was read and the procession set out for the city. The people responded
to the antiphons with the acclamation, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of
the Lord," as we say even today.
Lenten Action.
A diet of amoral and immoral programs can and will corrupt your values. Do you
control the media you watch and listen to?.
Prayer
Lord, you have satisfied our hunger with this eucharistic food. The death of
your Son gives us hope and strengthens our faith.
May his resurrection give us perseverance and lead us to salvation. We ask this through
Christ our Lord. Amen. |