..since the beginning of Lent until now we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works...let us commemorate the Lord's entry into the city for our salvation...
view the video: Fr Vincent's reflections on Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday)
Read his reflection here:
Palm Sunday 2020
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
The Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Love of God our Father
and the Communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.
Thank you for coming back for this, my second video for Holy Week. If you missed the first one, basically for “Palm Saturday,” I think you can find it on the Cluster website. You might want to watch that one before this, if you can.
Let us begin with the Our Father. Our Father who art in heaven . . . .
Yesterday, we briefly reflected on Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with the crowds hailing him as King. We turn today to his Passion, so we start with the Opening Prayer for the Passion, Palm Sunday Mass:
Almighty ever-living God,
who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross,
graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering
and so merit to share in his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Let us now listen to a section of the Passion from the Gospel of Matthew read for today’s Mass. If you want to look it up in your Bible and follow along, it is Matthew 26: 36 - 46 (please read the scripture before continuing)
Yesterday, I suggested that in the midst of this pandemic and all the restrictions being placed upon us, and seeing family and friends falling victim to this virus, we can believe ourselves to be in the most dire of circumstances, and totally alone. This Scripture passage from the Passion helps us to see that Jesus experienced some of those same emotions: wishing for his reality to be changed by God if at all possible; looking for comfort from his loved ones, but feeling totally isolated, maybe even out of touch with God Himself. Even resignation to the inevitability of death, seemingly in despair. I told you the emotions of this Holy Week are as powerful as our personal emotions.
Know that you and I are not alone, even if we feel that way; know that Jesus has traveled this path, he has walked through that dark tunnel before us. Hear the words of the prayer offered by the Church to God: Jesus is the “example of humility” for me. God, help me to say with Jesus, “not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus submitted to the Cross, even as we are now called to take up this cross and follow in his footsteps. Truly, I, (and maybe you), need “his lesson of patient suffering,” because it is so easy for the emotions to make me take it out on the few people left around me! All of this is so I can “share in his Resurrection.”
Jesus Christ became human to share in our life, even the hardness of this current world-wide suffering, to show God’s eternal love for us, for you, for me, each of us. We are personally loved by God, in the depths of our soul, where only He knows the fullness of our emotions and distress. Jesus came to suffer for the sake of freeing us from sin and the destructiveness of this world. But he asks us to join with him – to spend time in prayer, open your heart to God, even asking for what might not be possible, but ready to submit to His will. We will lose our life here, no doubt, but we can gain everlasting life.
After this video concludes, please consider offering a decade of the Rosary – the Sorrowful Mystery of the Agony in the Garden – for all those who suffer, even if that includes you, so they will know they do not suffer alone, but Jesus is with them. That they might find the path through the Cross, as we pray today, that all might share in Jesus’ Resurrection.
Monday, please come back, as we continue our Holy Week journey, hearing and praying about the truth that this world will never satisfy us or understand our faith that looks beyond the limitations of this life.
Comments
Patricia Melancon
Father Vincent, thank you for sharing with us your divinely inspired Palm Sunday reflection. As we find ourselves alone in our own agony in our Gardens of Gethsemani, let us humbly pray not that our will be done but that we, like Jesus, surrender to the Will of the Father. May God bless and keep you safe.