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Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - Cycle B

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This Sunday the Season of Lent nears its completion as we begin our preparations for Holy Week – Palm Sunday and the Sacred Triduum.  Our Mass on Palm Sunday is a liturgy of transition, starting with the joyful celebration with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem only to experience the sadness and solemnity of his passion and death.  How quickly things can change!  The crowd that cheered his arrival into Jerusalem turns in a matter of a few days calling for his crucifixion…

The Word for Palm Sunday
Mark 11:1-10 or John 12:12-16
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalms 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Philippians 2:8-9
Mark 14:1-15:47 or 15:1-39

The opening of the Palm Sunday Mass begins with the Gospel proclamation of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem, with palms waving and crowds cheering.  But this triumph is short-lived once we settle into our seats for the Liturgy of the Word.  

Our first reading is from second Isaiah where we hear his poetic lament of his prophetic calling.  The prophet has a thankless task, yet even through his indignity he cannot help but deliver the Lord’s message, for in the Lord he shall not be put to shame.  As Scripture has shown, this lament isn’t just from Isaiah, but representative of all prophets who speak for the Lord.  As Christians we see this same indignity for Jesus, a suffering we hear echoed in our Psalm as we cry “my God, why have you abandoned me?”  A lament Jesus himself utters on the cross.

Just as Isaiah foretold of the suffering servant, our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians recounts Jesus’ obedience in the face of his suffering.  Paul reminds us that it was in fact through Jesus’ suffering and death that he brought all of us to eternal life, an act that should bring us to our knees in praise.

This brings us to our Gospel where we see prophecy fulfilled through Jesus with his passion and death.  As we are in Cycle B of the Lectionary, we hear Mark’s story of the Passion.  Some might ask why we need to hear the passion story on Palm Sunday?  After all, Palm Sunday is supposed to be a moment of triumph and celebration, with Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem as the Savior.  Why not just end the story there?  Because for Jesus, these two events, his entry into the city and his death, are inexorably joined.  Jesus knew and understood that by going into Jerusalem his very presence in the city would force the hand of the Jewish authorities, and that in turn would force the hand of the Roman authorities.  And knowing all this, he still went.

Final Thoughts:
Palm Sunday reminds us that we too are players in this drama – that we also have skin in the game in the form of our own salvation.  Christ did not suffer just for the people at that moment, but for all people for all time, past, present, and future.  To remind us of our own culpability most parishes will have the Assembly join in the presentation of the Gospel playing the voice of the crowd.  This is not easy for us, especially when we’re called to shout “crucify him, crucify him!”  Yet this is exactly what we do when we forget to follow Christ and give in to our selfish sinful nature.  It is in these very moments, however, that we need to remember the blessed irony of Good Friday – that it was through Jesus’ death that he was able to show God’s great power through the Resurrection.  That through Christ, forgiveness is ours for the asking so our salvation can remain assured.  

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