This is not just another Sunday: Palm Sunday is the beginning of what the Church calls “Holy Week.
It is the beginning of a week with Christ that culminates next Sunday at Easter. It is a profoundly symbolic week, for by participating in the liturgies, we are not just on-lookers engaged in a pageant; rather, we are uniting ourselves with Christ in his Great Mission, and the liturgies of Holy Week are a participation in this Mission. We re-enter the sacred actions of our Savior and walk with him, not just in the present time, but in the eternal time of sacramental mystery, the “eternal now.”
Throughout his Gospel, Mark shows Jesus pointing to the journey that He must make to Jerusalem to perform His Mission. Mark also tells us the events of this week. The day after His entry into Jerusalem, Jesus takes over the temple courtyard, the heart of the action during Passover week, and stages a teach-in. For several more days, Jesus tells thinly veiled parables about the religious leaders which cast them in a very bad light. By the time Wednesday has come around, Jesus denounces the religious leaders openly: “Beware of the scribes,” He says, “who devour widows’ houses.” On Thursday, He has His final meal and then commissions the apostles, and you and I, to continue His mission, God’s mission. Jesus enters into his passion, and on Friday is crucified, and dies. Saturday, our Lord is gone from us, and we experience the grief of loss. The agony of separation. And Sunday, starting with the Easter Vigil, we behold his Resurrection.
These next 8 days are at the core of our faith. It is why we are Christians, why we are Catholics. It is why you and I are here today, and, in a deeper and more mysterious way, it reveals to us the profound truth of our existence – that our lives are not just about a temporary existence on Earth in flesh and blood….rather, our lives transcend time and space. Our lives are eternal.
For the next 8 days, enter into the events of Holy Week. Take time each day to read Mark’s account of how Jesus spent this week. It starts in Chapter 11 of his Gospel. Join us when we gather to remember the events as a community, on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Celebrate his Resurrection with us at the most profound liturgy we have in our church, the Easter Vigil on Saturday night. Or rejoice with us on Easter Sunday.
Because this is not just another Sunday: This is the beginning of what the Church calls “Holy Week”.
Let this week be a Holy Week for you, too.