by Rev. Fr. V. C. Jose Chemmanam

PALM SUNDAY

(Reading for Holy Qurbana Jn 12: 12 - 19, Procession Lk 19:28 - 44, & Palm Blessing Mk 11: 1 - 11)

1) Today is Palm Sunday. Also known as Passion Sunday. Today we bless palms and offer sweet-smelling flowers unto the Lord in recollection of our Lord's triumphal Entrance into the Holy City of Jerusalem.

2) Resolved to finish the work God had given Him to do, Jesus now set his face to Jerusalem (LK 9: 51). St. Mark, with a vivid touch describes this journey thus: "And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid." (Mk 10:32)In this verse we get a picture of two parties;

a) Jesus - a great lonely figure striding on ahead

b) The disciples were following awe-stricken at a distance.

The Disciples were amazed for the kind of lead Jesus had taken for never before had he so stepped out ahead of them. This shows that Jesus was so impatient to reach His goal for He was ?dwelling in his passion?. They were afraid that His Head ?carried a price? and that his enemies were plotting to arrest and finish him. Knowing all these Jesus is heading straight into the midst of the enemies.

3) During this Last Journey to Jerusalem, Jesus did three things.

a) The Triumphal entry

b) The Temple Cleansing and

c) Breaking of the Loaf at the Last Supper.

4) On Palm Sunday we specially commemorate the Triumphal entry into the Holy City. Borrowed an ass from a friend in the neighborhood, He rode on it from Beth- phage to Jerusalem which was undoubtedly a prophetic symbolism. Prophets of Israel used such symbolic and dramatic acts when people refused to listen to the word of God. Prophet Jeremiah once solemnly shattered an earthenware-flask before a group of his country men in order to symbolize the breaking of Jerusalem and said 'This is what going to happen to you, O Jerusalem.'

5) Why did Jesus ride on an ass to the Holy City? The meaning of this action is to be found in Zech 9:9. Centuries before a seer had pictured Messiah as "lowly and riding upon an ass, who would speak peace unto the nations, and his dominion would be from sea to sea." By this symbolic action Jesus was proclaiming that He is the Messiah, to come in the name of the Highest and the One to save (Hosanna in the Highest). He refused the role of a warrior King riding upon a horse but put on the robe of the prince of Peace, for the kings rode upon an ass with a message of peace.