Palm Sunday, Year C, 24.03.2013

Isaiah 50:4-7/ Philippians 2:6-11/ Luke 22:14-23:56

Today’s Mass began with a festive and a celebrative kind of mood.

Yes today is called Palm Sunday, and at the beginning there was the procession with palms to commemorate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

It was also rather chaotic as we also tried to get as quickly to our favourite pew to settle down and also to cool down from the outside heat.

Then came along a very long gospel passage that was read in parts.

The celebrative procession with palms gave way to a solemn mood where we heard of betrayal and denial, agony and pain.

Palm Sunday is also called Passion Sunday.

In short, we can say that the mood in today’s Mass went from “palm to pain”.

And with that, we also enter into Holy Week and we can also say that “the pain is increasing” until it reaches its climax on Good Friday in a painful death on the cross.

Yes, from this Sunday to the next Sunday, we will be  confronted with a mixture of emotions – of joy and sorrow; glorious entry and humiliating exit; life and death.

Yes, we move from palm to pain. Yet it does not stop just there.

Because pain and suffering and death do not have the last say, and neither do they determine the final outcome.

The final outcome is always in the hands of God who will be victorious, and in Jesus Christ who has conquered sin and death.

It is in the humble palm branch that we see the unfolding of pain and suffering and death.

Yet it is also a sign of the victory and glory to come.

As it is, this palm branch will slowly dry up in the days to come.

It will turn from green to a brownish colour.

In the end, it will just be a dried up stiff branch.

Yet in the future, this palm branch together with the other palm branches will be collected and burnt and made into ashes for Ash Wednesday’s imposition of ashes.

So what was thought to be dead and useless will be given a new purpose and a new meaning.

Yes the ashes take on a new meaning and a new purpose and they become a sign of our repentance and conversion.

So as we bring the palm branches home, we also know that these palm branches symbolize pain and suffering.

Yet the hidden meaning in the palm branches is also victory and glory.

So let us be with Jesus in His pain and suffering and death. For in this pain and suffering and death, there is also the hidden meaning of victory and glory.