Reflection for Palm Sunday, Year C
For Palm Sunday we are given two Gospels: Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the account of Jesus' passion. The first Gospel invites us to enter into Holy Week while the second Gospel points us we are heading in Holy Week - Jesus giving himself on the cross totally for love of us and bringing about our salvation.
In the first Gospel we are told that our Lord sends two disciples into a village and asks them to get a colt. He tells them that if the owner asks them what they are doing they are to say the Lord has need of it. Jesus wanted to use this little colt in order to fulfil the prophecies, to reach the people and move them to acknowledge him as their saviour. Jesus wants to reach others using us as well. Like the colt, we may not have a lot of strength or virtue or position of influence but nevertheless Jesus can use us. The colt was humble and allowed itself to be led and used by our Lord in that specific situation: lots of noise and waving of branches, branches strewn on the road making the path difficult to walk on. The people were singing and praising God but were not singing and praising the colt. But the colt kept on working. We have to see ourselves as the colt, carrying Jesus to other people - on campus, in our classrooms, in our social environment, and in our families- even if at times it is difficult, or others may be unresponsive, or even hostile, and without being praised or recognised. Knowing that we are carrying Jesus, we keep going forward like the colt.
The Gospel of the Passion puts before us how much Jesus loved us. That should move us to feel sorrow for our failings as well as to want to respond to the love Jesus has for us. When we come to the end of Lent it is good to ask ourselves: have I cut away anything that stops me getting close to Jesus or is my devotion to him superficial? In a recent trip to Slovakia, Pope Francis made this clear to us:
“Crucifixes are found all around us: on necks, in homes, in cars, in pockets. What good is this, unless we stop to look at the crucified Jesus and open our hearts to him, unless we let ourselves be struck by the wounds he bears for our sake, unless our hearts swell with emotion and we weep before the God wounded for love of us.”