Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. The beginning of today’s readings starts with the Gospel of Luke when Jesus enters Jerusalem. Everyone in the crowd is waving palm leaves as Jesus makes his way through. As Christians, we are to start the preparation of Jesus’s death and resurrection of our sins, one of the most holy of celebrations.
Let us look back on our Lenten journey and see if we lived up to the 40 days of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Did we accept the sacrifices like Jesus did on his 40-day journey or did we put them aside? Our Lenten experience may have been different than everyone’s, but the effort was there.
When the Passion of Jesus Christ is read, we reflect on the days that lead up to Easter Sunday. Some of us try to imagine ourselves there, in the crowd watching Jesus sacrifice himself for us. Just like Jesus, we were given the heavy wooden cross during the Lenten days we did. How we carried it is only known by
you and God.
As We look forward to Easter Sunday, when we yell, “Christ is Risen”, let us remember that “Lent is our retreat to repent from sin, repair our relationship with Christ and open ourselves more fully to God”
Readings at USCCB.org Living the Word resource
At the Procession with Palms - Gospel: Luke 19:28-40
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm: 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Luke 22:14—23:56