Name: Rev Bernard M. Tracey, C.M.
Title: Executive Vice President for Mission
Palm Sunday Reflection
The celebration of Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. It is the holiest of weeks in the life of Christians around the world and the liturgical calendar of the Church. No different than our Jewish brothers and sisters who will begin Passover on April 8, and our brothers and sisters of the Muslim faith who begin the holy month of Ramadan on April 23, we will not be able to gather as a community in our churches today, and on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday night, and Easter Sunday.
Today there will be no blessing of palm, no procession in church while singing “Hosanna,” and no making crosses or other religious designs with palm to bring home. Today there will be no gathering for a family meal with relatives and friends to mark the beginning of Holy Week. The familiar traditions of this day will be missed.
As Catholics, we are accustomed to celebrating sacramentally and communally the major feasts of our faith and passages of life. Although we will not gather in church this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion and throughout Holy Week, we are still a vibrant community of faith because we celebrate and live Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as it happens to us and for us.
There is a tremendous amount of preparation to ensure that the liturgy of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter are not only engaging, but unite us with Christ in his suffering, death, and resurrection. This year, as COVID-19 encircles the world, the liturgy of Christ’s suffering and death takes place in our city’s streets, in the fears of those entering hospitals not knowing if they will return to their loved ones, on the faces of health-care workers who seek to bring healing with limited resources. We are socially separated and medically quarantined—but we are still united in Christ.
No different are we—who are confused, fearful, and uncertain about the future—than the followers of Jesus who entered Jerusalem with Him to the crowd’s shouts of, “Hosanna,” and only a few days later, to hear their cries of, “Crucify him.”We, like the disciples of Jesus, are called on this Palm Sunday to live the sufferings of Christ’s dying and the joy of his rising not in our churches, but in the liturgy of our lives.
Like Jesus’ mother, Mary, his closest disciples, and followers, we are called to give up the familiar ways we have grown to love and celebrate the life of our Savior. While the doors to our churches are closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and death, we unlock the door to our heart to bring life to our world as Jesus brought it. He gave his life, so that we might have life today and for eternity.
We are surrounded by sickness and death, but we are also experiencing the goodness of people who sacrifice their own lives for the good of all. Whether they are conscious of it or not, they are the Risen Christ as they provide medical care, make personal protective equipment and food for first responders and those working 24/7 in medical facilities, create virtual ways to lift the spirits of their neighbors, and keep in touch with friends and those who live alone.
St. Vincent de Paul said, “When you leave prayer and Holy Mass to serve the poor, you are losing nothing, because you are leaving God for God.”May his words encourage us on this Palm Sunday to rise above our fears and uncertainties and to be God’s gift of love and hope for our sisters and brothers throughout the world.