Today is Palm Sunday.
Today we observe Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy week. Today’s Mass, and Friday’s service too, are some of the most difficult of the year to participate in for many of us. We hear the story of Christ’s Passion and even participate in it by playing out the reading in various parts.
The bigger issue than our participation here is that all of humanity, in our sin, made His Passion necessary. God’s great gift of His Son’s rescue mission, while beautiful, has an ugly side. That ugliness is the sin that made it necessary.
In between today and Good Friday we have the beautiful Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday. I’ve been surprised over the years by lower attendance than I would expect at that Thursday evening Mass. It celebrates the institution of the Eucharist and the institution of the priesthood by Jesus.
Even before Thursday’s Mass there is the Chrism Mass at Cathedral Tuesday evening. What’s nice for all of you is you live close to Cathedral so it’s not hard to attend barring personal commitments that might not allow you to attend. If you’ve never attended a Chrism Mass I encourage you to go, at least once. At that Mass the Bishop will bless/consecrate the various oils that are used around the diocese during the following year. Most of the diocesan priests will be there as well to renew their priestly promises. I always find that inspiring.
As we make our way to the Easter Vigil and the day of Easter I hope you’ll participate in these Masses and Good Friday service as you can. Holy week is the holiest time in our year as Christians, particularly Thursday evening through Sunday. It shouldn’t pass as just another week in our year even as another week of Lent.
Being Christian means embracing Christ on the Cross as well as His Resurrection. I hope you’ll find ways to do that this coming week.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a holy Holy week.
Peace, Bob
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