Hosanna to the Son of David…

This weekend we celebrate the memory of Christ triumphal entering into the holy city of Jerusalem. The people were praising him and rejoicing that he was coming. They were laying down their cloaks and putting palms over the road for him to ride in on. Just imagine what it was like, the joy and the revelry, the pure excitement at the new King, the Son of David coming into the city…but then it changes. Everything changes within the span of just a few days. Change is nothing new and even having major shifts in our lives like what is happening right now, has happened in the past and is a part of change, some of it we can control, most of it we can’t.

Palm Sunday begins this very holy week, which is the most sacred week of the entire year. It is a week of wildly swinging emotion; it goes from the joy and excitement of Jesus entering into the city of Jerusalem like a king, mounted on a donkey, to an extreme low of the betrayal by a friend, his arrest, imprisonment, condemnation, Way of the Cross, to his death, then back to the joy of the Resurrection. It is such a beautiful and solemn week it is a week that we witness how far Jesus was willing to go for the redemption of our sins. I was thinking that two years ago, it was just a few of us in the church celebrating this Holy Week and last year we were opening up the other half of the pews to use. This year we have everything open and even room to flow over into the gym.

So…how are we planning on celebrating this greatest week of the year? In the early Church, we did not celebrate Christmas, we only celebrated Easter, because it was the day that Christ rose from the dead. This week, we will again celebrate that incredible sacrifice that Christ gave to us, his own life among us, his death, and resurrection. Are we planning on it being just another week of the year, or are we planning on doing something special? I would recommend being a part of the extra liturgies that we have this week with Holy Thursday and Good Friday being wonderful reminders of the sacrifice that Christ did for us.

Next Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil, we will be welcoming in our new members into the Church. As we prepare for our celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of our Savior, let us be mindful of that great gift He has given us and celebrate it with the wonder, awe, and joy that it is. Our Lenten journey is quickly coming to a close, and next week we will rejoice that the Son of God has returned from death to overcome the power of death to lead us into the eternal joys of heaven. So have a blessed Triduum and Easter, and know that all of you are in my prayers, as we pray and hope for our own resurrection into the kingdom of heaven as we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.

God bless,
Fr. Ken