Deacon Kevin’s Reflections for Palm Sunday

This guest post was written by Deacon Kevin Bagley, DMin, Director of Verbum.

This weekend we experience Christ’s entry in Jerusalem. The many who had heard Him speak, witnessed a miracle, or had their lives touched by His message greeted Jesus as a celebrity and gave him a hero’s welcome into the city. The palm branches they cut down were placed on the ground as an ancient form of “rolling out the red carpet.”

In the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, we hear the tale of the suffering servant who came to preach the good news, but was rejected by those who refused to accept the message.

Saint Paul’s account is theologically rich and beautiful explaining the relationship between Christ and God the Father. You might want to re-read this passage as we encounter Christ during Holy Week.

We experience Mark’s Gospel of the Passion of our Lord. Marks’ narrative is so vivid that we can see, hear, taste, and feel as we imagine what happened during Christ’s last hours.

I encourage you to participate in as many of our liturgies as you can this week living and experiencing this most holy of weeks in our church year.  In just a few days, we see the rise of a “celebrity,” His fall, passion, and death. How much of our own life mirrors that of Holy Week?  Our successes, failures, our weakness…must be joined with the suffering of Christ for us to be fully redeemed.

The Entry into Jerusalem by Giotto, 1305