Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday will be on April 13, 2014. That will be next week. Palm Sunday marks the end of Lent. It also marks the beginning of Holy Week.On Palm Sunday we commemorate Jesus' triumphal entrance to Jerusalem. People welcomed him bearing palm branches in their hands. They even put palm branches on the ground where his donkey walked. What a grand welcome! But the same people who welcomed him on Palm Sunday, were the same people who rejected him and shouted crucify him on Good Friday.

Human nature is such that we sometimes do things we don't fully understand. Don't get disheartened when you experience this. We experience acceptance and rejection on a daily basis. Don't take things personally. Usually, when people do not understand you, it is simply because they are going through something. That something is just temporary. Nothing is constant in this world. One day you are the best of friends, the next day, the exact opposite. We go through a process that only God understands. It's all up to us to cooperate.

I remembered how we used to celebrate Palm Sunday in the Formation House. We prepared special food on Palm Sunday. It was our way of telling Jesus, that if in Jerusalem they welcomed him without giving him food to eat, here in our community, Jesus can eat a hearty meal. Actually, the idea behind that practice was the reliving of the Bethany experience. Bethany is the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary where Jesus was always welcomed so hospitably. They were Jesus' best friends.