My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. From today we enter Holy Week. The first part of today's Mass is the celebration of Palm Sunday, where we celebrate the event of Jesus being welcomed as a King in Jerusalem.
With the arrival of Palm Sunday our Lenten journey is almost over. Christ’s persecution and crucifixion is still ahead of us, but the promise of his resurrection at Easter is within our sight.
On Palm Sunday this year, I was privileged to have been part of a walk for justice and freedom for refugees, writes Fr Clement Baffoe SVD. The event was organised by Amnesty International-Townsville in collaboration with the Townsville Multicultural Support Group(TMSG) and a number of people from different faith backgrounds.
I then used my talk to appeal to all to open their hearts and doors especially the doors of our country to refugees. Opening our hearts and doors means we are giving people hope and the chance to live a dignified life. May we all stand up for the justice and freedom of refugees, especially those who remain in limbo at detention centres.
Most of us have seen this scene in a movie: There’s a person who is strapped on an electric chair about to die. The police are just waiting for 3pm on the clock before pulling down the lever to deliver thousand of volts of electricity so that the prisoner who is condemned to die will be killed. And with just a few seconds before 3pm, the phone rings, the President is on the line and orders the police to give the prisoner a reprieve.
As a young altar server, I loved Palm Sunday. There would be a large group of us servers, all dressed in a red cassock and surplice, and we were given a palm to wave.
This is one of the very few occasions that we have two gospels in one Mass. And I have often said how contrasting these two are.
Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, just days before He was to be crucified.
This is the only Sunday in Lent that has two names: Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. This is because the liturgy celebrates two aspects of the mystery of our redemption that we are to keep in mind during Holy Week.