For Palm Sunday

Toward the ultimate encounter

Last Saturday morning, Pope Francis met with more than five thousand journalists who had been present in and around Vatican City to cover the departure of Pope Benedict from public life, and all the events leading up to the election of our new Holy Father.  Pope Francis thanked the journalists for their work, and then he spoke of his admiration for the journalists who did such an admirable job of telling the story.  It’s not always easy for the world of journalism to understand how to speak about events that happen in the life of the Church.  It’s not that the life of the Church is any more complicated than political or economic realities.  In fact the Church is a very human body, complete with strengths and weaknesses, but at its core, the Church is the People of God, the holy people of God on a journey toward the ultimate encounter with Jesus Christ.

While we make our way along this journey, we cry out at times in praise to the living God: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.  This joyful cry springs from our lips (like it sprang from the lips of the disciples) every time we gather in prayer, and every time we give thanks to God for the blessings we have received, but human tongues are also very fickle.    Did you notice that when the procession with branches was complete, the tone of the liturgy changed?  Life is like that too.  At times we can be filled with joy one moment, and then something happens and we become immediately serious, pensive, preoccupied.  At all the moments of our lives – through all the experiences of celebration and despair, Christ is present with us on our journey toward our ultimate encounter with him.

I like to think of Palm Sunday as a kind of advertisement for the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week.  In a sense, you might say that today, the scriptures present a glimpse of the drama that unfolded in the final hours of Jesus’ earthly life, and in the coming days, the holy people of God are invited to relive these moments:

• On Thursday evening of this week, we will gather here in this church at 7:00pm to partake in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.  We will listen to the story of that final evening when Jesus dined with his closest friends.  We will remember the tender words he spoke, and the ways he surprised the disciples that night:  by washing their feet (something he asks all of us to do); by breaking bread and telling them too to break bread in remembrance of him.  We will also watch in prayer as the disciples were invited to do on that first Holy Thursday.
• On Friday, we will hear the details of Jesus’ final day on earth.  There will be two opportunities to hear this story on that day: the children will tell the story beginning at 11:00am, and the second telling will begin at 3:00pm.  Like the disciples, we too will have an opportunity to walk through the streets of our town on Friday as the Stations of the Cross are prayed.  That liturgy will begin outside Holy Name church at 5:00pm and will lead us to the Pro-Cathedral where there will be yet another telling of the story, beginning at 7:00pm.
• On Saturday evening, just as the sun is setting, we will begin the liturgy of the Easter Vigil.  Because we are now into Daylight Savings Time, we have to wait until 8:00pm on Saturday night to bless the Easter fire.  By the light of candles lit from that fire, we will listen as the story of our salvation is recounted.  We will then bless water, and Cindy Grasser, who has been preparing for the past number of months will finally be baptised.  Gerald Houle and Zarek Graham will also be Confirmed on Saturday evening, and all three of them will receive the gift of the Eucharist for the very first time before the Easter Vigil is complete.
• On Sunday morning, and for fifty days afterward, we will celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection every time we gather to do as the disciples did on that first night when Jesus himself broke bread with them.

The Church is the People of God, the holy people of God on our way toward the ultimate encounter with Jesus Christ. May the liturgies of this coming week help us to better understand and appreciate the journey!