This is a very peculiar Palm Sunday for me as a Catholic. Born and raised a Catholic, at no other time of the year do I observe the beauty of my Catholic faith as at Easter.
Holy week starts with Palm Sunday and Climaxes on Easter Sunday with the Mass for me.
Low in spirit because all this was to be interrupted by social distancing necessitated by the Coronavirus, my first ray of hope came with information that they would be blessed palms to pick up at my Parish by 6 pm.
Joining the Pontifico College at mass however, and listening to Cardinal Luis Antonio express the same sentiments, I felt like we are all in this together. He said in his 48 years as a priest, this palm Sunday will remain with him forever.
Speaking about those dying alone because of quarantine and relatives who would be grieving because they could not keep their loved ones company in their last hours asking ” What have I done to deserve this?” , he took us back to Jesus and his experience.
Jesus loved Peter and called him the rock on which he would build his church, yet Peter denied him. When Pilate asked if he should free Jesus or Barnabas, The same crowd he fed and performed miracles shouted “Crucify him”. Jesus, Cardinal Luis Antonio said deserved better. Yet he didn’t question God’s will.
It dawned on me that even today, Jesus deserves better from this sinful generation of which I am a part.
The Cardinal asked how we are preparing to die? He said ” prepare to die by living your mission on earth “. I was forced to think,’am I living my mission?.
He admonished against waiting to die in misery and discouragement and helplessness. Jesus deserves better, live your mission till death comes.
When we ask what he have done to deserve the hardship we are experiencing from the Covid-19 experience, it is the wrong question. We should rather ask, how am I preparing to die? Am I living my Life to fulfil my mission.
As palms were waved for Jesus today, His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal asked us to wave the palms for those afflicted and suffering in this difficult times. In fact to be the palm and cloak waving for them in prayer and supplication.
Happy palm Sunday