Palm Sunday – B

The Prophet Isaiah describes a Servant of Yahweh who willingly suffers torment and abuse, yet never ceases to speak a word of encouragement to the weary.

Jesus, the Son and servant of Yahweh, Himself willingly suffered torment and abuse, but by His suffering and death gave an eloquent example of encouragement to those who find themselves weary.

St. Paul, decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, recalled the humiliation Jesus endured, but with the eyes of faith could now see that in His weakness He revealed His glory, so that in heaven and on earth every knee must bend and every tongue proclaims that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We are like Isaiah's Servant of Yahweh – knowing that the Lord God is our help and we too are called to encourage and strengthen the weary.

We are like Jesus, carrying crosses, receiving help from others, sometimes feeling alone or abandoned, in the end delivering our lives, our spirits, all we have and are into the hands of our Father in heaven.

We are like Paul, blessed to know the end of the story of Jesus' life on earth, blessed to know that He who died is indeed also risen and acknowledged in heaven and on earth as Lord of all.

This Holy Week is a week of remembering – remembering God's love revealed by prophets, revealed perfectly in Jesus, and proclaimed by people of faith.

This is a week of remembering the depth of the love of God revealed in Jesus – revealed at the Last Supper in the gift of the Eucharist, the priesthood, the example of service; revealed on Good Friday in His death on the cross; revealed at Easter at the empty tomb and with the words, “Peace be with you.”

This Holy Week is a week of remembering – remembering to persevere to the end in resolutions made at the beginning of Lent, remembering to make new resolutions to sanctify this week in a special way as a time of prayer and reflection, and remembering to seek and find the image of Christ in the face of every person we meet who suffers in any way.

Servants of the Lord, sharers in the suffering of Jesus, believers in the risen Lord, may this week be truly holy for all of us as we call to mind the Love of God which is expressed in its perfection in the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thomas P. Ferguson
April 9, 2006