By Sr Lini Sheeja, MSC-
Holy Mother the Church enters into Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday which is the entry into the Holy Week. This week is called Holy Week because it commemorates the events of the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour through which He sanctified humanity. On 2 March 2022, we entered into the season of Lent with an external sign of ashes on our forehead and the internal sign of repentance for our sins. Our journey from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday has been fruitful hopefully as each of us has walked the extra-mile with a purpose.
Journey with Suffering Servant of Yahweh
The Holy Week is a remarkable week for every baptised Christian, for this is the week of the passionate God dying for our sake with passion. This is the week of redemption and salvation. The passionate God allowed Himself to stand at the judgemental seat and allowed Himself to be nailed to the Cross. During this Passion Week we are called to journey with the Lord who experienced trials and suffering before His death and endured them with passion. As we journey with Him we are invited to surrender our broken self and our broken world to the Crucified God who has all power to make us whole.
God came Down to Turn Our Bitter-lives into Better-lives
God came down to us in our sinfulness! God came down when we were lost! God came down when we were fallen. God came down when we were in the pig’s shed. God came down when our lives were bitter. Every sin brings shame, emptiness and misery into the human heart. God knew that with guilt and shame, and with the power of evil in the heart of man, s/he would never be happy and therefore, He came in search of the lost humanity to take that burden, that bundle, that misery, that shame of sin away. This Passion Week calls us to realize and to relive those words of God asking Adam, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). The same God continues to ask us the same question every time we fall astray in our sinfulness. Today, the world has lost the sense of sin and this Holy Week invites us to return to our God and to gaze at the Crucified Lord.
Hosanna Sunday
Passion Week of Lent begins with the event of Jesus entering into Jerusalem and being greeted by the people waving palm branches. The glorious entry of Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday ends with His glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Jesus was given a royal reception on Palm Sunday here on earth and was given the same by His heavenly Father into Heaven after His glorious resurrection. On Palm Sunday, Jesus, the true Paschal Lamb, was taken to the Temple in a large procession. As this Sunday is also called ‘Hosanna Sunday’, let us not sing Hosanna in our joys only, but let us be strengthened by the passionate God to sing Hosanna in our trials and struggles too.
Almighty God becoming Vulnerable
Jesus was aware that he was vulnerable when He said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me” (Mt 26:38). Jesus became even more vulnerable when He stood at the judgemental seat as He awaited his judgement. But Jesus became Mighty when He accepted God’s will, even though it meant excruciating suffering and death by saying, “Yet not what I want but what you want”(Mk 14:36).We the vulnerable human beings are created by the Mighty God. We the sinful beings are redeemed by the Omnipotent God. We the broken beings are sanctified by the Holy God. We realize our vulnerability when we go through hard times.
Let us be Holy and Sing Hosanna
The Coronavirus Pandemic made us realize clearly our vulnerability. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the greatest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Already, thousands of lives have been lost, and millions of livelihoods have been disrupted through displacement, lost homes, and lost incomes. We, like so many others, are shocked by the unfolding humanitarian tragedy and the consequences of this brutal war. Once again, the vulnerable suffer the most. Our God continues to suffer in the vulnerable and outcasts. Let us place our tiny vulnerable hands in the hands of God who became vulnerable. Let us draw strength from God who said, “Not my will, but let Thy will be done”. Let us walk in faith as we journey with holiness in this Holy Week and proceed to sing Hosanna in every walk of our lives.
Sr Lini Sheeja MSC, belongs to the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. She worked as the team member of Child-line, BOSCO Bangalore. She served as the Chief-Editor for Prison Voice, a national monthly magazine and she authored a book named, Prison Ministry: The Dreamers’ Mission in which she invites the dreamers to join hands together to do wonders for broken humanity.