Our Rallying Cry is Hosanna!
A Reflection for Palm Sunday
Brent Smith, Director of Adult Faith Formation & Evangelization
An intense week lies ahead… At the onset of Holy Week, we receive palm branches, waved overhead as a symbol of Christ’s reign over our lives. Unique to this last Sunday of Lent, a Gospel passage is proclaimed prior to the usual beginning prayers of Mass. We hear the rallying cry ‘Hosanna,’ a Hebrew word that points to the heart of the Gospel of our Lord: Salvation.
Everyone desires good news of deliverance. Among the followers of Jesus Christ, we are set free from the captivating distractions of this life. Rather than denying the reality of hardship and loss, we recognize Christ as our promised Redeemer. He came to deliver everyone from captivity to sin and from despair when faced with evil. “When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem” (John 12:12), they believed he would redeem the just and divinely sanctioned reign of God. He would redeem the kingdom of his Heavenly Father, but only by the way of self-sacrifice. Like those who rejoiced at the arrival of Christ, we are invited to soberly embrace his excruciating Passion.
Isaiah the prophet foretold the betrayal of the Christ, the long-awaited and yet sacrificed King of Israel. Following the fulfillment of the Scriptures about our king, St. Paul memorialized Christ’s obedience “to the point of death… [and] because of this, God [the Father] exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every name” (Phil 2:8-9). As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are invited to reflect upon the outpouring of his life.
As we approach the Triduum and finally the Resurrection, may we receive the Eucharist with repentance and joy. We are invited to make the most of our common life in Christ. Our rallying cry is Hosanna!
‘You relied on the Lord,’ they say. ‘Why doesn’t he save you? If the Lord likes you, why doesn’t he help you?’ … O Lord, don’t stay away from me! Come quickly to my rescue! (Ps.22:9 & 22:20; GNT).
Painting by Peter Paul Rubens, "The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem" (1632, France)