Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
Mark 11, 1-10 & 14, 1 – 15, 47

Today is one of the very rare days that we have two gospels read during the same mass.

First, we see the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. He asked his disciples to get a colt from the opposite village so that he could ride on it as he entered Jerusalem. As he entered Jerusalem, there were people putting out cloaks and waving palms as he passed them. Others may dismiss this grand gesture as nothing more than just hospitality for people from the countryside entering Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. However, nobody could dismiss the shouts of: “Hosanna in the highest!!!” and “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!” This was definitely a recognition of the expectation of the Jews about Jesus.

The second, and longer, gospel is all about the Passion and Death of Jesus. Hopefully, we all know the story of how the chief priests and scribes conspired and wanted to bring Jesus to death. Then, how Jesus knew that his time was coming and allowed himself to be “anointed” for his impending death. And Jesus instituted the Eucharist by breaking the bread and drinking the wine and how he instructed his disciples to do this always. How Jesus was arrested and accused falsely of blasphemy by the chief priests and the scribes. Then they sent him to Pilate so that he could be crucified. It is here where Jesus got scourged, mocked by wearing a crown of thorns, and eventually forced to carry his cross to where he was crucified and died.

We can make a lot of reflections on this long gospel. But in this occasion, let us try to look at the bigger picture and that is the obedience of Jesus to the will of his Father. All through his life, Jesus always said that everything that he did was in obedience to the Father. And not everything that he did was pleasant. And, suffering an agonising death for the salvation of all is definitely one of the tasks that Jesus tried to avoid or at least delay, and yet he still obeyed the will of the Father.

For us, how far are we willing to go to obey the will of God? Are we willing to obey only if it is easy and we can find pleasure in it? Or are we willing to do it regardless? The whole week will be the most important week in the liturgical calendar especially the days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. We will witness, through our liturgical celebrations in our churches, how Jesus instituted the Mass as we know it, how Jesus suffered and died for our sakes and how Jesus resurrected from the dead to prove to us all that he is our Lord and Saviour. May we make this yearly journey of commemoration meaningful and hopefully realise that making sacrifices is part of obeying the will of God and by obedience we will also be glorified at the end of time.