Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, Cycle C (2025)

I encourage us to make this week something different. Let us not go about our busy tasks as we would on any other week. Consider what it is that helps you to focus and to enter into the meaning and all that this week holds for us.

For me, I found myself talking about a pilgrimage I was blessed to make. A family I know invited me and Father Jerry Burns to a Holy Land pilgrimage. We were simply guests, not the chaplains of the pilgrimage. In the weeks before we were to travel, the priest who was the chaplain reached out to us. He asked us to look over the itinerary and to all the sacred sites where we would be celebrating mass each day, and to it was a very kind gesture. Father Jerry asked to be the celebrant at the Mount of Beatitudes. I on the other hand, swung for the fences, asking if I could be the principal celebrant at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place where Jesus was crucified. I anticipated that I would be told no and to choose another option. Graciously, my request was granted.

We began our pilgrimage in Galilee, a few hours north by car, the area where Jesus grew up and conducted his ministry. Wait that’s so many of the important sites that we read about and the gospels, again and again.

But then we made our way for the rest of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As it was for Jesus’s earthly life, that’s where it would conclude for us. I remember the morning we were to celebrate mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We’d been told the day before that we would be getting a very early start. And so it was that we boarded the bus at 4:45 AM and 15 minutes later, arrived at the gates of the ancient wall into the old city. It was there we began walking the via dolorosa, the route that Jesus would carry his cross. In the dark of night, with only us and the rats, we prayed the stations which led us to the grounds of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

As soon as we entered, there were steps leading us up the hill within this building. At the top of the steps was the place where Jesus’s cross had been stood up. It was Calvary. There’s an altar built over the exact spot, and you can crawl under it to rest a moment and feel inside that hole. After that, we went down another set of steps that led us to a different level down the hill, where immediately to our right was a cave, traditionally known as the tomb of Adam. When you go into The Cave, you are now directly beneath the place where Jesus’s cross was placed.

When you think about how the gospels tell us that at the moment of Jesus’s death, an earthquake occurred. The cracks and fissures in the rock of that hill would have received the blood that dripped from the foot of Jesus down the cross and through the fissures of that rock, eventually dripping on to the tomb of Adam. Indeed, it is the blood of the new Adam redeeming the old. For those of you who have seen crucifixes that directly beneath Jesus’s feet you see a skull and crossbones. That’s exactly what that is presenting.

Not long after that we we’re ready for mass. For all the thousands of times I’ve celebrated mass, and admittedly have not been fully present in what I was doing, there are some moments that stand out where the weight of the moment and the space are so alive in my consciousness, that I cannot help but to be overwhelmed by the experience. As we go into this week, that experience is alive in my mind and draws me into what we have ahead of us.

But another thing that draws me into this is to watch the chosen series. Would you likely know, it is currently playing at our theaters. It’s beautifully done, and I find that it draws me into this week’s events.

What we just heard in this passion narrative we proclaim together is a foretaste, or perhaps more like a trailer to a movie. Further, the palm fronds in your hands are the ticket that serve as your admission. So what is it for you that will help you? How would you give space and time, but also the things that help you to reflect on all the meaning that this week holds? Be present. Let this not be just another week.